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We then hung arround, chatting to some of the truck drivers in the Cafe until arround 14:00 when word came that the road was open. We threw the last few things into the car and headed off. At the start of the climb up to the mountains all the trucks were stopping to put chains on. However, I'd noticed on the way north that the trucks seemed to bog down much more easily than we do, so I didn't bother and just passed them all. The trucks in any case were being held up by a truck that had slid off the road.
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We were able to just drive past this but on a hill as steep as this the big trucks ofcourse had no chance. This was one of two trucks off the road on this day, so I think this happens quite a lot. I have no idea how you go about getting something like this unstuck - winch it out somehow?
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We then passed my favourite kind of snow clearing machine - a giant snow blower (I couldn't get a picture from the front unfortunately).
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The climb up and over the mountains was just as spectacular as before.
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This time the 'airport' had a plane waiting.
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Since we had lost a day, we decided not to stop at Eagle Plains but rather do the whole run back to Dawson City. We got a spectacular view of the first mountain range that we had not had much of view of on the way north.
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Since we were travelling much later than usual we were driving through the mountains at sunset which resulted inthe beautiful colours you see here and in the next pictures on the mountains.
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We then had the 'intereresting' experience of being cuaght by several of the trucks we had passed many hours earlier in the chaining up area. As I've mentioned before, these trucks come barrelling along here at 110-120km/h, hardly slowing for the corners (and since they are generally empty on the way south they don't slow for the hills either). They are extremely impatient to get past - this one came right up behind us, leaning on the horn and flashing his lights. The problem is, it is very difficult to let them past since the road is only one track wide and as soon as you get off that track in a car you have very little steering control in the deeper snow.
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We were going along at about 90km/h so this wasn't exactly excessively slow in these conditions.
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Eventually we'd find a long enough straight stretch with a bit at the side where we could slither along and the truck would come blasting past...
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...leaving us with this view!
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How to keep a 6 year old happy on a long trip - he was allowed to watch one film each day in the car. I bought one of those $35, 200W inverters in Canadian Tire before leaving and it worked perfectly - no messing about with swapping batteries, etc. The coat hanging over the window was to keep the sun off the laptop screen.
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Final picture for the day, just before it got dark - we arrived back in Dawson City after it was completely dark - but not excesively late. This view also shows that the car was full! Getting everything backed back into the boot every morning was quite a challenge - we also used most of the back parcel shelf as well as the area under Linus's feet and the space in the middle in the back. Most of the bulk was all the winter clothing an all the emergency supplies - I've got a picture of the supplies later.
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