Update: I have been freed from the Arctic. If you go looking for adventure, be prepared for anything because it may find you! (I see IG is going to force me to use this Reels feature whether I want to or not, & the clips at the end are out of order but whatever 😒) For Labor Day I was gifted a photographer’s dream weekend, practically alone in hundreds of miles of pristine arctic wilderness with no other traffic. I was in drone heaven! The Dempster Highway is (I think) the only place in the world where passenger vehicles can drive to the Arctic Ocean. It’s as rough & rugged as you would expect from this remote region. It took me 18 hours to drive up. At the end I reached the hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk, an indigenous peoples’ settlement, and lucked up with 65 degree weather & clear skies. My quick Arctic swim & incredible view of the sunset & the Northern Lights over the ocean was a summer highlight! On my drive back down a key bridge at the midpoint was damaged by a truck driver. The flatbed was loaded with an excavator that exceeded the bridge clearance & collided with the upper supports. The Yukon govt alert said the bridge would be closed for four weeks to assess the damage, potentially leaving me stranded above the Arctic Circle as temperatures begin dropping. After I got over the initial anxiety I decided to just enjoy the empty landscape & I was only “stuck” for about 36 hours at which point engineers allowed vehicles meeting length & weight restrictions to exit carefully. A true adventure & I am now back in civilization, quite dusty but safe!