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Having come this far north it's hard to resist the temptation of crossing the Arctic Circle 403km north of Dawson City , a journey that takes you over the most captivating stretch of the highway. At the very least you should take a short ride out of the mixed deciduous spruce woods of the boreal forests for a look at the tundra which starts beyond the North Fork Pass (1370m), just 79km north of Dawson. All distances given below are from Dawson City, almost the only way to locate things on the road. After the millions of lodgepole pines in this part of the world, it's almost time for a celebration when you pass what are reputedly Canada's most northerly pines (8km). Beyond them you'll see occasional trappers' cabins: the hunting of mink, wolverine and lynx is still lucrative, providing the Yukon's 700 or so full-time trappers with a $1.5-million annual income. At Hart River (80km) you may see part of the 1200-strong Hart River Woodland caribou herd ; unlike the barren-ground herds further north these caribou have sufficient fodder to graze one area instead of making seasonal migrations. Golden eagles and ptarmigan are also common on willow-lined streams like Blackstone River (93km), as are tundra birds like Lapland longspurs, lesser golden plovers, mew gulls and long-tailed jaegers. At Moose Lake (105km), moose (needless to say) can often be seen feeding, along with numerous species of waterfowl such as northern shoveller, American widgeon and the arctic tern , whose Arctic to Antarctic migration is the longest of any bird. Chapman Lake (120km) marks the start of the northern Ogilvie Mountains, a region that has never been glaciated and so preserves numerous relic species of plant and insect, as well as providing an important early wintering range for the Porcupine Caribou Herd ; as many as 40,000 caribou cross the highway in mid-October - they take four days and have right of way. Unique butterfly species breed at Butterfly Ridge (155km), close to some obvious caribou trails which cross the region, and it should also be easy to spot Dall sheep, cliff swallows and bald eagles. The Arctic Circle (403km) is marked on the Dempster by a battered roadside cairn, and the occasional summer home of one of the north's premier eccentrics, one Harry Waldron, the self-proclaimed "Keeper of the Arctic Circle". In his late 60s, Harry was wont to sit in a rocking chair in a tuxedo with a glass of champagne and regale all-comers with snippets of Robert Service, facts about the Arctic and some fairly unimpeachable views on the environment. An ex-highway worker, he started his act of his own accord, but proved so popular that he was paid by the Yukon government to sit and do his spiel. After here, the road climbs into the Richardson Mountains to meet the border of the NWT (470km) before the less-arresting flats of the Mackenzie River and the run to Inuvik.
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