7/9 We met in Whitehorse at 7:30 am, and proceeded from our hotel to the local outfitters where we loaded gear on and into the shuttle van. It is absolutely amazing how much stuff a van can hold. It’s also amazing how much stuff 8 people need for three weeks, where they can’t resupply. As we pulled out of the parking lot, we should have heard the axles of the van go “squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak.” Maybe it did, but we were busy chatting and missed it.
We were on the road at 9:50, after a stop at Canadian Tire to get a tire iron-just in case. We were going to be on some roads that experience little travel, and wouldn’t be able to count on anyone coming along to help. During the fairly early going, we heard the noise of breaking glass, and we turned to see that the back window had shattered. The two sitting closest to it had been showered in it, and C had gotten some shards in her eye. We quickly stopped. The eye was examined, some bits were removed, and she said she was ok. Cardboard was taped over the hole, and we continued.
There were enough other vehicles while we were on the North Klondike Highway, but when we turned North onto the Dempster Highway, it got a whole lot more lonely. It also got more beautiful, or at least more intriguing. We went through Tombstone Territorial Park, which featured the Tombstone Mountains. They were rugged and pointy, but what I remember most were that they seemed crumbly, and that periodically there were rivers wandering and meandering and braiding between them. We passed out of the park and the mountains and saw, well, nothing. There were miles of nothing. We could see the road ahead of us, but other than “views,” there was nothing. There weren’t silos or fields or parking lots or gas stations or anything. There was nothing, an abundance of nothing. The little voice in my head said, “Once you start there is no turning back.”
During the drive we saw two cow moose, one with a calf, and a grizzly bear. There was a lot of haze, which we were told was from forest fires in Alaska. It also rained some.
We got to Eagle Plains at 11:30-12 pm, and set up tents in the campground in the rain. Eagle Plains is the only service area for a long, long ways. It houses a gas station with some repair service available, a motel, a restaurant, a traveler store, and a campground. Being tired, I slept really well.
Day 2