Travels of Diane and Keith

#30 INUVIK to TUKTOYAKTUK

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

#29 The DEMPSTER HIGHWAY to INUVIK

Grreetings from the only highway in Canada that crosses the Arctic Circle. Inuvik is on the edge of the MacKenzie Delta just 140 km from the Arctic Ocean.

We fill up all tanks in Dawson City and head north on the Dempster Hwy, a 740km (460mile) highway through some of the most beautiful wilderness scenery in the world. It is a unique all gravel year round road that winds over two mountains ranges, crosses the continental divide three times, passes through three different natural geological regions and crosses the Arctic Circle on its way to the massive MacKenzie Delta and the Arctic Ocean.

The first 50 miles follows the north Klondike River , black and white spruce, balsam, poplar and trembling aspen cover the valley and slopes of the hills. Numerous mining roads snake off into the distance up into the mountains where plenty of prospectors still look for gold today. We climb through the Ogilve Mountains, the Tombstone range and the Snowy Range, never getting tired of the ever changing scenery.

The Tombstone Territorial Park Interperative centre is a nearly new building built from huge pine logs 3-4 feet in diamater and 40 plus feet long. the building is completely self contained, with solar panels, rainwater collection system, and wood burning heating. Keith marvelled at the building construction while Diane gathered information on the road ahead.

Through the Taiga Mts range and Taiga plateau we go and find a real nice little spot with mountian view beside a creek to spend the night.

In the morning we drive along Engineer Creek, a orange colored river that flows through porous rock formations higher in the hills and picks up various minerals and as a result the water is highly acidic, orange in colour and has a strong sulphur smell, there is plenty of warning not to drink the water. as if.

We pass the drunken forest. Here tree point all different directions, they grow on the thin layer of earth over the permafrost and therefore have a very shallow root system and the trees tip in different directions during the freeze/thaw cycle.

The prema frost is a premanent frozen layer of ground ranging from a few feet here to over 6000 feet deep further north. The average year round temperature here is -10c or about 20 F Average January temp is -42, Either C or F it is real cold.

The many and varied rock formations we see continue to keep our camera busy, and we find a elephant in the rocks. Elephants once roamed this land in the form of Wooly Mammoth and we see skeleton and tusk in several places we visit.

Climbing out of the river valley we drive up seven mile hill (yup uphill for 7 miles) onto the Eagle Plains plateau, the view of the valley from here is incredible, the valley runs over 120 km separating the mountians ranges. We find a nice parking spot with a 360 panoramic view and enjoy a leisurely lunch. All too soon we must get back on the road and soon arrive at the Eagle Plains Complex . This is the half way point to Inuvik and was build with the highway to service the brave travellers. It has a motel, restaurant, shops, gas, tire repair, garage etc. Many people spend the night at this place.

We fill up at $1.65 litre about $6.25 a gallon and continue on travelling north east, we soon stop and the marker for the Arctic Circle, the land of the midnight sun. What a magnificent view we enjoy at this spot. We travel for the next 100km through high open tundra and cross back into NWT. We leave the high ground of Eagle Plains and desend nearly 3000 feet through the Richardson Mts into the valley and towards the Peel river. It is a spectacular view.

It was bound to happen and was past due. A flat tire. After all the rough gravel and hills a rock tore the sidewall out and instant flat. Our spare is mounted outside but the tools are under the bed so it took about a hour to tear things apart, change the wheel and get ready to go. The roads in this area are under constant 24/7 maintenance and we were right in the middle of a repair area with dump trucks and water trucks passing as we worked. We were glad to get it changed and get moving.
We are told by a fellow traveller the there is a tire shop at Fort MacPherson about 60 km ahead so we breath a little prayer and keep going. We take the ferry across the Peel river and stop at Fort MacPerson, They have tires, hundreds of them, all for trucks, nothing smaller than 24 inches. Try Inuvik the man says, its only 200km away on a rough gravel road with no spare.!
We travel on, the road drops to near sea level, we cross the mighty MacKenzie River by ferry, this becomes a ice road in Sept until late April. The vegatation changes fron treeless tunrda to the stunted forest of spruce birch and tamerack. The mountians disapear and we parellel the Vast MacKenzie Delta to INuvik.