After a little sleep at Rock River Campground we got up, fed the mosquitos, had a hurried breakfast, and got going again.
After an hour or two we got to the wildfire that had closed the Dempster Highway. The wind was blowing the smoke away from the road, which was a good thing because in some places the fire was only a few hundred feet from the road.
After we passed the fire three work trucks sped past us. Forty five minutes or so later we arrived at the Peel River ferry and were amused to see all three cooling their heels on the waiting ferry. We drove straight into the last spot and the ferry took off as soon as we had come to a complete stop. Nice.
A bit past the Peel River ferry we got to tiny Fort McPherson, the first community with services since leaving Dawson City 367 miles earlier. We stopped at one of the two gas stations to fill our big tank at the price of CAD 2.11/liter, which works out to USD 6.04/gal.
A bit past Fort McPherson we got the the Mackenzie River ferry. I learned from one of our tourist guidebooks that the Mackenzie River, which I don’t think I’d ever heard of before now, is the third largest (in flow) river in the Americas, after the Amazon and the Mississippi.
After that last ferry we had a few hours of easy driving to Inuvik through the tundra on probably the best gravel road we’ve ever driven on. It was a smoother ride than a lot of roads in Tucson and it was easy to cruise along at 55 mph.
Having had enough of sleepless nights, mosquitos, and dust, the first thing we did when we got to Inuvik was check into the Capital Suites Hotel and take our first showers in nine days.