First Morning on the Dempster

The temperature gauge read -2°C when I unzipped the tent this morning. Not what you expect in mid-June, but this is the Dempster.

Frost covered everything - the tent fly, the camp chairs, even the coffee pot I’d left out. But the view made up for the cold fingers. The Ogilvie Mountains stood sharp against a pale blue sky, and the only sound was Engineer Creek rushing past the campground.

I got the stove going and waited for water to boil, watching the frost slowly melt as the sun crept higher. A caribou appeared on the ridgeline across the valley, then another, then a whole group - maybe twenty animals moving along the skyline.

By the time the coffee was ready, my fingers had thawed and I was thinking about how many people were probably sitting in traffic back home while I had this entire valley to myself.

Days like this are why we do this.