Inuvik tonight, at the doorstep of our destination...

A couple of long but very good days. After securing a storage facility and dealing with a gate that was jammed close with snow we eventually left Whitehorse for Dawson City. Another beautiful drive, with great weather. It snowed a bit here and there, but nothing that caused any problems for any of us. We decided it was time for a shower so we secured rooms at a hotel in Dawson City for the night. Before checking in, we decided to grab a bite to eat in town. It was getting late and we found a place that was open for take-out. While waiting for our meals to be prepared we walked the streets of Dawson (some photos were posted to Instagram). The system the hotel had for late check ins was a whiteboard by the front door with my name and three room numbers. The keys were in the door for us, gotta love that Northern hospitality! A hot shower and warm bed was a great reward after some long long days. A problem we did have was that a few hours south of Dawson City we saw highway signs saying the Dempster was closed.

We then started the day looking at road reports and decided to head for Eagle Plains in the hope that the road would open before we arrived. About an hour outside of Dawson City we suffered our first flat tire. We had stopped to take some photos and one of the kids said "Dad, we have a leak, a big one"... Luckily we had a high power pump (Thank you Mike!) and added air and got on the road. We had a tire repair kit but Spencer had reminded me that if I used it a repair may not be possible, so I decided to see how often I had to add air. Sometimes it was 20 minutes, sometimes it was an hour, but we made it to Eagle Plains half an hour before the garage closed, got the tire repaired and were on our way.

Today was some of the most barren landscapes we have seen, but we all agreed it was some of the most spectacular we have ever seen. We made it to the Arctic Circle and stopped to celebrate and take photos and then made it to the NWT border where we were stopped and had our ID checked and our COVID plans confirmed. Off we headed to Fort McPherson, but it was -30º and there were no rooms at the Inn, so seeing as it was still extremely light outside we decided to push on to Inuvik where we secured rooms. An uneventful drive to Inuvik, but a long day and a late night. Taking it easy and sleeping in tomorrow before we head to our destination!