lost highway

in august of 2019, i climbed into a truck in columbus, ohio with two other guys. our goal was to drive to the arctic ocean. in a lot of ways, it was a gas station tour of canada that took us really far west before we went north, which took us back east, then west again, and eventually repatriated somewhere in eastern washington. i stopped adjusting my watch around the point where time stopped mattering. i guess i forgot to sign my passport, but we still got a "welcome home, boys."  

27 days, 9,836 miles, and somewhere around 20 different campsites. 

the most daunting leg of the trip was the very dead center. after the alaska highway runs into the klondike highway, somewhere near the end of the klondike is a right hand turn onto a dirt road called the dempster highway, the only road on the entire continent that leads directly to the arctic ocean. 

around 500 miles long, or 1,000 miles roundtrip, the dempster is built on top of the permafrost in the most efficient manner for the various terrain, which in short means the edge of the road might be three feet above the ground, or it might be above the treetops. its a dangerous road with constantly changing weather that effects driving conditions and the two ferry crossings–we were told to be completely self sustainable for up to 3 days in case of high winds on the ferries. there's a sign once you turn onto the dempster alerting drivers that there isn't a gas station, tow truck, food or cell service for the next 200 miles until you reach a compound called eagle plains, yukon. 

shortly after eagle plains, the road crosses the arctic circle and after that, into canada's northwest territories, with another day or so drive to tuktoyaktuk on the coast of the arctic.

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we set out to find the end of that long white line (which, by the way, started on the klondike highway just north of whitehorse, yukon) and then drove another 820 miles.