Happy Birthday, #2 to Sam!
We have tried to take the Campbell Road twice before. It is a shortcut between Carmacks and Watson Lake. Both times forest fires kept us away. Although wildfires rage now near Yellowknife and Hay River, we were surprised to find the Campbell open. Let’s go!
The road turned to gravel past the town of Faro. We drove almost to Ross River before camping at Lapis Canyon. As we set up camp, David heard a distinct releasing of air. After all our taking care on the Dempster, we found ourselves with a flat tire on the Campbell.
David changed the tire, and we decided to drive into nearby Ross River in the morning. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a single place to fix the tire. We finally found someone to ask. He called a few folks then recommended we go back to Faro.
The lady at the Faro visitor center sent us to Jeremy. The young man was very helpful and patched the tire for us. He said that recent construction had exposed sharp shale. They had repaired over twenty tires since construction had begun. And the construction continued throughout most of the remaining road to Watson Lake.
With the tire repaired, we decided discretion to be the better part of valour and returned to Carmacks, taking the longer, albeit paved road to Watson Lake.
It was Sam’s second birthday, so we stopped early at Fox Lake to give her a swim. The wind was blustery and cold, but Sam had a great time. When she had her fill, we all retreated to the camper and its heater.
The next morning when David checked the air pressure in the patched tire, it registered only 15 pounds, less than half what it should. Heavy sigh. We needed another repair job. The problem was that this was Labor Day weekend, when most of Canada shuts down to “squeeze out the last bit of summer,” as one lady said.
In Whitehorse we did find several tire repair shops open on Saturday. The shop we chose informed us that the tire had another hole in the sidewall, a fatal blow. Now we had to find a replacement. We checked every tire dealer, and all they had were snow tires… to the tune of $450 each, and we needed two to maintain balance. Finally, our original tire shop came up with a novel solution. It should get us through the rest of our Canada portion of this adventure. A perfect matching tire is on hold and awaits us in Spokane.
It’s really quite a blessing how this has all turned out. Both times the tire went flat, we were safely tucked in a campsite rather than on a busy road. We have a good, albeit temporary fix. Another tire awaits us, and is in the Lower 48, which is always less expensive than Canada. After fourteen years, this is only our third tire issue… not a bad run considering the roads we travel!
We’re now heading to another favorite place on the Alaska Highway… Muncho Lake.
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