More wet weather this morning so I made the decision to start back to Dawson City. Went slowly, enjoying the fall colors and the occasional sun. Spotted two river otters who were kind of hunting for fish, but mostly just playing along the river, and couldn’t help but smile while watching them.
Visions of hot food were dancing in my head as I got closer to Dawson City, and I probably started driving too fast given the wet dirt road. As a result, after getting to Dawson City I heard air coming from one of my tires, and my spare-tire-in-a-can® is now all used up. The car is still having issues however — any time I go over thirty it begins shaking, so I’m guessing my alignment is hosed as well and I’ll be spending some time at the local garage tomorrow before heading on. On a side note, washing all of the mud off of the car took twenty minutes — I had almost forgotten that the Subaru wasn’t brown.
Hopefully I’ll be able to return to the Dempster on the way home as the countryside is beyond incredible, and by October the 130,000 member Porcupine caribou herd should be returning for the winter (see http://www.taiga.net/satellite/index.html). Anyone coming up here who has the time, consider driving at least the first hundred miles — you won’t regret it.