Made it back,
9,070 miles in 32 (not nearly enough) days.
Fantastic trip, the Dempster and Dalton were as awesome as I had imagined.
Fires did dampen our days in the interior, but Valdez saved that part.
One crazily destroyed tire, and a hitch extension snapping in half were the only issues.
Lots of mud/clay.
Wildlife was so/so. How do 125,000 caribou hide?
26 Black bears in Canada alone.
Photos to come.
We saw 1 lonely caribou (what is singular for caribou anyways?) on The Dempster last year. Only one. We did see quite a few of those cool little red foxes wandering beside the highway, usually holding some poor other thing in their jaws. Saw a few moose, a sh1t-ton of black bear on the Alaska Hwy in BC (saw no bears at all on the Dempster). We saw the big herds of Wood Buffalo as well....they were very cool. We also saw quite a few porcupines while on the South Canol Road, pretty cool little creatures in their own right.
Hands down the best wildlife encounter was the big lynx we saw sauntering along the side of the Dempster on our way back into Inuvik from Tuk. He was just strolling along like a King on his own road, and when we slowed down to take a picture he just roamed into the bush, taking his sweet time, but quicker than we could get a camera.