Day 13: Eagle Plains to Dawson City

We awoke to sunny skies, anticipating that we’d leave early to get down the road. At breakfast, a Yukon road worker came in and announced that the road was now open, but that there was still water across the route in parts, and that motorcycles should not leave for at least 2 or 3 hours until things had dried up a bit, because there was about 8 inches of slippery, deep muck to get through. They sent the big rigs out first, to pound out a trail for cars, RVs and us. And thank goodness for them! We basically just had to keep in their wheel tracks perfectly, or face a certain crash if we got into the mud. After some fun splashes through water and getting to see where the road was washed out in several places, we made it back carnage-free to the paved road at the intersection to the road to Dawson City. This is an example of what happens when you build without taking permafrost into consideration.

We took a little ferry across to our campsite after enjoying a well-deserved ice cream cone!

Our campsite was right on the shores of the Yukon River.

Distance today: 272 miles General Team Sentiment: glad to be in a non-hostage situation off of the Dempster (but we'd all do it again in a heartbeat--one of the most beautiful wilderness roads we've traveled)!