THE ROUTE

There are three primary routes to Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada, our first destination. One uses mostly Canada highways but stays south until after the great lakes. One uses mostly US border highways and crosses into Canada at Sault Ste. Marie making a diagonal across the western Canadian Provinces and up into the Yukon. The third sticks to the US border all the way to Shelby, Montana and then strikes straight north past Calgary, White Horse, and on to Dawson City. It is this last route that we have tentatively accepted. The reason? I'm too frugal to pay Canada lodging/gas prices with the dollar near or below parity and there are more services in the lower 48. Also, there is nothing, nothing at all, along the diagonal, and shorter, route. Fields of young wheat and grain silos offer more opportunities for my new camera, which is disheartening in itself.

So, in a nut shell, we'll cross New Hampshire on 101 to 93 North to connect with 89 to Burlington Vermont where we'll split (I hope) Lake Champlain on Rt 2 picking up 11 West to Cromwell, NY and cross into Canada to take 401 south to re-enter the US at Port Huron, Michigan. Then west to Flint and straight north splitting Michigan and crossing between the narrows between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan where we begin the long and nearly straight run on Route 2 all the way to Shelby, Montana. Here, we head north on US 15 and enter Canada on a bee line to Calgary which we will dodge to the left to make in a ride through Banff. Leaving Banff we hook up with the Alaska Highway and work our way through the northern tip of British Columbia and into the Yukon where we connect with the old Klondike Highway at White Horse that takes us to Dawson City just 20 miles past “The Junction” to Inuvik. A night in Dawson City and an early start back to The Junction puts us on the Dempster Highway, assuming the road is open and passable, to our only gas stop, Eagle Plains. It's only 230 miles but they could be hard slow miles so, we may hold up for the night. Inuvik is just another 220 miles beyond. The Arctic Circle is at mile 252, a mere 32 miles north of Eagle Plains.

The following link is a Google map that approximates our path but, things change. I'll try to keep you posted.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Ipswich,+Massachusetts&daddr=Concession+Road+1%2FKenyon+Concession+Road+1+to:Chalmers+Line+to:45.336702,-84.814453+to:US-2+W+to:Unknown+road+to:Inuvik,+NT,+Canada&geocode=Fdw7iwIdtwzH-ynPa7M1uRjjiTEZ7AfiW8Wjiw%3BFY_ZsgIdZmON-w%3BFa0-iwId34Aj-w%3B%3BFYgG4gIdopQ5-Q%3BFd6XIgMdPuwO-Q%3BFa69EgQd7U0J-CnRlvmVP5IUUTGEt683opEjUg&hl=en&mra=dpe&mrcr=0&mrsp=3&sz=4&via=1,2,3,4,5&sll=56.072035,-100.371094&sspn=36.153959,74.179688&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=4