Hauling to Inuvik - 1st time!

I don't have any useful info but am interested in your trip. Take pics if you can.

 

- The last cheap fuel is in Valleyview so top up in Valleyview.
- Then Clairmont/Grande Prairie.
- Fort Nelson and Watson Lake are sometimes close in price.
- Whitehorse.
- The Klondike River Lodge (at the south end of the Dempster Highway) was still smoldering the last time I was there. - It burned down so I don't know what the current fuel situation is there.
- I have never purchased fuel at Eagle Plains but it is a possibility.
- Fuel in Inuvik is not that expensive considering the location.

Exercise caution on the Dempster Highway. There are some surprising grades and the road surface can be very slippery when wet or soaked with surface-hardening solution. Slow down (unlike some of the idiotic truck drivers up there) for approaching vehicles so you don't smash their windshields with flying rocks. Ditto for bicycles.

 

There's basically no passing lanes north of Fort St John, please don't start or become part of a "parade".
One slow poke can really mess up the traffic and start a parade making it impossible to pass.

 

The Dempster "Highway" is not a 50 mph highway. It is not even a highway. It is a dirt road that varies in consistency depending on the weather, the location and grader maintenance. If the weather is really bad it can become impassible in places (not likely at this time of the year). It will become more-or-less obvious when you see it but excess speed can easily result in disaster. You can slide off the road (most of which is raised up a considerable distance over the permafrost), kill yourself and (worse) cause a truck rescue bill the size of the Gross National Product of a small country. There is no worse place to have a mishap. There are no emergency medical services either.

There's truck parking and a cafeteria at Eagle Plains so you can stay overnight there. There's also a motel at Eagle Plains.

You won't hold up traffic if you drive at a safe and reasonable speed. There is no traffic on the Dempster Highway. There's not much traffic on the Alaska Highway either. I am not a fast driver and I have never had a line of traffic behind me on the Alaska Highway. If some crackhead idiot truck driver from Alberta is speeding behind you, slow down to let them pass, unlike an Alberta truck driver who never turns off the cruise control for anyone. The Klondike Highway (all paved) has no traffic to speak of.

Ambulances are few and far between on the Alaska Highway.

 

You don't have to go into Dawson City if there is fuel at the Klondike River Lodge (at the intersection of the Klondike Highway and the Dempster Highway). It's an 80 kilometer round trip from the Klondike River Lodge to Dawson City.

Yes, I would allow about 15 hours for the Dempster Highway, including photos. You don't have to wait long for the ferries but the ferries don't run late at night (check the ferry schedules) so that may affect your time. If you are hauling a heavy object and it is wet you may want to ask the other truck drivers at Eagle Plains if it may be necessary to chain up at Sheep Creek.