Day 27: 10/06/2025

Start time: 8:10

End time: 8:25

Starting Mileage: 92615

Ending Mileage: 93249

Low Temp:43

High Temp: 73

Total driven: 634 miles drive time 12 hrs 155 min

Blog Entry:

We made it home safe and sound tonight at 8:25 PM, after a very long day of driving. Lesa and I calculated the miles and how long to get home and decided that it would be best to drive the longest day of the trip and come through Bellingham, Everett, Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia and the end of the commute day than deal with traffic during the morning commute. We arrived back in the USA at 4:23 PM. The border agent was great just a few standard questions, recognized our breed of dog, and talked a bit about Galbraith and all the caribou and the 10-degree temp.

Now comes the cleanup of everything, go check on the old house and property (still hasn't sold) and back to work on the 9th.  What a great trip this was!!!  The pictures are miscellaneous pics from Lesa and my phone throughout the trip. On the gas price pic the first one is at Deadhorse at the end of the Dalton, and the second one is at Inuvik before we headed to Tuk. These are always the most expensive ones because you usually have less than 50 miles of gas left in the tank. 

Below you will also see our top 10 (13) thoughts from this trip:

1. Moxee getting to the Arctic Circle on the Dalton and Dempster and to the Arctic Ocean in Tuk.

2. Doing the triple play:  Arctic Circle on the Dalton and Dempster and to the Arctic Ocean in Tuk. Last time we did this was 2019 with Selah. We knew we were going to be doing a lot of driving and with two pups it was going to be a challenge.

3. Watching the Sammie's enjoy themselves at all the new places.

4. The Dalton and the Dempster being their absolute worse ever! Mostly because of all the potholes and craters. So much of those roads done at 15 mph or less. Oh yea the mud through both river valleys on the Dempster and the road to Tuk worse ever. So many sections of the Dalton being one lane through some crazy mud. I believe all our trips before all together and I still wasn't in 4x4 as much as I was on this trip because of the mud and the snow.

5. All the Caribou in Galbraith, along with our coldest temperature of 10 degrees on the Dalton.

6. Boya Lake was again such a great place to relax and decompress. As I mentioned in the blog it feels like our home away from home.

7. Our RAM truck - no matter what we threw at it; it just kept going. Over 93,000 hard miles on the blue beast and it just keeps performing in some of the harshest roads and weather conditions. The storage with our SherpTek system was awesome and we love the flank door that comes down, and we could use it as a table.

8. Our Alaskan camper is definitely the camper for us. So much room for storage, easy to set up and a cozy place to hang out with the Sammies.

9. Had a wonderful time at Granger's place, all the campfires and northern lights.

10. We saw our first grizzly on the Cassiar.

11. The changing of the colors - from Gnat pass to the south with snowcapped mountains.

12. Lesa and I decided to dedicate our trip in memory to our Mom, Carol Silis. We know she is sitting by her campfire with Pop sipping her coffee for hours.

13. Last but not least, my partnership with Lesa. We make a great team!

Thank you to everyone who followed along!