Under a blanket of afternoon storm clouds and wildfire smoke, we nervously turned north onto the Dempster Highway. This almost completely gravel highway stretches 737km (458 miles) north to Inuvik, NT and to the small village of Tuktoyuktuk, NT, the furthest point north in Canada that you can drive to from the mainland.

Pulling away from Watson Lake there was a lot of uncertainty in our route ahead. With the newfound information that fires were potentially blocking our most direct route north we were setting off with our fingers crossed that we would be able to make our planned route without issue.

With Smithers behind us we were once again rapidly north-bound. Not long after leaving town we came to our next major turning point where we would turn onto the 874 km (543 mi) long Stewart-Cassiar highway.