Cloudy Dempster drive

I was missing my sabbatical freedom of last spring, and with Jeff teaching a course all weekend and nothing I really needed to do instead, I decided to take a drive up the Dempster.

The weather forecast looked amazing, and then worse every day, so I wasn’t sure which day I would go, and then when all the sun disappeared for the forecast, I decided to go anyway.

I packed up a cooler, some snacks, some survival gear, and headed out.

I love how the Dempster now shows you can drive it to the Arctic Ocean. Which I haven’t done yet! With Covid restrictions, we can’t drive into the NorthWest Territories without written permission from their health minister, or something equally as dissuading. This time I drove up just 125km before turning around.

I saw three foxes. Two were wrestling in the ditch just outside of Dawson City like a couple of puppies. So cute!

Then I saw a big bear less than 10km up the Dempster. I don’t have a photo of any of them! But that was the first bear I’ve seen up the Dempster in a couple of years.

By the time I got up to kilometre 100 where we camp sometimes, it was really overcast. The road into this spot isn’t underwater (as usual with the spring floods). The river is still high though. The leaves are just coming out up here.

I truck camped in almost this exact spot last September!

There were no moose at Two Moose Lake, but there were many ducks!

You can see the water beaded up on this duck’s back. Pretty neat!

The clouds were making me kinda sleepy. No photos can compare to the Dempster in the sunshine. Although I do like cloud photos too.

Up at Chapman Lake, two swans put their heads up as I pulled up, and then curled back up. On nests maybe?

Neat how it’s practically mid-June but the grasses and leaves are just coming out up here, 100km up the Dempster towards the Arctic Circle.

The Arctic Lupines were blooming here. I bravely pocketed a canister of bear spray and walked up the road to see if I could capture any of the lupines in front of the lake, but there was too much scrub brush in between!

Oh, there’s that sexy looking truck of mine, that’ll do!

There wasn’t too much traffic around, but a few speedy trucks went by, no doubt hauling through to Inuvik now that the two ferries are in the water.

It started to rain more, so I turned around at km 125 and headed back. I stop pretty often, looking at things, looking for animals. I saw a few ptarmigan, but none wanted their photo taken. Also one deceased rabbit. I think a truck may have gotten him rather than a predator. The rabbit population is still really low. Hoping it starts turning around soon. I miss seeing them all over!

Here’s a couple pictures from the parking lot at the Goldensides trail. I need to do this trail one day. Although, not today, since it was closed due to spring runoff, mud, and snow.

Back in town, a bit more sun! Here’s a pic of a bee visiting one of my hanging flower baskets.

And what’s up with cats and boxes?

Hope everyone’s having a great June!