Northern Ontario to Inuvik solo ride on now!

[zzz150]

hey great pic - thanks!

about 100k outside yellowknife now, shocked again to have service.

tmrw i will head up the ingraham trail and see how far i can get past the official end of the road. then that will be it for the northern canadian roads for me for now. from the beginning of this idea to today i've travelled to places i didn't plan on and am happy i have.

more pics;

fox shocks - everybody should have these.

sambaa deh falls.

canyon below the falls.

 

[zzz150]

atv hwy!

spot about for tonight;

 

[hashpie]

i love it! i plan on taking my time going back through the ALCAN and such. i could have warned you about the dragon's den haha, I stayed there on my way to alaska, and i couldn't shake the feeling like i was in a cheap porn studio or that i would wake up in a bathtub full of ice missing my kidney. three different channels played batman begins in sequence and i went through in a rain storm so the internet was down. the absolute worst part.... those cheap little slippers didn't fit my feet and the floor was cold. insult to injury for a 130CAD/night room.....

 

[zzz150]

after spending two nights at the end of the ingraham trail i am back at the beach on great slave lake about 100km outside of yellowknife. it was really nice at the end of the road, i had a lot of visitors, some local and some other travellers who had the same idea to get to the end of the road. again a bunch of really nice ppl.

do you ever wonder how you might react to the site of a large black bear sneaking up behind you, about 12-15 ft away from you, moments after you finish eating a nice hamburger you just finished cooking? well now i know exactly what my reaction was.. what happened was out of the corner of my eye something black was moving, my 1st thought it's the dog, then i realize it's big and it was slowly moving down a rock onto the beach over my left shoulder, way way to close, it saw me, it clearly knew i was here, this was in no way a surprise encounter for the bear as it was walking directly to me. so my initial reaction was to jump a 90 deg turn facing the bear, while saying some loud surprised swear words. i stopped, looked for my dog, he was chilling in the chair on my other side, he didn't notice the bear until i made some noise, to be fair he was facing the water, the waves are crashing so there was nothing to hear over the water. the bear stopped for a second, turned back up the rock and stopped again to have another look, just for a quick second, eye to eye it felt like, but it then felt like an agree to disagree moment where the tension fades. i suspect he will be back and is not far away this evening.

fun!! and i sure feel awake and alive now, gotta love adrenaline

 

[zzz150]

ok more pics;

a much needed oil and filter. oil had 12000km on it, system showed 25% oil life remaining. oil was clean and clear that came out. the air filter had a nice coating of the oily crap that was on some of the sections of the gravel hwys, very sticky.

the whole truck looks like this underneath, keep in mind it is a 2014, i must be carrying several 100 pounds of extra mud and crap under there, i didn't find a do it yourself car was in yellowknife so it remains a muddy slug.

 

[zzz150]

the end of the ingraham trail.

an awesome burger.

another expedition portal sticker shot.

i wasn't able to get pics the showed the northern lights as they were faint, but over both nights at the end of the trail i could see them around midnight, swirly and only green/blue in color, but still awesome as i didn't expect to see any.

 

[zzz150]

Hey! Great to see the updates. Awesome you took that flight to complete the trip to the Arctic Ocean.

Here's your pup on the patrol for caribou on that Tombstone Hike... Bruno says hi.

View attachment 241488

hey thanks! was worth the flight up there to freeze myself in the arctic ocean. hopefully bruno has forgotten his funny ways with T already... haha-dogs. i'm missing the mountains already. i think i will take that as a sign that something must occur. safe travels!!

 

[Tappet]

Thanks for write up, pics and your time. Went up there in Sept. 2012 but only got as far as the Peel River as some lake had a busted (thawed) bank and with so much water coming down the river the ferry wasn't running for a few days. Because of time restraints, ruined our plans of making it to Inuvik I was most disappointed. Came across from Alaska along the Top Of The World Highway to Dawson then up.

Tell you what, the place really stuck the hook into me and next year going in March with a few winter activities in store. Dog sled, Snowmobile and Ice Fishing. Yeah I know super cold but with the right vehicle and planing/ prep doing the Ice Road up to Tuk.

Saw heaps of wildlife. Even a quick look of a Lynx near Tok AK. running across the road in front of us. It's an amazing place up that way. With home being the tropics in Australia I don't think anything could be much more different, a great experience.

 

[kkddzz]

Gourmet meal on the road - nice.

 

[hashpie]

What are your plans if any for the ALCAN? I will be driving it in a few days after maintenance and some errands here in Fairbanks.

 

[zzz150]

Not really planning on taking that route, i may cross it as im trying to figure if i will head to prince rupert and take the ferry down to port hardy. I will know more tmrw. Plan a stop at the liard hot springs along your way, nicest hot springs ive been to. I also camped close to the springs just off the road on the river, great spot, if u want the coordinates let me know.

 

[hashpie]

Isn't that in nwt? I drove up there on my way up here but didn't stop there.

 

[zzz150]

Its on the alcan hwy in northern bc about two hrs south of watson lk yukon. Worth stopping for an hr and is only $5. also, if you came up this hwy heading north may i suggest the alternate route that runs back south through bc...?! from watson lk area hit junction 37 i think it is and go down that way..

 

[zzz150]

Thanks for write up, pics and your time. Went up there in Sept. 2012 but only got as far as the Peel River as some lake had a busted (thawed) bank and with so much water coming down the river the ferry wasn't running for a few days. Because of time restraints, ruined our plans of making it to Inuvik I was most disappointed. Came across from Alaska along the Top Of The World Highway to Dawson then up.

Tell you what, the place really stuck the hook into me and next year going in March with a few winter activities in store. Dog sled, Snowmobile and Ice Fishing. Yeah I know super cold but with the right vehicle and planing/ prep doing the Ice Road up to Tuk.

Saw heaps of wildlife. Even a quick look of a Lynx near Tok AK. running across the road in front of us. It's an amazing place up that way. With home being the tropics in Australia I don't think anything could be much more different, a great experience.

very nice - bummer that you had time issues due to mother nature. it is a long way to come back from australia! i will suggest if you are doing another trip up through the yukon that you do the canol trail while you're in the area! the south canol is popular it seems whereas the north is more intimidating and much less travelled. depends what you're driving while here..

the winter roads would be interesting for sure, having flown to tuk the all season rd they are working on is going to be stunning to drive and a complete miracle in road building. initially i didn't think much of this but when flying over the terrain that road is going to be awesome! if i end up living out this way i will drive the winter road to norman wells i think, getting to the road and the signs just made me want more.

all i can tell you is that you will want a big fat fluffy 700 fill down jacket at least and a sleeping bag rated for -30C if you're doing any camping when coming back for your cold weather trip.

i saw my second lynx today, they don't hang around like a lot of other wildlife, once they think you are interested in them they're gone quick.

Australia would be awesome for me to see one day, as you said, so very different!

 

[zzz150]

my canon camera has not been working well, can't zoom, when i try it gives a lense error and shuts off, and sometimes does this even if i don't zoom, so more iphone pics from here on i.

picture time;

this is an interesting 'shrine' or i dunno what to call it.. but the story goes that an aboriginal woman used to pray in this location, and had some terminal illness heal on its own. normally i would say whatever but in this case it was surround by forest fires earlier this summer, the glass boxes and wooden stand are untouched, the pallet and boards walking to it were burned up on the bottom sides, the grass and shrubs all around had burned yet the fire never touched this thing. there must be several hundred dollars in coins sitting on it also, which in such a remote area yet nobody that dares take or vandalize. very interesting.

some of the burned forest right on the hwy. there were many places on the hwy that were still smouldering.