Our blog is a good bit behind our travels as we have had almost no internet connection for weeks. We are trying to catch up a bit while we can. We were one of the first vehicles of the season to cross the Peel River heading north towards the Arctic Ocean along the Dempster Highway. When we got to the river, the cable barge was not set up for the season. We camped on the road leading up to the south river bank for about 36 hours waiting for the cable to be strung for the barge. As a result, we were able to cross the river on June 2nd.
When we reached the Arctic Ocean on June 3rd, the ocean was still frozen all the way to the coast, so it was tundra right up to a gravely coast and then ice as far as we could see. It was cold and windy, but oddly not as cold and windy as our home in California often is in the winter.
In total, it took us 24 days to go from California to the Arctic Ocean; we stayed in designated campgrounds only 3 of the 24 nights. We reached the arctic coast at Tuktoyaktuk, a small Inuvialuit Northwest Territories town, and we were some of the first visitors to Tuktoyaktuk this summer. Historically, you could only reach Tuktoyaktuk via an ice road only in the winter, but the road we took from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk has only been open since November 2017, so
having visitors in the summer is very new to this small community.
We crossed over the Arctic Circle 5 days before arriving in Tuktoyaktuk and the scenery changed pretty quickly after that. We have seen quite a bit of wildlife and the views have been all we had hoped for and more. We spent an afternoon with some cool Dall sheep in the middle of nowhere, just us.
We are super impressed with the solar charging system on the truck. We basically use as much power as we want and it’s always been fully recharged by breakfast in the morning. We’ve met a number of travelers from different countries and they have been super nice. It’s a neat transient communal feel as we have bumped into people multiple times along the way. One couple had a truck much bigger than ours.
Multiple times along the way, we have remarked that we are happy with everything we did with selecting and preparing the truck. It feels really secure having a bigger vehicle up here and we are thankful for all the little details that we did during preparation. It’s a good vehicle for the environment, and it is super cozy.
Wabi-sabi Overland 