Day 58, Wednesday, October 5, Whitehorse, Wolf Creek.
Every day that passes, I get more information or make some decisions, which in turn change or limit my options from there. Today, I made two critical decisions. After discovering yesterday that there is no rationale way to get a disabled vehicle across the US border, and after learning that Atlantic British has one engine that would work in my Defender, I bought the engine, which will arrive by Friday the 14th and take two days to install. I also bought a boxful of auxiliary parts just in case. That decision having been made, I then decided that I will stay here until the Defender is back on the road, somewhere, it is hoped, between Oct 17 and 21. If, God forbid, it is not running after all the work, I will store it until next summer and go to plan B to leave here.
While I am prepared to drive the 900 miles to Vancouver, if that is the way I plan to go home, I would prefer to stick with my original plan and take the ferry from Skagway to Bellingham, or from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy at the north of Vancouver Island.
If the Defender is on the road by noon the 17th (unlikely), I will try for the 7pm ferry from Skagway, 100 miles away.
If the Defender is on the road by the 18th, I will try for the 11am Oct 14 ferry from Prince Rupert, almost 700 miles away.
If the Defender is on the road by October 23, I will try for the Oct 24 ferry from Skagway.
You get the picture. Or I may decide to drive from here, although with the expected snows,shortening days, and absence of camps that are open, I would prefer the ferry to get me to the lower 48 to avoid the hassles on the road.
Of course, I'm being optimistic about the Defender , but that's what drives me.
I visited the splendid Canada Sports Center today for a well deserved shower. What great hospitality there. The hostess even gave me a free pass either out of kindness or pity, after I told her my story. On the way out I bought a veggie sandwich for myself for dinner, only to find that Donner discovered it hidden while I was in shopping for his food and devoured it, still expecting to be fed his own food back at the camp.
Tomorrow, the make-up of my days here changes because of my decisions today. Literally, all I can do now is wait. I thought about driving to Skagway for a few days, or perhaps to Dawson City, maybe even try the Dalton Hiway for a second time, but I decided this is not the time to do that. So I will settle into other things, like reading and maybe planning my hoped-for trip back home. Considering the great weather forecast for the next week (see below), I will continue to camp alone at Wolf Creek as they have been kind enough to leave the gate open for me for three days already. But next Tuesday I will probably move to a cabin or yurt for a change of pace, but also because a change in the weather is predicted. So far, the weather has been splendid every day.
I have 39 percent battery left so I think I will retire to the tent and work on Episode 3 of the ALCAN diary.
Photo...
Just look at this weather. Wonderful, but not for long. Winter is coming soon.
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