Author: Sean Dullum

Day 15.  – Tombstone NP to Chicken Alaska

Today was an epic day so far on the trip.  We stopped by the Interpretive Center at Tombstone NP to return the travel brochure.  The lady asked us where we were headed, and we had decided on Chicken, Alaska rather than another night in Dawson City.  She asked if we were attending Chickenstock?  What’s that? we asked… apparently the second weekend in June every year they have a big bluegrass and music festival and this weekend was the one.  How lucky are we?  

We made short time to Dawson City, fueled up, washed the truck, showered, and picked up a replacement part for my Coleman stove and headed toward the ferry.  

Side story… Coleman stoves are pretty robust as long as you take care of them.  I remember my dad having one of the old pump ones for my entire childhood.  Well now I have a propane stove that I have had for I don’t even know how long and I set up a 11lb propane tank on the back of the FJ so I don’t have to deal with the green cans.  Well I have been leaving the propane regulator attached to the hose and securing it to the tank when we drive.  I left it unattached so I could make coffee in Tuk before we left, but being sick and cold I just took off.  Well, this is what happens when it gets dragged behind the truck for 50 miles.  Needless to say, Thankfully the outfitter in Dawson City had one, for about the cost of the entire stove, but now I am cooking with gas again.

The ferry is a lot smaller than the other ones and has to deal with a stronger current.  We got front row seats and then headed to the USA on the Top of the World Highway.  We crossed the border around noon and then made it to Chicken by about 1.  And the Chickenstock was in full swing.  We got lucky and managed to get one of the last camping passes and tickets for the show.  Great bands, great food, lots of cool people to meet, and as one lady we met said, it is one of the only places you go to where you can be totally disconnected.  Phones are for pictures only since no cell or WiFi is available. 

Such a fun time.  

Carl and I woke around 6AM on the coast of the Arctic Ocean.  It was about 38 degrees but had a pretty good breeze making it feel much colder.  We packed up and decided to head into Tuk to take some pictures and dip our toes in the Arctic Ocean before leaving.  Nothing at all was open and since it was cold, we headed back to Inuvik at around 8 am.  I had planned to make coffee but being so cold, I left without making it and managed to forget to put the Coleman attachment back on the propane tank, so after dragging that about 50 miles, it no longer works (reminder of the dog in National Lampoon’s Vacation).  Fortunately Carl has a burner we can use until I get a replacement.  It may take waiting til Fairbanks at this point.  Oh well.  

While back in Inuvik, we met with Fire Chief Cyndy, who offered a tour of the fire station. She provided a great tour and a great time. We even got to learn how to use a thermal imaging camera, handle and operate the Jaws of Life, and get geared up and get into and out of a Fire Engine. Such a great tour and amazing stories. Thanks Cyndy.

We drove all but the last 100km back to Dawson City today.  There is not much to see on the Dempster highway with the weather what it is.  In the same spot we got snowed on the days before, we hit another drencher and followed the storm about 200 KM along the road.  We decided we wanted to stay at the Tombstone National Park campground because it was only $12 Canadian per night and had bathrooms and nice sites.  We got in about 10PM and set up camp.  We made dinner and had a few glasses of some amazing bourbon and turned in at 12:30 AM.  It is still bright as day out.

We have a lot of good shots of the road and sites along the way and I will get them in to an album when we get good internet.  Tomorrow we will go back to Dawson City and see if I can get a part for my stove before crossing over the Yukon River and heading on the Top of the World Highway towards the USA border crossing into Chicken, Alaska.  

I have made this a marathon. We were supposed to get to this point by Day 15, so we are two days ahead.  It is probably because it has been much colder than I expected up here and I have decided that I want to get to the trip goal and then back down to lower Alaska where we can maybe get 60-70 degree days.  

We woke up this morning to snow on the tent so we quickly made coffee and packed up and headed North again.  We had about 300 miles to go today to get to Tuk.  We made great time and found ourself in Inuvik about 2:30 PM where we stopped at the Visitor’s center and took a quick spin around town.  We met the town mayor and the fire chief at the City Hall today and they recommended a restaurant, a gas station, and a food truck on our way out.

It tool about another 2 and half hours to get to Tuk.  The landscape went from a boreal forest to a tundra, but looked more like the deserts where I grew up with the only exception that there are lakes, streams, and marshes everywhere.  We still have not seen the mythical Grizzly despite the signs that this is their country and where they live.  

We did get to the Arctic Ocean and met some real cool people along the way, including three guys from Vancouver Island the drove a silver and a yellow FJ.  We took pics and swapped stories and compared vehicles.  I was going to go take a dip in the Ocean, but there were “No Swimming” signs.   I have been fighting a cold for a few days and think that may not work out well for me, so I’ll pass that for some other time.

Again, I will add pictures to the posts as soon as I can get good internet.

I had some maintenance to do on the truck and Carl did some laundry in the morning.  I managed to get a bike ride in up to an old dredge, so that felt good and was about 18 miles.  We talked to some fellow travelers and then checked out of the hotel “without internet” and headed into town.  We found a nice grocery store, a bakery, some tourist shops and of course a Library. 

After several hours in town looking at the old buildings and interesting things, we headed off to the Dempster Highway.  This is a long, 600 mile road with few stops at takes us to Tuktoyatuk at the Arctic Ocean.  It will take us two days to get there.

We stopped at the Tombstone park visitor’s center on the way and they have some great visuals and extremely helpful staff.  The road was extremely nice for a dirt road and we made it to the Arctic Circle around 10 PM.  Still bright as day. However, winters is not done here and it was spitting rain and sleet. We grabbed our pictures and found a site hidden from the mythical Grizzly bears.  The tent provide a good shelter and was fairly warm.  It was COLD and froze overnight.

We woke to rain today and packed up in less than 15 minutes.  We had a shorter day of driving today since we were stopping in Dawson City and staying at a hotel.  Hopefully we will get better Internet at the hotel.  (Actually not at all).  Oh well.

We headed into Dawson City to see what was happening on a Monday night.  There were folks around and we managed to get a local map of where to go in the evenings. We made it to about 4 of the places before heading back to get some sleep.  We decided to take a look at the town in the morning. Did not get any significant pictures and upload is not working well. Will update galleries when we find a good internet connection.

It was a long day of driving.  We did close to 600 miles today from the camp at the Prophet River Airfield to just south of Teslin.  We packed up and refilled our water at a great little spring next to the camp.  Then he headed about an hour north to Fort Nelson where we stopped at the Visitor’s center to get some wifi, restrooms, coffee, and information.  Hanna and Bev were really helpful and told us that we had to stop up the road at a place to get smoked meats and the best cinnamon buns on the Alaska Highway.  They were not kidding.  We shared this HUGE tasty cinnamon bun and we would definitely recommend.

Hannah and Bev also told us to stop at the Liard Hot springs.  It was only $5 each and the springs were hot, warm, and amazing.  It’s been since last Sunday since we had a shower, so this fit the bill.  We soaked in the pools for about an hour and then had a quick lunch.  It’s not like we should recommend this place, but if you drive for 3 hours from Watson Lake and don’t stop, your loss.

We continued North intending to get as many miles in as possible.  We stopped at Watson Lake, which is where the Sing Post Forest is located.  We looked around, then headed to the visitor’s center for some more maps and info.  I took the Arizona MTNNOMAD license plate off the front of the truck and put a Mountain Nomad Enterprises sticker over the side and Carl’s Sevier Conditions on the back and then screwed it into a signpost.  I think they have more than 28,000 signs in the forest at this point.  

We quickly made some bag dinners and them continued on down the road a couple more hours before stopping at Morley Lake in a remote campground.  In 5 minutes Carl and I had our tents up and we were out of the mosquitos and headed to bed.  It’s 11:30 PM now and still as bight as it is at 8PM in Mesa.

Today we saw caribou, mountain goats (check out the cute babies), porcupines, more black bears, Moose, and many porcupines.   

This land up here is vast.  I cannot even begin to describe the distances between things, with nothing but beautiful forests and ranges to look at.  There are people on the road and a few in some settlements, but by and large, you will go 100-200 miles without seeing any homes or towns.  There are so many trees here it is impossible to imagine.  

I would put more pictures up, but Verizon in Canada, and most of the internet connections we get here, leaves a lot to be desired and so far all WiFi spots are sketchy at best. We’ll be in Alaska soon and hopefully I can catch up.

We finished up in Dawson Creek with the updates to the websites and maps and decided to stop in to a bar across the road from a Tim Hortons.  We met Shelby there.  She was a lot of fun and told us the place to go for fun in the evening was the Spike.  She warned us about a certain individual that frequents that place, but other than that it was fun.  We wanted to head a bit farther since it was only about 4 PM, so we stopped by a liquor store to stock on beer, and we met Lolanna, who recommended some nice rum.  I decided to purchase a bottle since I didn’t want to finish off our good Bourbon.

We continued another 2.5 hours farther along on the Alaskan Highway until we found a campground.  We looked at the site, but the office was closed and the site was really not worth $20 for the night.  We felt good and decided to head as far as we could get.  At about 10 PM we stopped at a remote wilderness site at Prophet Creek Airfield.  As we were pulling in, I said, “is that a bear?”… sure enough a black bear was eating grass and roots along the east Side of the road.  He didn’t care in the least for us so we took our picots and videos and headed to the airstrip.

This site was amazing.  It has multiple camping sites on a flat ground with fire rings.  We set up at the end and took a walk.  We could see two other bears farther down the airstrip.  

And LoLanna, your suggestion for the rum was amazing.  So smooth and so rich with a nice vanilla flavor. 

It was a clear night so I put back the rain fly and looked up at the sky, which is not dark even at midnight.   So cool and wild up here.  Woke up about 4AM and it was still light. The air is cool but not as cold as the past several nights in Alberta.

It rained all night last night. We headed to bed about 8 and both slept until 6. Must have been the peaceful rain. We fixed coffee and were off on the trail by 7 am. Lots of signs today for caribou in the road, deer in the road, and more. We didn’t see any caribou but did see one moose, who scooted into the forest faster than we could record her, and multitudes of deer. One deer even decided to play chicken with us. A Canadian told us it is a sport for them up here.

We are doing a long marathon day with a couple of stops in Grand Prairie for gas at Costco and Walmart in Dawson Creek. We have enough food for about 10 days now so we will be ready for the trip north. We are planning on getting to Watson lake tonight and then to Dawson City tomorrow. We are making good time. Remember to check out www.sevierconditions.com to see our recorded positions along the way.

We did a medium day of driving today from Castle Mountain in the Banff National park over several passes to Jasper National Park. It was cloudy on the first part of the trip but as the morning warmed (or we ascended above the clouds) the views were spectacular. Glacier National Park is good but this place is MASSIVE and has range after range.

Along the way, as the clouds cleared, we stopped to take some pictures. I noticed some fresh scat on the ground and asked Carl what it might be… about 10 seconds later he said Bear… as there were two black bears eating the grass about 50 feet from us. So I have gone from not seeing bears to having seen 5 so far. Pretty cool.

We stopped at Athabasca Glacier at the pass to look around. The visitor’s center was not impressive, but rather a large kiosk to get you on tours. So we decided to do a short hike. It was only about 30 minutes and unless we buy an ice climbing tour with cramp-ons, we got to look from about a quarter mile away. We figured we will get some other options for glaciers on our trip. The Athabasca glacier is only one of many at the edge of a huge ice field. It was impressive.

We stopped in Jasper to get some fuel and taste some local favorites; like the Jasper Brewery. The red ale was really good as was the special Dunkel. We decided to head across the street to a local place that had everything from biscuits and gravy to Greek Kabobs. Interesting.

We finished the night with a bit of 4×4 on some forest roads and found a campsite at an abandoned horse property. It was complete with an out-house that we decided not to try. If I can get the apple phone to play with me and get the photos uploaded to the cloud, I might be able to attach them.

We crossed the border into canada and after the border agents unloading the whole truck and us having to reload it… just kidding. We crossed, had our passports stamped, and headed toward Banff NP. Turns out there was no one at the Banff gate, nor at the next state park gate so we just continued on. Its summer in the lower 48 states but still on the cusp of Spring here. It snowed about 4-6 inches at the Castle Mountain campground the night before we got there.

We had a little incident with the campground in that the site we were pointed to said reserved for June 6, and it being June 7, we paid for the spot. Turns out the form uses number of nights instead of real dates and we camped on a spot some Germans had already paid for. After some negotiating and some beers we moved the FJ to a side spot so they could get their RV in the camp and we all went to bed. Carl and I were up at 6 and gone by 7 on or way south.

Here are some pictures for the day.