Walking Around Canada

On Saturday 27 Nov I reached 'Twp Moose Lake' on my virtual walk up the Dempster Hwy. At 71.5k we entered Tombstone park, where there is a very new, impressive Interpretive centre. This centre explains the cultural and natural history of the Park. Also near by is a Campground which is 1,034M ASL. By taking advantage of all the facilities here, one will be better able to make the most of your Dempster journey
Glaciation and Beringia. [Beringia is an ice free area [the most recent ice age started 3 million years ago and changes in climate caused sea levels to drop and the Bering Strait became a grassy plain] from Stewart Crossing, YK , across Alaska to what is now Siberia] The Dempster Hwy. passes mostly thru Beringia.
At 74Km we reach the Tombstone Range Viewpoint [a prominent peak 2,193M is 20Km in the distance. At 80Km we reach North Fork Pass summit 1,400M ASL which is the highast point on the Dempster. It is the first [of three] times we cross the continental divide, where rivers to the north flow into the Beaufort Sea via the Mackenzie River system, and rivers to the south are part of the Yukon River watershed that flows into the Bering Sea. As one drives northward, the landscape shows less and less evidence of glacial action.
At 90.5K we enter the Blackstone Uplands which stretch from North Fork pass to Chapman Lake and beyond. This area is the richest area on the Dempster for bird life.
At Km 102.6 we reach Two Moose Lake.[ On our trip back we actually saw two moose in the lake, a mother and her young one]

Driving the Dempster Hwy

As we drive up the Dempster following the North Klondike River the peaks of the Ogilvie Mountains can be seen in the distance [km 10.5]. Antimony Mountain, 2,040 Meters high, can be seen and it is 30 K away.
At km 20.0 the North Klondike Range comes into view west of the hwy. They lead to the rugged Tombstone Range whose mts were glaciated. The morains, also called glacial drift, were transported out of the mts by ice and runoff.
At km 38.7 high up in the mts to the west you can see sign of glaciers that cloake these mts 12,000 yrs ago. these features are on mts till tombstone campground at km 71.5.
At km 50.5 we reach the southern boundry of Tombstone Territorial Park. Established in 1999, the park protects 2,100 sq.Ks of the Ogilvie Mts and Blackstone Uplands. The road thru the park is 70 Ks long.
At km 66.0 [virtual walk here on Sat 13 Nov 2010] to the east is another feature known as 'rock glaciers'. It originates in a bowl of the mountain and this tongue of rock fragments moved much like a glacier but it is composed of rocks and only has a core of ice.

Walking around Canada

On Fri. 22 Oct 2010 I reached Flat Creek which is located on the Klondike Hwy, 40 K's east of Dawson City, Yukon Territory in Canada. My wife and I spent 18 glorious days in the Yukon this summer from 28 Jul til 14 Aug. travelling from Whitehorse to Inuvik, NWT. So again I passed myself twice on my virtual walk around Canada, for the 3rd and 4th time.
I am now walking up the Dempster Hwy which is a gravel road and 731 K's to Inuvik.
There is pavement for about the first 6 K's and just after that we reached the North Fork ditch.
For about 60 years this ditch channelled water to a hydro electric plant 25 K's west. The hydro was used to run the massive gold dredges near Dawson City. There is one on display near the original gold calim on Bonanza creek. The Dempster Hwy is named after a RCMP officer who used this route when travelling from Dawson to Ft. McPherson. Construction of the hwy started in 1959 and was completed to Inuvik in 1979
This ditch is at mileage 6.4k reached 25 Oct