Day 21: 09/30/2025

Final Photo Leaving the Dempster Highway!

Start time: 9:14

End time: 6:43

Starting Mileage: 90893

Ending Mileage:91182

Low Temp:27

High Temp:43

Total driven: 290 miles drive time 9 hrs. 29 min

Blog Entry:

Woke up to about 1\2 inch of snow and it is still snowing. Wind is still blowing pretty good out there. The 27 degrees isn't bad but that wind is dropping the windchill into the teens and that is what is getting you.

Spoiler Alert: We made it off the Dempster safe and sound, staying at Klondike river campground again.

Last night it will be open. Took us 9 hrs. 29 min to go 290 miles, second longest driving day of the trip.  Boy was it fun and beautiful all at the same time. It snowed pretty much the whole day till we got past Tombstone. Varying amounts coming down sometimes it was flurries other times it felt like a blizzard with the wind whipping the snow around. As you can see the road had snow and ice on it, some places the snow filled in the pot holes but many other times it hid them. Lucky today I hit no craters driving! 

As you can see the ptarmigan are in their full winter plumage. Got to the Arctic Circle where you can see from the pics there was now snow when days earlier there was none. We could see a snow storm bearing down on us and miles out of Eagle Plains it caught up to us. We had to wait for two semi's to fill up there gas tanks so we took the opportunity to go to the restaurant and grab second breakfast. Talked to a gent who lived through rolling his 4x4 6-7 times yesterday. We saw his rig and it was totaled, there was another car there also. Roads were bad so I didn’t stop to take pics. He was ok bruised and banged up but like he said it could have been worse and he was lucky that a trucker came by shortly afterwards or he might have frozen to death out there.

Also if you have been following along I returned the hydraulic jack to the boss and he was so surprised to see the jack again. We talked about how much I had to pay and how big of one I had to get and then we started talking about the weather. He said I know you have experience in this weather and on this road but be careful cars and trucks are sliding off the road everywhere. Told him we saw a few coming in and I told him I was in no hurry and going slow was the way to go. He said yep and that it looks like you got that arctic experience you were looking for.

Once gassed up we left in that storm that had caught up to us and snowing and blowing like crazy. Took it slow, used my gears and not the accelerator and brake and in 4x4 when we were going up the hills. That is the thing through most of the sections we drove to today was not flat at all one hill after another and some of these hills last for miles.  Like 7 mile hill, where we got the flat on the way in.

Thought about staying at Tombstone on the Dempster tonight because of how late it was but Lesa and I agreed it would be better to get off the Dempster tonight and away from all the mud. See the picture of us at the Dempster sign.  Was a long day for all four of us for sure, took the pups for an extended walk around the campground and they got two cookies tonight for being so good today.