Driving across the Arctic Circle
Trip Start
Apr 2005
1
Trip End
Nov 2005
Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Each way.
In this issue:
This is part 1 of several to come on Driving the Dempster highway.
Outline of the next parts of the Dempster trip
Additions to the new photo gallery
A new link
There are only 2 roads in North America that cross the Arctic Circle to the Arctic Ocean. One in Alaska and the other in Canada's Yukon Territory. In Europe there is a road from Sweden into Lapland.
After 3 attempts to drive across the Arctic Circle I finally made it. The first attempt was foiled when I was deported from Denmark to Poland while attempting to extend my passport stamp in 2003. The second time was last year in 2004 when I drove all the way north past Fairbanks, Alaska to Livengood and the beginning of the Haul Road to the north slope oil fields. I decided that the way the camper was ill equipped and the road conditions and truck traffic made it undesirable to make the trip safely. After driving a few miles up the haul road and crossing paths with large double trailer semi's throwing rooster tails of rocks I turned back only about 150 miles from my goal. Discression being the better part of valor.
The third and successful trip was planned over more than a month period. It began by just watching other rv's that had come from driving the many gravel roads in Northern Canada and Alaska, reading the brochures supplied by the respective tourist offices and researching necessary changes to my Ford F-150. The biggest change I needed to make was tires. All the information I could find said that I should make whatever preparations I could for dust and flying rocks. It is suggested to carry 2 mounted spares and expect to use them.
I began by watching vehicles coming back from the gravel roads. Most all had some form of protection for the front to protect the paint and headlights from rock chips. Usually in the form of grillwork and screening either using commercially manufactured "crash bars" and just covering them with some type of screen or wire mesh. Some had extra frameworks added to expand the screening out the sides and vertically to try to add some protection for the windshield. Some had ordinary bubble wrap placed over the complete front end and mirrors held in place with duct tape. And still others had complete home made frames of pvc or metal tubing attached the their front ends and covered with screening. It appears that the cost of bragging rights to crossing the Arctic Circle is the cost of replacing a windshield is a given.
I did make an attempt to design something that would give the windshield some protection. I could make a framework of angle aluminum extending from the front of the camper and stretch a screen of 1/4 inch wire mesh across thereby covering the windshield and being far enough away to allow the wipers to work. I bought the supplies in Whitehorse and a hacksaw to cut the aluminum and stashed them away to assemble just before I started the drive on the gravel.
Tires were the next and most important consideration. These roads are all build on permafrost and to keep the roads from "heaving" and breaking up they are build with a complicated procedure ending up with something looking like a raised railroad berm. There are few to no guardrails and the roads can be narrow in places. To that they add a chemical to "stabilize" the gravel to help keep it from washing away and retard dust. This stabilizer does a good job but causes other problems.
By its design it binds the loose materiel together. If the road is wet when you are driving on it the slop is sprayed all over your vehicle and as soon as it dries, it hardens. Some sections of road are composed of the local slate rock. Broken slate has sharp edges. When treated with the binder the slates sharp edges are held in place as you drive over them grinding away at tires. You may not realize it but as you make turns your tires flex on the rims and can allow particles to get between the tire and rim causing a leak.
There are places on the Dempster Highway that are smooth enough to drive more than 50 mph and the posted speed limits are usually around 50 or 55 mph. Posted in kph they are usually 80 or 90. Consider that your tire flexes outward allowing the sidewalls to contact a gravel surface. Sidewalls are not usually protected as well as the tread area so you have your sidewalls rolling across sharp rock. Next time you drive on a gravel road take a good look at your tires as soon as you stop. Look at how far up the sides the tire is scraped clean.
So there you are driving a heavy rv of some kind on an elevated roadbed with no guardrails and you get a picture of how important tires become.
I began by writing to several companies that operate rental campers, courier services and a few tourist offices asked them for advise and what kind of tires they use. I got mixed results that still didn't give me the detailed answers I wanted. Next I checked Consumer Reports magazine and lo and behold they had reviewed tires. I got some brand and model information from that. Then I looked at the websites of major tire manufacturers. I still wasn't getting the detailed results I wanted so I wrote directly to their customer service departments. I described what I was driving, where I was going and what I wanted to do.
Some replied with not much more than a form letter and referral to the website or to my local dealer. However, Goodyear replied with an enthusiastic e-mail with details and descriptions of 2 tires that might do the trick. One is a new design they call "silent armor technology" Here is the link. The tire has a bead area expanded and reinforced to keep objects from getting between the tire and rim and an extra belt of Kevlar. I was sold and purchased a set of Fortera tires.
Now, the guides say to have 2 mounted spares. I'm operating on a senior's budget and made the decision to go with just the 4 Forteras and my OEM tire as a single spare. And drive carefully.
I bought the tires in Kansas City and began my trip by driving the interstate across the northern U.S. and into Saskatchewan, across the trans Canadian Highway to meet up with the beginning of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek. I had in mind the goal to be at the Arctic Circle turnout on the Dempster highway on June the 21st for a reported yearly summer solstice party. I was surprised to find that the tires, despite their reinforcement were actually quieter on the highway than my OEM tires.
I arrived in Dawson City about the second week in June and started asking around about what other people were doing and road conditions, etc. Some advise I got from a worker at the rv park I was staying at said that the section on the north end of the road after coming from the mountains to the tundra and the north slope is very slippery if it gets wet. People were also saying that a speed that seemed to give a good ride was 30 to 40 mph. It seemed the suspension systems compensated for the washboard effect well at those speeds. Mud flaps were another suggestion and I had already bought a set and was going to install them in Dawson City. This would help keep the sticky mud from the side of the truck and accumulating in the fender wells.
Other driving tips were to drive the center of the road until there was someone passing from behind or from ahead and then slow down, pull over as far as possible and hope they do the same. This also helps during the extreme dust conditions because it is so thick you can't see past the other vehicle for quite awhile unless the wind is strong enough to blow it off the road. I was to find out all those suggestions were to be good ideas. With the exception of a few inconsiderate people who drove as fast as they could.
I mentioned that to some people who lived in Inuvik at the North end of the Dempster highway and drive it a lot. One courier driver told me that he just drives in the middle of the road forcing oncoming traffic to slow down and then pulls over. However pulling over towards the unprotected shoulder is not without it's own hazards. The rock is looser there and if one pulls over too far the soft gravel can grab a tire and pull the vehicle off the road causing a rollover. According to him and my own experience the most inconsiderate drivers were the highway department people.
O.K. I had covered my front end with bubble wrap, the headlights with 1/4 inch wire screen held on with clear duct tape, the best tires I could find, mud flaps, 1/4 inch wire screen inside the grill to cover the radiator, and 2 extra gas cans tied on the back. The only thing left was the frame over the windshield. I kept asking and looking and no one was doing anything to cover the windshields. One man who drives the road on a regular basis suggested that my framework and wire would be frowned upon by the RCMP because it restricted vision. That alone made me decide to make the trip without it. Drive as careful as I could and take my time.
There are a lot of pullouts along the road and I had a lot of time planning to stop at every single one of them. I was armed with several guides and campground locations and the weather was perfect so off I went planning to stop only about 40 miles down the road at an interpretive center and Provincial campground for the first night. The beginning went well. The road was very dry and dusty as expected and it appeared my truck was happy at the speeds that were mentioned. That meant driving mostly in 2nd and 3rd gear.
As are most Provincial park campgrounds they are located in very scenic locations and this was no exception. I found that the lady at the interpretive center held a guided walk at 7 in the evening lasting about 2 hours and I promptly signed up. 5 people showed up and we were given the choice of learning about animal tracks or flowers. We chose to learn to become trackers.
Driving about 10 minutes along the road we stopped at a place where an old hunting road went off through a connecting valley. We immediately came across the complete spine of a moose. Probably left from hunters. That was the thought because it was still intact as if the meat had been cut off. Animals would have taken away pieces as it was consumed. Walking along the abandoned road we learned how to tell between moose and elk prints and droppings, which direction they were going and bear droppings. (scat)
We found feathers and bones from Ptarmigan (chickens of the north) and what might have eaten them based on the look of the feathers. And I caught a glimpse of a white flash on the mountainside to my left that turned out to be a lone caribou too far away to even try to take a picture. And not wearing a watch I lost track of time and just followed along until our guide told us to head back. We didn't get back to the campground until after 10 p.m. and it was still bright daylight. It appears that for a 6 week period during the summer the sun never sets above the Arctic Circle. I was within 200 miles of there and close enough to experience 24 hours of light. Weird. Really weird.
The next parts of the story will cover the rest of the drive to Inuvik, the city at the north end of the Dempster and continuing to the Arctic Ocean where I went for a barefoot stroll in the Arctic Ocean within sight of the pack ice. Then the results of sending a picture to Goodyear.
After the Dempster I drove every road that was derivable in the N/W Territory and Yukon except for 1. I have taken hundreds of pictures and miles of video. You can see all my photos and more stories from Europe and Alaska at www.bbbt.net
As I wrote this I was in a nice RV park just west of Edmonton, Alberta with a good wireless connection. I have just added photos from the beginning of my discovery of the world in 2003 beginning with England. It took me awhile to figure things out on the new gallery and I finally figured out how to add another level so I could break things down from Continent, Country and city or area. At this second, there is nothing from the European trip except for England. There are empty folders for everything else but I'm adding pictures continuously this week. I have to add about 300 pictures. It's a very tedious process. I also found out that I can add text and movies. The movies will appear as quicktime and if you don't have it you can go to the Quicktime website and download the player for free. Because of bandwidth and storage space movies will necessarily be small. I have also been learning how to make panoramas from multiple photos and will be adding them too. They will appear full size but I haven't quite figured out how to balance exposure across the individual photos.
This new gallery has a lot of nice features. When you click on an individual picture it should pop up larger. Click on that one and you will get the full size picture I uploaded. To save space I have uploaded pictures in an optimized form at around 50 k so that they will load fairly fast. If you want a full resolution copy, e-mail me and I will send it to you. They are just a little under 1 meg each.
You can also vote for your favorite one and see the results of the voting real time. If you like a picture you can send a postcard of it to someone too.
Once in awhile I discover interesting links on the web. Here is an interesting one about something called geocaching. If you want something new to do in the outdoors give this a try. It's a family activity or something one person can do. You can do it in your home town without leaving the city or head for the great outdoors. It's up to you. All you will need is a pocket gps, maybe a couple of maps and the interest to discover things. A gps will cost around a hundred dollars but check the newspapers and pawn shops. You never know. go to http://www.brillig.com/geocaching/
If the link doesn't work just copy and paste it into you browser.
That's it for this time. Thanks for reading and pass on the good word. Gas has gone crazy and it's even more expensive to travel but it will never get cheaper. Myself and some of you can probably remember when gas was 20 cents per gallon. Get out there before it's too late.
From here I go into Jasper and Banff parks, then Glacier and Yellowstone returning to the U.S. sometime around the beginning of October.
It's been quite a summer and I managed to accomplish one more of my life's ambitions. Wait until you hear about the next one.
The adventure continues.
Harry
