Day 16 – Friday, July 10 (Dawson)

The temperature was a cool 10 C (50F) when I got up but it warmed up to 23 C (73F).

I have travelled 7700 km ( 4800 miles ) to this point and I have one more trip planned before I start heading south.

I wasn’t sure what was going to happen today. Let’s see if anyone figured it out.

I answered some emails and did some work on my computer in the morning and then I went into town for a leisurely breakfast. Shortly after I returned to the campsite, I checked with the auto shop and they informed me that they had a different brand tire for me that was the same size as mine, so I had them install it. I washed the car again, especially the inside of the wheels because they had 2.5 cm ( 1 in ) of heavily packed mud and grit on them. I then decided to go for lunch before I went for a test drive, so I went to “Sourdough Joe’s” restaurant where I had an awesome Salmon filet on sourdough bread.

I had decided to go fishing in the afternoon and leave for the next leg of my trip tomorrow. As I left town, I sped up to 80 kph and the car started to shake drastically so I went back to the auto shop. The mechanic was about to remove the tire to check it’s balance when he saw the problem. He asked if I had washed the inside of the wheels because there was still some areas of packed mud behind the spokes of the wheels and that had would change their balance. I thought I had thoroughly cleaned the wheels, even though the area behind the spokes were hard to get at, but I saw right away what he meant. I washed the wheels again and the problem was gone.

I was now finally ready to go fly fishing, so I headed back to the Dempster highway. Yes, you heard me right. I went back on the highway that had caused my flat tire.

I went to the 55 km mark, where Elliott had said that he had caught fish. I tried the spot for a while but it didn’t seem like a place where the fish would be and I didn’t have any luck even though I tried several areas. As I was looking for a place to fish, I found these tracks heading towards the water. One looks like it might be from a moose because it was quite large. I think the smaller ones are deer tracks.

I decided to drive to a spot I had passed at the 54 km mark. The water was very cold but I waded into it and looked for a got spot. It didn’t take me long to find a tree, along the water, where a lot of bugs were flying around and I felt that it would be a good spot to try. It didn’t take long for me to get my first catch.

I caught several more but I only took a picture of a few. I was told that they are grayling which is a species of salmon. But then what do I know; I try not to be prejudiced. All fish are equal and they look like more like trout to me. They were about 8 – 10 inches long and you are only allowed to keep ones that are between 8 and 26 inches. I probably could have kept a few of them, if I had wanted to clean them and eat them, but I wouldn’t be able to take them with me tomorrow.

After I took the pictures, most of the fish were able to shake themselves off of the hook. In the Yukon you have to use ” barbless ” hooks and when you use small fly fishing hooks, such as this one,

it makes it more challenging to keep the fish on the hook, but that’s the fun and the challenge of it. As I said before, I’m not a good fisherman, but you don’t have to be good at it to like it.

I didn’t have my cell phone or a watch with me, so I couldn’t tell what time it was. I fished until my feet were almost numb from the cold water and then I finally packed up and drove back to the camp. It was 8:30 when I got back to camp so, I had cooked some supper, took a shower and went to bed.

Tomorrow and Sunday should be the last leg of my northern tour.