If we had some doubts yesterday about continuing the second half of the highway after yesterday’s rough patches, today confirmed we made the right decision to continue.

We left the Eagle Plains Hotel and Campground after breakfast, a long shower and filling the van with gas.

There are three companies that run Tuktoyaktuk trips out of the Inuvik and coincidentally we ran into Judi and Olaf, the owners of Arctic Chalet and one of the trip organizers. They were heading off on a 4-6 hour hike with some staff and asked whether we wanted to join them, and we decided to do that.

The second half of the Dempster Highway is in much better shape than the washboarded section we drove through yesterday. Apparently this is because they are short of water on the southern part and can’t run the grader through without turning everything to dust.

Our first stop together with Judi and Olaf was at the Arctic Circle. This is the location north of which on June 21st, the sun doesn’t descend below the horizon, giving 24 hours of daylight.

The next stop was the hiking trailhead and we packed our cameras, lunch and some water and started our hike with the guidance of Olaf and Judi. Walking through the tundra is like walking on sponges filled with water and moving beneath your feet. The ascent into the mountains was sometimes hard work but we were reward with amazing views, wild blueberries, cranberries and cloudberries. The further we hiked up the mountains, the smaller our van got in the distance. Half way up, Ruth discovered that her hiking boot soles were disintegrating and we patched them with some duct tape which worked really well. We stopped for short water breaks and a longer lunch break and enjoyed the magnificent view we earned by climbing all the way up the hills.

This hike was pretty strenuous for the two of us and we drank lots of water and took a rest in the van before continuing our journey up the Dempster. It wasn’t much further until the crossed the Northwest Territories border.

We drove through beautiful mountains until we descended into the Peel River area for our first ferry crossing.

This was followed by a second ferry about 70 kms later to cross the Mackenzie River.

The ferries basically just drive up to the shoreline and lower their ramps. Sometimes this doesn’t result in a completely flat surface and on this ferry they needed to adjust the ferry position and ramp for us to be able to get off.

Free of any more ferries or mountains we travelled fairly quickly towards Inuvik and dodged rabbits sitting by the side of the road until we came to a stranded car. A young couple from the Czech Republic had problems with their alternator. We gave them a boost and let them drive ahead of us. It wasn’t long before we found them by the side of the road again but this time they claimed everything was fine. Turns out it wasn’t and Judi and Olaf who were behind us picked them up and took them to their chalet, cabin and campground where we were also staying. What a reunion!