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Participants : Nicole from Switzerland (and Canmore, CDA), Torsten from Germany (already risked the Pioneer Tour Alaska-Yukon on 2003 and was on both the Rockies and Coast Tours), Christine & Christoph from Switzerland (as we found out during the trip, Christine and Nicole are from the same village in Switzerland-ok it is a small world), Dieter & Gerlinde as well as Manfred & Karin from Germany (the two couples met on the Yukon-Alaska Tour 2004)

After a bit of hiking in the Tombstone mountains, we made it across the arctic circle only on the thrid attempt. This was due to a Grizzly bear family crossing our path or actually blocking the road, in that case the Dempster highway, After that it took us a good 2 hrs to manage another 30 km, no, not because of road conditions, just simply because it was just too beautiful to drive through this area without stopping: Amazing fall colours, great views towards the Richardson Mountains, another grizzly, this one was taking a bath in a pond next to the road, and countless caribou, etc. Photographer's craziness had taken hold of us all. Amongst us 9 travellers we probably took around 15000 pictures and Dieter and Manfred probably 10 hours of video film.

After arriving in Inuvik and that also meant at the end of the road, a small plane took us up to Tuktoyaktuk and the Beaufort Sea, the flight across the MacKenzie Delta and the pingos was stunning. Highlights in this tiny community on top of the world were certainly the climb down an ice covered ladder to discover the natural permafrost fridge, Torsten playing the organ in the old church, and of course the very special lunch consisting of delicacies such as musk ox soup and whale blubber. And let's not forget that, duty fully, we all dipped our toes and feet into the Arctic Ocean, brrr rr.

In Dawson City, the capital of the great Klondike Gold rush, Chris was the only one brave enough to drink the fabled sour toe cocktail. From there we went on to explore the Silvertrail and the heights of Keno Hill, again with the most beautiful fall colours. In Atlin we thoroughly celebrated Chris' and Christine's wedding anniversary with a BBQ before travelling the Alaska Highway into the Rockies. Of course, this pioneer group got immortalized with an appropriate sign (made of the gold pan, which, unfortunately, had not provided us with any fortune when trying it out in the creeks around Atlin).
Even hardy Canada travellers and fans such as Dieter and Gerlinde (on their 5th trip to Canada) were a little surprised by the early snow in the Rockies. Summer tour with a couple of winter days included came however as a nice surprise. (checked the weather forecast for Tuk at that time: up there, they still had sunshine and a balmy 20 degrees C. !)

You will find a "few" photos of the Dempster Highway tour in the picture gallery and on Chris' und Torsten's homepages.

A big "thank you" to all the hardy pioneers !
Zita

PS: the next pioneer tours are coming soon..... the Atlantic Provinces and more of the North West Territories, and why not a winter tour ?