Back To Dawson














9/5/25:  KM 340 to Dawson City.  After having a hard time falling back asleep, I still woke up at 6:33.  This was before my alarm.  I figured out the issue, my phone had vibrated so much in its holder that it silenced everything.  We hit the road by 7:57 which is the earliest we rolled out in I don’t know how long.  


The drive was also pretty going the opposite direction.  Just as rough as both of us remembered and we saw a travel trailer that lost a tire and then ripped the shackles off the frame.  We later saw a flatbed going to get it…not sure what the tow bill would be.  


It eventually started raining and the road got a little slick in spots.  We made it back to blacktop at 4pm.  8 hours for 210 miles.  We lost two cabinet doors, everything in the medicine cabinet made it to the sink, bathroom or kitchen floor.  I took a photo, closed the door and we drove away.  It was 40km to Dawson and we checked into a campground for a few nights to regroup.  I spent $18CAD for a pressure washer and tuned up the truck and trailer over the course of 40 minutes.  Our windows are a little out of spec after the drive and they let a little water in.  Awesome!  


We got set up in our site and immediately went to town for dinner and a drink or two.  We went to The Drunken Goat at the recommendation of a friend.  It did not disappoint!  One large meal, app and three drinks…$65.  We highly recommend going here.  We also picked up a few things at the local market before heading back to the rig.  After a little straightening up, we decided to call it a night.  I think we’ll be here until Monday.  We opened our bottle of Deep Sky, Aurora Viognier from Elgin AZ in honor of seeing the Aurora last night.  We’ve been carting it around since March.

 Great bottle of wine!  


Would we do the Dempster again?  Yes, but not with a travel trailer.  In our opinion, this road is for Camper Vans, Truck Campers or a regular vehicle with tent or a hotel budget.  Another way to do it would be to rent a truck camper from one of the companies in Whitehorse.  Get it for 10-ish days and beat up their equipment!  This was quite an experience, we have no regrets, and are glad I’m an RV tech!  


Some quick stats.  The road is 880km, one way.  That equates to 1093 miles round trip.  There is a quarter mile of pavement at the start and a few miles in Inuvik.  We started the drive on Sunday 8/31 at 1:35pm and got back to the start at 4pm on Friday 9/5.  Long gravel days, we had our fill for a while.  We’ve put almost 2,200miles on since Ninilchik and are only in Dawson.  When the weather stays good, ya gotta explore.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The End of 24’

Image
 As 2024 comes to a close, we are in a cabin near Show Low AZ.  This area is beautiful at first glance and we will be here for a week.  It reminds us of Bend/Sisters, but it’s way smaller.  This is the first time Katy has been out of the RV since 12/1/20.  We are looking forward to exploring this area.  We hope everyone had a great Christmas and that you all have a happy New Year!   We took a trip up to Tucson and stayed at Catalina State Park.  It was a great trip and we enjoyed the lights at the botanical gardens.  The state park is great and really spread out.  We also had a seRV event with Full Time Families, where we made cards for the kids and families at Ronald McDonald House.  It was an amazing event and we enjoyed seeing old friends and making new ones.  The kids who participated were awesome, they helped us set up and tear down.   The next day we co-hosted another event in Sierra Vista.  We partnered with Wr...
Read more

North Again?

Image
Well, a lot has happened in the past month.     2025 is starting off pretty big.     We had a great time in the Show Low, Pine Top and Lakeside area.     Katy and I stayed in a one room cabin with the pups and it was fun, but after a few days we missed having our own stuff and our bed.     The area is cool and we had fun exploring Greer which was like driving down to the Metolius.    We went up to the ski hill the same day.    There were 1 or 2 runs open of man made snow and about 400 cars worth of people sharing the hill.    Not our jam.    The Pinetop Brewing Co was a fun stop, they have great beers and good food.    Beer brewed at 7,000’.   We took a tour of Petrified Forest NP and really like it.    It is a mixture of Blue Basin, The Painted Hills and the Badlands with a spattering of Fossilized Trees.    It’s worth getting out and taking the short loops in the par...
Read more

Want to go to Skagway?

Image
Friday we drove from Teslin Lake to Whitehorse Yukon.    We got on the road pretty early and were surprised to not see any wildlife along the way.    First stop was the laundromat.    Two XL washers and three dryers later and we were in business.    We met another full time couple doing laundry, who are traveling to Juneau for the summer.   Barry said they had a 5 hour ferry ride from Skagway to Juneau.    We then got to chatting about Skagway and the fact it was only two hours away.    I had been looking at it on maps but didn’t realize we were that close.    We parted ways and headed to Woodcutter’s Blanket Bar and Brewery for lunch.    Good beer…pass on the food.    While at the bar, I suggested we head to Skagway for a night or two as we will not have full hookups in Fairbanks until 5/4 ish.    I then talked myself out of it and Katy said let’s go for it.   We book...
Read more