Day 18
We have arrived at Yellowknife and have ridden all the gravel that is possible up the north/south continental divide. We finished the last of the gravel this morning - about 3,100 miles of it since we left Antelope Wells. Petrol stations are few and far between up here and we were all but out of petrol by the time we boarded the ferry to cross the MacKenzie river. Frank must have been running on fumes. This is the same Mackenzie river we crossed going to Inuvik a couple of years ago. It drains north to the Beaufort Sea from the Grate Slave Lake on which Yellowknife is located.
It was a cold ride this afternoon and we are tempted to stay in a motel but the prices are way beyond our budget. Even the locals are moaning about the spell of cold weather but for me it's a question of what do you expect when you are the equivalent of 2,700 km south of Invercargill.
Yellowknife is a surprisingly large and established modern city - nothing like I was expecting. The uninspiring nature of the architecture is probably necessary to combat the winter cold - this is ice road trucker country after all. Lots a Bison grazing the roadside - these are woods bison and are larger then their plains cousin.