16 August 2018. Dempster Highway Day 6 to Twin Lakes
Today was about loss of anxiety. Things that were making the trip “not fun” got better. For some reason the camper furnace worked last night. Had something gotten wet with all the recent power washing? We don’t know what the problem had been, but the furnace was now working on the high setting and the camper was cozy again. Today would be the last 100 miles of the Dempster Highway. We drove the first 350 miles yesterday on dry roads, and the morning skies looked promising. We did get a few sprinkles, and some damp roads the last 50 miles, but the road was kind to us and we appreciated it. The truck front air bag light was off this morning. It had been on for the previous four days, and was now off. Not a clue why…. When we reached the end of the Dempster, it was time to put air back in the tires. The air compressor worked! We were concerned that it’s location under the truck frame would have it packed with mud. But it pumped the air back to highway pressures just fine. And the TPMS light that had been on for the past week went off. I guess we’ll have to have the dealer check the threshold values when we get home. We had stopped checking the coolant level. After a week or so, we again had confidence in the truck’s cooling system. We started to feel like we were on vacation on not on a mountain climbing expedition. We were still a couple of days behind the original schedule, but we were traveling in the right direction, and could start picking where to spend the night, instead of the past week where the road was the boss!
After praying that the rains would hold off a bit, we started praying that we would really hit a downpour. We had planned on hitting the car wash at Pelly Crossing, YT, but the change machine was empty and there was someone half-washed parked there (presumably searching for loonies to finish up – but nowhere in site), so we decided to head on down the road. It did rain on us a lot and we know where the huge fancy car washes are in Whitehorse…
We started to feel like all we were doing was driving again, so we switched it up and stopped for the day in Twin Lakes Yukon Government campground, about 30 miles south of Carmacks, YT and 80 miles north of Whitehorse. This was a very pleasant and relaxing way to spend the evening. Even ran into one of our fellow travelers from the Inuvik campground! Spotted a beaver playing in the lake (that makes 6!)
