I am in Inuvik

Alright, I've made it to Inuvik!
Forecast for last night and tonight is "sunny" ... and indeed it is sunny. With the blue sky and the sharpness of the light it makes for brilliantly bright night skies.

I am posting this from Inuvik Public Library so no pictures, but I will post some later.

Where I am sleeping tonight

Tonight I am stopping at Continental Divide Lodge...obviously I am camping not going to the actual lodge (which is a bunch of prefabs put together...a very northern thing to do...typically where you have permafrost or where you have a semi permanent and often oil industry related camp).
It is quite cool tonight. In fact the mountains around still have a little snow and in the campsite itself there is a couple of very small snow piles left from where they were plowed in what was probably originally very big piles. Here are the "reception" and the restaurant, basically the main building. You can see the mountains with a little snow in the back. Unfortunately the little furnace in the camper just died, so back to no heater. I say "back to no heater" because before this trip I had no heater because I had trouble with the camper battery. Now the battery is OK but the furnace died... I can't even use it when I am hooked up to power, as I am now. I used to be able to do that. So in fact the situation is a little worse now. Oh well, at least we are getting into summer.

And here the campsite...not fancy and atmospheric but simple and functional and really on the road this is all you need. This is not a place designed for people to spend a holiday.

Remember how on June 2nd I posted a slide of the weather map from environment Canada with the 2 dots of what I had traveled that day? Here is the slide:

June 2nd

Today's location on today's weather map:

The red dot in this slide is Watson Lake where I am on June 9th

I've traveled quite a bit. I am actually about 100km out of Watson Lake. The weather was good, the road was good and not too busy I felt like driving further, in part to make the drive tomorrow a bit shorter.
Eventually I will actually get out of the weather map published by Environment Canada.

Today: from Liard Hotpsprings, through Watson Lake and beyond

I made it to Watson Lake. This is my first time in the Yukon.

Of course I stopped at Liard Hot Springs but I only stayed three nights which is very short for me since I LOVE hot springs and especially Liard Hotsprings.

Here is just a random shot along the Alaska Highway.

Bisons along the highway

The famous Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake

As you can see the weather finally turned nice, just yesterday really. The days are long long long and it is fabulous.
Alright, now I am going to shut down the computer without checking my email, just in case there is something in there I don't want to have to deal with (very mature I realize - sarcasm!).

This was posted from Watson Lake Rec Center, next to the visitor center, itself next to the Sign Post Forest. 

The dinosaur at Milk River visitor center

It obviously these were taken was a few days ago.
Today I spent the day waiting while the truck was getting a much needed overall "make over". The breaks feels so different now. I feel much better about the long drive. Tomorrow I need to finish the all thing by getting the wheel aligned, they didn't have the time to do it today, and I needed the truck back so I could sleep in the camper attached to its back!
Anyway, here is the promised dino:

I normally think of myself has having big feet...because I HAVE big feet... but here you are: my feet are tiny..but note how they "match" with dinosaur feet!  

This is to celebrate the fact that C. can ride his bike without training wheels!!!

My weather on June 2nd

Just to show how obsessed I am with the weather here is today's satellite image from Weather Canada

 

...For the record the distance between the 2 dots is just over 400 kilometer (250 miles) Tomorrow I am spending the day in Grande Prairie to get the breaks and the tires on the truck looked at. For once I was organized and actually made an appointment ahead of time.

Inuvik has been having midnight suns since May 24th and will continue to do so until July 19th but I don't need to rush to see it because the weather forecast for Inuvik for this coming Thursday June 6th is: "cloudy with 60% chance of rain showers or flurries. Low +1C (34F), high +12C (54F)"....yes "flurries"!!!
I must be crazy to be driving this way!!

By the way I am 140km (90miles) from kilometer zero of the Alaska Highway..... but no driving tomorrow.

I think I will go to Inuvik

So I just left Writing-on-Stone right by the US border and now I am thinking of going to Inuvik which means going up the Dempster Highway.

On this picture from Mapquest Inuvik is the red star at the top, so well above the Arctic Circle.

I would like to get there for June 21st, the longest day of the year even though this is not hte only day of the midnight sun. Right at the Arctic Circle you only get one day with the midnight sun, but higher north you get more...obviously!

To get there I need to first go to Dawson Creek and start the Alaska Highway. I need to drive the Alaska Highway up to Whitehorse and just a few kilometres past Whitehorse I need to go on the Klondike Highway  to Dawson City. A bit before Dawson City I need to turn north on the Dempster and then 734 kilometres I am in Inuvik. All together (from Dawson Creek) it is just under 3000 kilometres.
Just the names make me want to go.
Maybe I won't get there. Maybe I'll change my mind and turn off beforehand. But right now this is where I am heading....until further notice.