Dawson City

After an uneventful trip, surrounded by a host of colourful wildflowers, up the Klondike, a brief stop over in Mayo and another quick drive through Keno (all places I had visited in more depth in 2012), I arrived in Dawson City in time to check out the visitor centre and some shops, as well as the bank, to get some more Canadian cash. The NW Territories visitor centre - which really should be called the Dempster Highway visitor centre - was closed by the time I got there, so headed to RV Dawson City for the night.

Wet weather was forecast for the night, and the coming days, and as much as I wanted the forecasters to be wrong, this time they were spot on. That was not the sort of weather one would choose to drive the Dempster Highway to Inuvik.

Next morning when I arrived at the NWT visitor centre, the condition of the road was described as Fair! In 2012, it had been described as Very Good, when I was there, and many of the folk who had driven the highway had left messages extolling its condition, in the visitor centre's Dempster highway log. This time there were only a couple of entries, none of their authors had actually attempted to get to Inuvik. With the forecast the way it was, all I could do was to abandon 'plan A'.

Plan B was to be in Alaska.

I headed back down the Klondike. Having been told that the cheapest fuel was at the Cardlock site, right where the Dempster turns off to head north. My card was rejected by the system. The next folk who arrived were two young men in the bosses small truck. I asked if I gave them the money, could they use their card, which they did. It was only after they left that I realised I had given them $60, but they had pumped only $50 into my tank. Saying they needed the receipt for the boss, I did not even get a look at it. (It was the first time I have ever been ripped off by anyone on my road trips.) I felt saddened by the fact that someone could do that to you, forgave them and continued, knowing I had sufficient fuel to get to Whitehorse.

Whitehorse has grown these last four years, and I was not even able to find the visitor centre and the RV place where I stayed last time. It was getting late, as I was driving around looking to see what I could find, when I saw a half dozen or so RVs parked and camped on a small grassy patch in a busy part of town. BBQs were out, chairs were out, the full works short of a camp fire. I noted it was by a McDonalds, and as I wanted to use the wifi, joined them. It was only when I went into McDonalds that I realised where I was....... I had to enter through Walmarts.

It was still raining on and off.

(Odo - 147273)

Lifey