July 6 2025
- mikepearsonsafety
- Jul 6
- 4 min read
We left Whitehorse Wednesday morning still a bit tired from the race the day before. We had 2600 kms to go and wanted to be in Yellowknife by dinner time on Friday.
We stopped at Watson Lake, known for its “Sign Post Forest”. Signs from all over the world are posted here.
We hadn’t planned on adding a sign, so we posted a homemade one, along with our information card. If we ever come back this way, we’ll post a better sign.
The weather was good until we were about an hour outside of Fort Nelson BC (950 Km) then it started pouring and the wind got crazy. As we pulled into town a lightning storm hit…. We got to the city campground, parked, put out the slide, ate dinner and went to bed. It was a long day.
Thursday morning started with a great breakfast at the campground restaurant.
The food was good and there was lots of it. Mike was getting the side-eye from Mr. Buck while he was eating.
The weather was grey and overcast but no rain to start, then it sprinkled on us through out the day but no major downpours. To get to Alberta’s highway to take us North, Google took us on a backroad that looked okay until it went down into a valley…..the roads into and out the valley were sliding down the hill; it was very sketchy. Unfortunately Donna was hanging on so much we didn’t get any pictures! Fortunately Mike did an awesome job driving (as usual!).
Passed acres and acres of canola fields. Now I know where canola oil comes from!
We traveled through some areas impacted by the 2019 fire – black matchstick-like trees.
Next stop was Aspen Ridge Campground in High Level, Alberta (900 km). As the name suggests, aspens were throughout the campground, with their rustling leaves keeping us company all night.
Early the next morning we had a phone interview with Cabin Radio, from Yellowknife.
The final push to get to Yellowknife started grey and cloudy…..and flat.
We met a nice lady at the 60 parallel information center. She and her husband spend May to September working at the visitor center and go back to their home in Ontario for the winter.
This is where we saw our first bison of the day.
Kilometers of boreal forest and fire damaged forest. And flatness.
We stopped at Alexandra Falls for a break…. 200 meters from the truck we realized we didn’t have bear spray so we did lots of singing…..think Buddy the Elf….
Finally we saw a buffalo coming out of the bush and then nothing for a couple of hours. Then someone flashed their light and we could see a herd on the road ahead of us.
Later we saw three cows with their calves walking in the tall grass.
We stopped for gas and the bugs were intense! I started the pump and jumped back in the truck will it ran. I had about thirty second between opening the door and getting swarmed.
This is the Deh Cho Bridge, open in 2012 to provide the only permanent crossing over the Mackenzie River (Canada’s longest river). Before the bridge was open, ferry and ice road provided only access to Yellowknife. For several weeks each year, access stopped due to conditions of the ice.
The last 100km of the drive was no fun. The locals call it “The bad ass road”. There is nothing to see but rocky outcropping and a few trees, and an undulating road. The truck and trailer took a beating. The road would be good for a half a kilometer and be bad for 3 or 4. Mike is not looking forward to the return trip.
We made it to our campsite in Yellowknife by dinner time. We set up the trailer, had a snack and drove around town (like we hadn’t driven enough already! 😊). It was still very bright out when we went to bed at 10pm. At this time of year it is daylight for 20 hours.
Saturday we got some supplies, swam at the new aquatic center and toured the town.
Yellowknife really is built on rocks!
We didn’t realize how much dust had accumulated on the bikes on the back of the trailer until we unwrapped them. Despite being covered the were covered by a layer of dust. We took them to the lake and gave them a bath.
Race #8 was today. We had great support from YK Multisport, who put on the Midnight Sun Triathlon, with lots of cheering. Several folks mentioned that they’d read our story that morning on Cabin Radio. It’s really good when media takes an interest and does a good job at telling our story, and the importance of helping the ALS community.
As we were busy swimming, biking and running, we didn’t manage to get any selfies this time. A few folks are sending us some, so we’ll share when we get them. The course was good, providing an opportunity to see more of Yellowknife. At one section of the bike, a red fox (they’re very common here) crossed the road in front of Donna….slowly. Donna had to brake so she didn’t run into the sly fox! I think the fox gave Donna the side-eye.
