Day 14

We reached the end of the Dempster at mid-afternoon today. Let me tell you that pavement never looked so good! (Maybe I can write about asphalt next.) The rest of the trip out was pretty uneventful, though we did discover what could be the biggest conspiracy to rock the North since the advent of near beer: the Arctic Circle monument and photo op spot ISN'T at the Artic Circle! According to our GPS, it's about a tenth of a degree off! We figure that maybe it's at a more scenic locaiton than the real thing (a nice high overlook), but accuracy is accuracy. Scott and I photographed ourselves at the REAL Circle and plan to take this up with our contacts at National Geographic (if they haven't cancelled our subscriptions already for playfully pirating their name.)

Grabbed breakfast at the Eagle Plains Motel, which, if I haven't mentioned it already, would have been an ideal place to film "The Shining." It's not all that big or elaborate, but very dark and quiet. Guess that's because Eagle Plains only has 8 year-round residents (in the summer, it goes up to 25, but most of the seasonal help has wisely left), and anybody who stays at this place is probably lost or stuck by weather (as we were last week). Being stuck there alone would be really creepy, but then again, all work and no play make Jim a dull boy. All work and no play...uh, sorry.

Once back in semi-civilization, we took a quickie tour of an old gold mining operation (left as-is since the place closed down in 1966). Interestingly, the plant's owners used the same technology and methods for the entire 70 years of operation; no innovations, no new equipment, nada. Little wonder they went under. And the "Gold Room" where the good stuff was finally seperated from the bad and made into bricks was set in a right homey-looking building, almost as if it was the stock exterior for a 60's sitcom. ("Ward, the Beaver is upsetting the gold standard again." "I'll have a talk with him, dear.")