Inuvik is a planned community built to replace another one further east that was subject to annual flooding and limited space for expansion. Inuvik means "place of people". Since being established the town has grown to nearly 4000 people. Like most northern communities the town sits on permafrost and that makes building construction methods unique. All buildings sit on piers driven about 20 feet in the permafrost and there is a crawl space left so as not to thaw the ground. Even the water lines and sewer lines are above ground in a specially designed insulated box called a utilidor. The majority of homes are wood siding and are painted bright colours. There are many new commerical building in town including a new library, school arena and offices. The main employer is the oil and gas industry and 2nd is government and tourism. Inuvik enjoys 56 days of 24 hour sunshine from mid June to mid August. As I write this it is 0030 h and we have no lights on, we later got up at 0300h and could still read with no light.
The long days means that flowers and vegatable do really well here ever though the season is very short.
There is also 30 days with no sun at all mostly in December. The warmest day on record here was 32.8 C 91F and the coldest was -56.7C or -71 F That is ccccccccold.
From Inuvik to Tuktoykaytuk (Tuk) is 195km/120miles by the mackenzie ice road in winter. The first of the ice road trucker TV series was filmed here.
We fly to Tuk in a 6 seater plane across the MacKenzie Delta, Donavan our pilot does not look old enough to shave, we are assured he is a accomplished pilot. It seems he has made this flight 3 times a day for the past 2 years and he did just fine.
We get a tour of Tuk by Max, a native caribou hunter in winter and a whale hunter in spring. We were able to stand on top of a pingo, a mound of ice that pushed up from below and froze before it broke the surface and remains covered with 2-3 feet of earth.
The high light of the day was to walk in the Arctic Ocean, Max said the water was about
1C/33F however our feet were quickly numb so it did not feel that cold.
The community freezer is about 20 rooms that are 30 feet below ground in the permafrost and remains about 20F all year round. Electric power was brought to Tuk in the 1980's by the oil companies and most homes now have power and freezers so the underground freezer is no longer used.
As we fly back to Inuvik we marvel at the vastness of the MacKenzie Delta, it stretches as far as one can see in all directions dotted with thousands of small lakes. We see vehicle tracks made in the 1960's by oil companies that are still visible. It reminds us how fragile the tundra really is.
Donavan sits the plane down like a pro and we begin the long drive back to Dawson City from the oppisite perspective.
There are thousands of mountians peaks in this area, most are not named and many have never been climbed. We wonder what lies over those hills.
We spend the night at the Arctic Circle marker and drive back to Dawson in the morning.
Our trip to up the Dempster summary
GAS ............... $1.70/$6.40 total near $400.
USED TIRE......... $60.
TIRE REPAIR......$65.
GOLF SHIRT ........$55
TRIP TO TUK..............$800.
EXPERIENCE.................PRICELESS
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