On day eight I started up the Dempster Highway to Inuvik. Although I knew people travelled the road on motorcycles and even bicycles I had an irrational fear of my radiator exploding, my transmission falling off or the oil pan being torn off my car on some rutted and muddy ferry landing. The grooves on my steering wheel were deepened by my grip which may have been somewhat excessive due to the tension. That night I stayed at the Eagle Plains Motel, an oasis of civilization half-way to Inuvik.

Day nine took me up to the spectacular barrenland scenery where the lonely Dempster Highway snakes across the Arctic Circle. Early in the day I encountered a wolf that had been wandering down the centre of the road until my Swift chased it off. There were a couple of places where the highway widened to become an emergency airstrip. There were the ferry crossings at the Peel River just before Fort McPherson and where the Arctic Red River flows into the Mackenzie. There were barrens and forests of stunted conifers and there were forests of stunted conifers and barrens.