Day 1 on the Dempster

Today we start our drive on the Dempster highway. But first, we have a load of things we need to do, First, run some duck tape over the door seals in Rodger’s rear end. Then put some plastic over the air conditioner to stop dust coming in.

Then we just seemed to procrastinate. We needed more water, dust masks, marking pen (more on that later if we need it). Then we were told we needed to take cash. The bank would only let us get $400 out. I asked Mike to transfer some money to my wise account so I could get some too. Oh, no internet. So we went back the the campground where there was internet. Oh, no more money in our account!

So I tried transferring some from nz but it wanted to send me a text message to my nz phone. So I got Mike to put my sim in his phone. Oh, no cell coverage. We have a weekly transfer coming in on weekends, so I’ll just have to hope my credit card works until then. But they’ve been known to block me for using it abroad.

Anyway, we finally got on the road about 1.30pm. It was hot, going to be a high off 29 degrees. Not ideal for a van with no air conditioning, with all the windows shut on a dusty road.

The road started ok, a few corrugations in places. It was slow going, about 30 to 40 km/hr. On some of the smoother bits where it has just been graded, we got up to 70.

The drive is beautiful, through the tombstone mountains, then into more open areas with tundra. There was quite a bit of traffic on the road in places, mostly people going the other way, but very fast kicking up dust.

We stopped to help a young English couple from London who were having trouble with their solar panel falling off. They’d just bought their van and were having a lot of problems. They’d been stuck for an hour. Someone had given them a strap to strap it down but they didn’t know how to tighten the ratchet strap. So Mike helped them secure it. They are driving all the way to Argentina so we’ll follow their journey on instagram @ramonthepanam

After the initial apprehension of driving the Dempster, we had a great day, driving just over 200 kms. We found a lovely spot off the road to camp, overlooking a river and lakes, with mountains around us. A perfect spot and nobody else here!

Today we left the town of Chicken and continued along the top of the world highway. It was a gravel road all the way with lots of corrugations and potholes.

We crossed into Canada today and there was a haze in the air from wildfires. It would have been stunning views otherwise.

We had to catch a car ferry to the town of Dawson City, not a city. As we were in the visitor centre a man reported a lightning strike and smoke coming from it immediately. It was only 7 km from the town we’re in. Smoke billowed over the town and they shut all the doors. It’s pretty scary.

We paid to camp in the RV park which is really full. It’s possibly because people are trapped here due to fires. To the south is a big fire on both sides of the road. They are occasionally letting people through in the mornings when the wind is low. But people are driving up through the smoke, just to come to Dawson city, and then they plan to go back that way as the only other way back is through Alaska. Stupid people, why even risk driving through the fire just to come to a town. Madness.

The town is quite quirky. It’s an old gold mining town with original buildings painted up nice. We took a walk at 8pm last night and it was like a ghost town, hardly anyone around considering how packed the rv park was.

There is a hotel here that has an interesting cocktail. It’s called the sour toe, and it actually has a human toe in it. It’s a shot of whiskey and your lips have to touch the toe. Lots of people were doing this, which I thought was weird. But they get a certificate.

It’s still really hot even this late at night. We had our first shower for ages and it was so nice.

Tomorrow we plan to drive the Dempster highway, a remote dirt road for 1400 kms which will take us to the Arctic Ocean. We spoke to our neighbour and they only made it 190 miles before getting a flat and having to come back. And I’ve also heard a fire has sprouted up on that road. So we’ll play it by ear in the morning.

Our neighbour is stuck here waiting for the fires south to be under control. He didn’t bring their passports so they can’t detour via Alaska (300 km detour)

Today we stopped at the end of the Alaska highway. There was a cool historic road house here which is now a museum. Then we started back on the Alaska highway but in reverse!

We stopped at Tok for some last minute supplies and a burger and chips at fast eddys, a restaurant recommended by a local. It was delicious.

We came up through Tok, but we are going back a different way. We are turning off the Alaska highway and heading over the top off the world highway to Dawson city.

It was a pretty bad road with lots of bumps, so we took it slow. We stopped in the town of Chicken with has just a saloon, cafe and free camping. It’s a quirky little place.

Tomorrow we head to Dawson city where we decide whether we do the Dempster highway. There is very little to no cell signal around.

We reluctantly left our wonderful free lake camp and headed for Fairbanks. As we drove in, the beautiful clear day disappeared in a haze of smoke. We had no idea there were even wildfires around so it was a shock.

Apparently lightning strikes over the weekend have caused a lot of fires to sprout up. There was a wildfire near the bush camp we had a few days earlier. Scary.

We stopped at Walmart to try and get a spare tyre for our van. The lady on the desk stressed that we needed a light truck tyre to match the others, but they had none in stock.

Mike rang a place just around the corner and they had one at their warehouse that they would get in for us and it would take about an hour.

So we did some shopping at Walmart. We got a few essentials as well as some other stuff. We bought a cheap tent for emergency use. After the petrol leak episode I like the idea of having somewhere to sleep if it happens again.

At the tyre garage, we got the guy to check our spare to make sure it needed replacing. He said it looked good, nice tread etc. then he noticed the cracks Mike had noticed. When they took it off the rim, it was really bad and would have caused a blowout. Lucky we hadn’t needed to use it!

When they went to put the new one on, I wanted to confirm it was the right one, the Walmart lady’s voice echoing in my ear. Just as well I did as they had ordered the right size, but it was a passenger tyre. We told them this was no good but they didn’t believe us. The tyre guy had to ring an expert in Anchorage.

Meanwhile, Mike googled it, unsure ourselves about taking the word of a Walmart employee. Sure enough, under no circumstances should you put a passenger vehicle tyre on with light truck tyres. It’s a blowout waiting to happen.

The tyre guy finally got off the phone to the expert in anchorage and confirmed our findings. It’s crazy that a lady at Walmart knows more than these guys who deal with tyres everyday! So thanks Walmart lady, you saved us a potential blowout should we need to use it.

Eventually they got the correct tyre in and fitted, and we didn’t leave until after 6pm. We just wanted to get out of the city. We drove, heading towards thick smoke. I was terrified, but figured they would close the road if it was too bad.

It was not a pleasant experience. Thick smoke, poor visibility, and the darkest it’s been for weeks. It was like this for about an hour before we eventually came out of it and it was such a relief to see blue skies again.

It was about 10.30pm by the time we found a wonderful free camp beside a lake, just off the main road. No sitting up to watch the midnight sun tonight, it was straight to bed.

Today I gave Mike the task of checking our spare tyre and making sure all the jack and tyre components are there and working. We should have done this when we first bought the van, but better late than never, right?

The reason for checking it now is that we’re planning to drive the Dempster highway, all the way to the Arctic ocean. It’s a 740km I unpaved one way road, with sharp shale in places that are renowned for causing flat tyres. It’s also very remote, with no cell coverage except for 3 towns on the way up.

It’s recommended to have two spare tyres, so we’re looking into that. When Mike checked our current spare, it was flat, and had slight cracks at the sides. We figure we should get a new one.

We started driving towards Fairbanks, the last major town on our route, but realised it was Sunday and tyre shops wouldn’t be open. So we backtracked to our wonderful lake campsite and spent the day finishing a movie ready for upload when I find some internet.

It was super hot today. It was 26 degrees and we were parked in full sun. It’s unusual for Alaska to be so hot. Up until now it’s been mostly cold.

There are also a few fires burning about the place, so plans could change.

Another long day and another late sunset. I love it!

Today was a lazy day. We didn’t leave our camp spot until after lunch and had a leisurely drive.

We stopped and visited the bus from the movie Into the Wild, which was about a 22 year old guy who gave all his money to charity, then hitched to Alaska and lived in a bus. and the bus from the movie is in the courtyard of a pub. So we hopped on board and had a good look around.

We also met some cyclists who are cycling from the top of Alaska to California.

We stopped after just 80 miles as we found a wonderful free camp beside a lake.

It was a stunning day, but we were both a bit tired after our late nights.

Again, we were awed by the midnight sun. This was a much better spot for viewing it as there were no mountains in the way.

It was another late night, and even Mike stayed up this time!

We had a nice nights sleep in our free bush camp, very quiet.

Today we drove to a quirky little town called Talkeetna. It was from the olden days, and also where the TV series Northern Exposure was inspired. From the riverbank we had a great view of Mt Denali, North Americas highest mountain at 20000 feet. It is rare to see it as it’s normally covered in cloud.

We tried the spinach bread from a local food truck. It was spinach cheese and garlic on fresh toasted bread. It was yummy but could have had more garlic.

Around 11am the tour buses arrived and we couldn’t get out of town fast enough!

Our next stop was the birch syrup factory. We didn’t do a tour but we did some tastings and bought a small jar of birch syrup which is delicious! now we just need to master making pancakes!

We drove to Denali national park, getting great views of the mountain. It’s weird as you see a huge mountain range, and then there’s this massive mountain looming over them.

As we were driving to Denali we could see heavy rain ahead. So we pulled over for an afternoon nap. Then when we continued on it had settled to a drizzle. When we arrived at the national park it tipped it down again. Apparently 4 seasons in one day is the norm here.

We drove 30 minutes into the park as far as we were allowed to drive. At the end, the rain had stopped and the weather cleared, so we did a hike. at the start of the hike was a sign saying we were likely to encounter bears, so we kept our bear spray and air horn handy.

It was a gorgeous walk beside a river with mountains towering beside us. We had a strong head wind, which wouldn’t have been any good if we needed to deploy our bear spray. Thankfully we didn’t see any.

It was 7pm by the time we finished our walk and we had no idea it was so late. With 24 hours of sunlight, you have no sense of time. I love it. We even did another hike after this one!

It was about 9.30pm by the time we stopped for the night. It was in a massive pull off area surrounded by hills and overlooking a lake. There were quite a few other campers here too.

I was so excited about the summer solstice and midnight sun that I couldn’t sleep. At 1.30am I was wandering around immersed in it. It is so surreal. As we head further north it will probably be even lighter!

Today was boring. We headed off to Midas for an oil change and to get our brakes looked at, and we spent the day there.

Our rear brake shoes were fine, but the front pads needed replacing, and also needed a bearing replaced in on of the front wheels.

While we waited we went to Starbucks to get a video uploaded. Not sure why, but internet is very slow here. But it finally went up.

We waited all day for our van. At 5.30 pm it was finally ready, then they realised they’d forgotten to do the oil change! So it wasn’t until after 6pm when we got our car back! The guy gave us 2 litres of oil to take with us though, so that was nice.

We just wanted to get out of anchorage so we left town. We stopped at a Walmart about an hour from anchorage. They allow people to camp overnight. But there were a lot of rough looking cars and campervans there, and a lot of people working on their cars. It didn’t seem like a nice place to camp. So we got some supplies and made a sandwich before heading on.

We drove for two more hours and finally found a free campground tucked away in the woods, by a river. Only a car camper and an old van were camping here, and it seemed like a nice spot. We found a big clearing between some trees and settled in.

I’ve heard there are some crazy people in Alaska, so I wasn’t 100 percent comfortable but we sat up until midnight playing cards and didn’t see anyone else around, so I felt safe enough to sleep.

Almost 2 months here and we seem to have done so much!

We headed back to Anchorage today but did a 50 minute detour to the small almost ghost town of Hope. The town boomed in the late 1840s during the gold rush, but once gold was found in the Klondike, everyone deserted it. And it’s still in pretty much original condition.

We arrived back in Anchorage and went about some chores. Shopping, shower and laundry. Darci had invited us to stay again so we did, as we have an early start in the morning as we need to get an oil change and our brakes looked at.

We are looking forward to heading north.

We had an indecisive day today. We were going to head back towards anchorage, but the day was so beautiful at the coast that I didn’t want to leave straight away. I’d really wanted to do a kayak trip here but we would have had to book that in advance.

We drove back down Homer spit and the sea looked calm. We checked the availablity of a water taxi to go wildlife viewing. She said we could go on one immediately, and it would just be the two of us. Why not? We thought.

So we jumped on the water taxi and headed into katchemak bay. It was beautiful out on the water with snow covered mountains rising out of it. There is a glacier lake kayak and hike i wanted to do, but i am just so tired from all the late nights watching the sun set.

On our hours cruise we saw a few puffins and sea otters but that was it. We’d probably need to go out for longer to see whales.

After our trip, we headed back towards anchorage. It’s a 4.5 hour drive to Anchorage so we stopped at our lovely lake camp again for the night.