Back Tracking

Howdy from Yellowknife, NWT!

 Time to back track on the weeks events. I think we left off when we were leaving Jasper National Park to go to Edson to possibly buy tires. Well...we didn't get tires. Most shops had ATV tires instead of dualsport tires, but they referred us to a shop in Grand Prairie. We headed up scenic highway 40 (which takes you up toward Alaska...first time we've been seeing signs for Alaska so that was exciting). It was a long drive so we camped at Musreau Lake.


It was a very pretty lake and surprisingly wasn't busy for Canada Day holiday week.  The next morning we arrived in Grand Prairie in search of the moto shop. We found it but they were closed for Canada Day. After much discussion we decided to hold off on getting tires until Whitehorse (after the Deh Cho route).

We wanted to get a picture of the beginning of the Alaska Highway so we headed to Dawson Creek for the night. While in the town center getting a picture of the mile zero statue, we met other riders who were on their way to Alaska.




Before heading off to Grimshaw on the Deh Cho route, we stopped in the tourist shop to buy a sticker for our pannier boxes. The info lady suckered us into participating in a contest where you have to stop at a tourist info center in each providence on the Deh Cho route and get our "passport" stamped. We needed 8 total stamps (3 from each providence) to wina chance at the grand prize, which is a big diamond from Yellowknife. We love scavenger hunts so we decided to play along.


Before leaving the Alaska Highway, we wanted to check out the biggest curved wooden bridge. Wooden bridges and I don't get along (especially when they are wet) so Jason wanted a picture of me conquering this bridge haha. It was pretty cool. Must have taken forever to build!



We made it to Grimshaw where the Mackenzie Highway starts!



We stayed at Queen Elizabeth campground for the night. We could see the start of the wild fires everyone was talking about. We were supposed to be driving through smoke all through the next day. One of the tourist info ladies said last year they had 400 wild fires. All but one of those fires were caused by lightning!

You can see the smokey haze over everything as we drove down to the La Crete ferry. We picked up a lot of stamps for our "passports" on this side route on the Deh Cho; however, it wasn't the best drive. It was super windy, smokey, and long boring roads the entire time. The last town on this route was called High Level. We initially thought about staying the night in this town because we were tired of the wind and it looked like rain. After having supper and stopping by a store, we decided it was in our best interest to move on even though it was late (having daylight til almost midnight helps haha).
Here is a nice homeless native lady that asked me if she could kiss Jason haha!


We drove through the cold pouring rain til about 8:30 at night to reach the 60th Parallel campground in the Northwest Territories. We were immediately greeted by swarms of bugs. People were not joking when they said they have lots of bugs here!

 The next morning it was still rainy and windy, but the campground supervisors who were also the visitor center people were super nice and gave us coffee and a lot of info about the rest of our route in NWT.



We are hoping to see an arctic fox, a polar bear, and a muskox while up here. We noticed a pamphlet about morel mushrooms on the table and the lady said on our way to Yellowknife we'll see a bunch of people camping on the side of the roads. After each wild fire when the undergrowth starts to grow back, morel mushrooms pop up everywhere. Jason was super excited to here this!

The plan for the day was to stop at all the waterfalls on our way to Hay River and then camp at Lady Evelyn Falls. For the rest of our trip til we get to Alaska, we have to manage our fuel wisely (very long distances between gas stations).


Here we are at Alexandria Falls. Jason talks about which direction he would run his kayak over the falls at each one haha.


Louise Falls

Twin Falls

Here is Jason standing at the Great Slave Lake in Hay River. This is where his dad put in his canoe way back in the day when he paddle the Mackenzie River. It was great getting to see the places his dad told stories about. It just so happened to be their Hay Days festival the day we rolled into town, so we sat in the park next to the lake eating pretzel covered hotdogs and listening to live music. We did a little grocery shopping to buy campfire supper (mash potatoes and beef stew) and headed off to find Lady Evelyn campground.

The next morning we packed up, ate breakfast (I shared my poptart with a squirrel who later stole my peanut butter snack off my bike haha), and fueled up to go see Yellowknife. We have been very fortunate so far to not have to deal with road closures due to the wild fires. It rains on us enough that the fires are out and just smoking when we go by. Just like the lady said though there were camps set up everywhere along the road of people looking for morel mushrooms. Jason was determine to get some so we pulled off the road, I pretended to be dumping my fuel can into my tank (which I needed to do anyway), and Jason ran off into the woods to find some mushrooms. I never expected him to come back with 2 pockets full of them haha! We'll be frying them up with some walleye hopefully tonight.


We chickened out and got a hotel room our first night in Yellowknife. It had been raining all day, the road was the longest straightest 400km road you've ever seen (with frost heaves and potholes for the last 40km), and it was cold (14 degrees Celsius... don't know what that is in Fahrenheit but it's chilly). The scenery has changed to just short trees and rocks instead of green big trees and mountains. So far we are not too thrilled about Yellowknife. They have good fishing though, so we are about to pack up and find a camp spot to fish all day. Fingers crossed for some walleye or arctic char (salmon)!