Yukon, Alaska phase one of a pan am trip

[ed604]

Well I finally did it, I up and left. It seemed to take me forever to get all the gremlins out of the truck. I have been planing, researching and working on a trip from the top of north america to the bottom of south america. It has taken me what seems like forever to pick the vehicle and do the preps and finally leave.

I have been on the road for 3 days now and I am having a blast! I got lost, visited two heritage ghost towns, ( thanks Klahanie) and took my tiger on what was supposed to be a simple gravel road, but turned out to be a deactivated road which is now a quad trail ( too fun! ) I will post some pics when I settle down for a couple days

Here is a shot of my trusty steed, I have some really good shots of getting lost, but it is late and the road still calls...

Ed

 

[hikingff77]

good luck.

 

[OverlandTheWorld]

We are in Whithorse, YT on our way up to Prudhoe Bay. Then south to Argentina, maybe we could meet up if schedule works out?

 

[Dan Grec]

I live in Whitehorse if you guys want to head out for a beer.

I drove from Alaska to Argentina from 2009-2011.

-Dan

P.S. have a look at http://wikioverland.org

 

[OverlandTheWorld]

I live in Whitehorse if you guys want to head out for a beer.

I drove from Alaska to Argentina from 2009-2011.

-Dan

P.S. have a look at http://wikioverland.org

Dan,

not to hijack the thread but we just got to Fairbanks and just checked ExPo. Thanks for the offer, we will back back through in a week or two if you are still up for it. PM me, thanks

 

[ed604]

It is day 6 now and I have found a great spot for some much needed boon docking. I am about 60 km northwest of Fort St. James in B.C. We have been blessed with good weather but it has been windy. This proves difficult when trying to teach the boy how to Canoe. A 16fter is really a two person canoe and I do find it difficult to keep it moving in a chosen direction while it is too windy.



The site is quite nice, right by the water and reasonably level (with the help of some large flat rocks to drive onto). The fishing has been extraordinary, as soon as the wind dies down we are in the boat and less than 30 mins later we have fish, a nice little 12inch kokanee. Really good eating!

It really feels quite remote, although we have seen some people. The night time is absolute darkness and the stars are amazing, I really have to get a better camera than my blackberry. Any suggestions of a camera for an absolute beginner who wants to take some nice pictures?
The tiger has been great! The Cummins motor has been quite nice on fuel, I am averaging about 16-17 mpg and that is with a very heavy Tiger (I drove across the scales at 4,400kgs) I am happy that I upgraded the springs and shocks I think that it has helped on the rough roads. I have spent 3 days camping here and as I have a lot of kms to go I will pack up tomorrow and head for terrace (I have family there) that should be about 600kms so a good 6-7 hours at my pace. ( we do stop often) I should be able to find a place to jump on line and upload this post.
Ed

 

[ed604]

Hello Overland and Dan,

that sounds like a good Idea, we are in Terrace now and will be here for about a week before heading north. If the schedule works out that will be great.

Ed

 

[Truck Camper Porn]

Be safe and enjoy the ride! Your latest campsite looks awesome!

 

[Rachmaninoff]

You're all providing me the best motivation yet to go look for a job.

When I'm hearing all of these places (Whitehorse and Fairbanks) that are on my route being named, I just can't resist the thought of being up there.

 

[ed604]

little guy flies home

Well I am losing my co-pilot (my son) I just saw him off home so I thought that i would do an up date while I am at the airport.

here is a shot of that trail that we got lost on. the second one is just a cool shot in the back road to barkerville. I have to say that Barkerville was really cool to visit, it kind of gives you a look back in time. we really liked it.

we spent a good few days in fort st. James and from there headed out to the Nass valley to see the Lava beds they were cool, while in the valley we looked for some pine mushrooms but the season has been dry and they aren't ready yet. we camped at dragon lake and the fishing was really good. not really big fish but really good eating. We had a really good meal with fresh picked pine mushrooms pan fried in some butter salt and pepper with two rainbow trout and some rice with peas and carrots topped off with some hot coco, a good meal by any standards I think!

I am going to head up to Watson lake now and I will take it from there,

thanks,
Ed

 

[ed604]

Well I have made it up to Whitehorse in one piece and am just getting ready to head to Dawson. Sign forest in Watson Lake is really cool, very worth the visit. I have really enjoyed the trip and am looking forward to seing more.

the tiger has been losing power on the hills, which makes me worried as I am about to drive the dempster in the fall! But, I am thinking that it is because of the winter Diesel. I have put in some fuel additives and we will see what happens. While I have been in Whitehorse I have had the truck checked out and the tires rotated. Seems to be go for launch.

Here are some more pics,

Ed

 

[Big-Jon]

SUbscribed look forward to fallowing along. Have a safe trip.

 

[ed604]

Hello all,

I have finished up with my trip up the dempster, so I thought that I would share my thoughts and impressions.

First off the road itself is a gravel base road and although there are sections of washboard and various pot holes, overall it is a decent road to drive. Because I decided to drive it in the fall I encountered some of the spring/fall mud conditions. The mud is only about 2-4 inches thick but it is very thick and sticky, and is really slick. I can laugh now but I had 10,000 pounds of tiger sideways... and lucky for me I was going really slow gawking at the views, it was just scary enough to get the heart going, but still be fun ha! I think that this road in the summer would be very doable but probably really dusty though. LoL!... the bonus for the slippery mud was no dust...but pick your poison I guess ha!

While driving it was really hard for me not to want to stop every 10 minutes or so to snap some pictures, the road is really very beautiful with the mountains at the start leading into the plains and tundra and colors wow! I was told that I was a little late for the full display but what I saw was stunning. There are some spots where it seems like you can see for a 100 Miles in almost every direction. With me being from the coast in Vancouver it's not something I am used to, I really liked it.

The tiger... wow, I really have to say that the drive on the dempster was both filled with joy and pain, because the tiger was definitely not purring on this section! It turns out that that fuel I picked up was not just bad it was really bad!
I was only feeling the tip of the iceberg while lodging my initial complaints down south, if only I knew what was to come I could have saved myself some agony.

Going up the many hills on the dempster, were I would normally do 80-90k up a hill, I was down to 35-40k per hour! It is about 375k to the middle of the dempster (eagle plains) this took me almost 8 hours! I was not moving very fast at all. It turns out that my filter was totally hooped and that just letting the water out wasn't enough. It was constantly on my mind if the next hill was going to cause the truck to quit, but it kept on running, just with no power (I am sure happy with the willingness of the cummins to just keep working!) I cringe when I think of what the tow bill would have been, yikes!

for your info after the Dempster trip I picked up a new fuel filter and swapped it out and it has never run better! totally smooth and even better power than before ( probably a bad filter to start with on top).

I would really recommend to anyone interested in driving the Dempster, to invest in some good auxiliary driving lights! With everything being dirt there is nothing to reflect back to you and just regular high beams don't let you see much. The picture that I am including is with the driving lights and with out. Everyone said to bring two spares and that I would have a flat for sure but, (touch wood) I had no flats at all. BTW, I am so happy with the Duratracs, super great tire so far!

I loved the drive and the scenery was fantastic, It just took a long time,( but, maybe thats not such a bad thing?)

here are some cool shots hope you like them, ( FYI all of the pictures that I have taken, have been with my blackberry phone, I have not purchased a camera yet so sorry if they are not the greatest )

Ed

 

[ed604]

Phase one done

Well made it back to home base now, what a great trip.

So after the Dempster I stopped back in at Dawson City and tried my hand at gold panning. What do you know I found some gold! It can't be worth too much but the flakes make little clinking sounds in my vial when I shake it. I had wanted to go and see the area from what I saw on the Gold Rush TV show. Its Really cool, the whole valley leading into Dawson looks like giant worms tunneled just under the surface. These are tailings from the massive gold dredges. It is mind blowing to think that this scale of work was done way back and, with what they had to work with.

I learned lots about mining on this trip, like for example they would take water from the creek and ram it through pipes to make huge water cannons to shoot the banks down and feed it into these dredges which were giant conveyor belts of buckets.... too cool.

I'll tell you one thing about panning for gold in the Yukon in October.... bring some kind of wet suit gloves or something because man is that water cold! Wow I thought my hands were going to fall off. I can't imagine how much gold must have been in the first virgin ground because there are guys going around and mining the ground that was already mined before and they are still finding gold in the tailings left behind. Where I found my gold the ground has been mined no fewer than 5 times and it still has Gold in it! wow

After I turned south and with the tiger purring along like a happy cat ( can't tell you how much that takes a load off of the mind) I ended in skagway Alaska, what a beautiful place, rugged, but beautiful. I was trying to imagine myself packing hundreds of pounds of gear over the terrain and hauling it up and over the passes and on to Dawson, wow not an easy feat no doubt! you have to hand it to the pioneers don't you.

I decided to take the ferry back to BC and was really happy with that choice, I didn't get the clearest weather but still had a really nice trip and enjoyed not driving for a couple days, not to mention having a cabin with endless hot showers! Made ton's of new friends on the ship and was able to catch some good reading time to boot. I saw a few whales which was neat, I tried to catch the whales on camera but...... its kind of hard with what I am using. Click......wait....... do you want to keep this photo? .......wait....... take another pic. A camera is now my next planned purchase.

Here are some cool shots, one of which is an old truck that could be said to be my Tigers older brother! I think that old green truck is pretty cool!

cheers,
Ed