The Road Goes On…

Category: Northwest Territories

  • Canada 2017 Trip Summary

    Coming home gave us the feeling as though we are living between two worlds. Before we enter back into our everyday life with all its responsibilities we look back on six weeks of excitement and adventure. We’re happy we wrote the blog so that we don’t forget all the things we saw and experienced.

    What worked well:

    Roadtrek 190 Popular: We love our Roadtrek! It is small enough to go virtually anywhere and has everything you need – kitchen, bathroom, fridge, furnace, air conditioning, etc.

    InReach Explorer+ Satellite Communicator: We bought one of these units to be able to communicate with friends and in case of emergency in areas where there is no cellular service. It worked like a charm and has the ability now to request weather reports as well.

    Public Mobile: We were travelling through areas where our cellular provider (Freedom Mobile) doesn’t have their own network so instead of paying roaming charges we chose to get a Public Mobile pay-as-you-go subscription with 6GB of data for the 6 weeks we were on the road. Public Mobile uses the TELUS network which covers western Canada very well.

    Freedom Mobile’s Unlimited US Roaming. We’ve been Freedom Mobile customers for a number of years now and their price just can’t be beat. For $15 a month we had unlimited voice calling, texting and 1GB of data for the days we were in Alaska. This allowed us to keep in touch and look up things on the road.

    Good Sam Membership: This RV club membership cost $25 a year and give you 10% discount at member campsites.  It definitely paid for itself.

    Garmin GPS: We love our Garmin nuvi 2689LMT GPS system.

    Allstays Camp and RV App: We use this app on our iPads all the time to look for campgrounds. It shows the location of campgrounds and gives information about their rating, facilities and distance from your current location.

    Visitor Centres: These are always a source of great information and have invaluable knowledge of local conditions and opportunities.

    Here’s a map of the entire trip. This is an image grab from Google Earth as it wasn’t possible to use the entire GPS track on a live map.

  • Inuvik, NWT to Eagle Plains, YT

    We left our black-fly infested campground in a hurry to go to Inuvik and had a breakfast of omelettes at the Mackenzie Hotel, after which we strolled through the downtown area. The first stop was the town hall where we picked up our Certificates of Passage North of the Arctic Circle and Northwest Territories pins.

    Before seeing the famous Igloo Church, shopping was on the agenda. We visited two of the arts and crafts stores and ran into the family that we’d gone to Tuk with yesterday.

    In the first store we found a beautiful sculpture of an Inuit hunter with traditional sun visor, typically made of driftwood, antler or bone. We left the store undecided and visited the second store but nothing there enticed us. Back to the first store we went only to discover that there was no price tag on the piece, that the owner of the store was in Mexico, and that the salesperson who thought she knew the price had to confirm it with the owner before being able to sell it to us. She tried twice to get a hold of her boss but was unable to reach her. Very disappointed we left the store and went back to the van, ready to leave Inuvik. We drove past the store on our way out and had to simply stop to try one more time. This time she was able to contact the owner and it turned out that the piece was 20% less than what the sales person had thought it was. We were thrilled and helped bubble wrap our treasure before packing it in the van, right next to the dog food.

    The famous Igloo Church was built without blueprints and was completed in 1960 and is Inuvik’s most photographed landmark.

    We also photographed the Mad Trapper Inn with its mural depicting the RCMP hunting the Mad Trapper for 49 days.

    One last look around Inuvik and a gas stop and we were on the 360 km trip back to Eagle Plains, half way down the Dempster highway again.

    Right before the first ferry crossing we saw two black bears in the bush eating berries.

    We passed through the amazing geological formations and scenery again before crossing the Yukon border and arriving at Eagle Plains in time for dinner.

    In the restaurant we met two motorcyclists who are racing up the Dempster at up to 120 km/h (we drove 60-80 km/h) and who are determined to drive all the way up to Tuk on the unopened highway extension.

  • Tuktoyaktuk, NWT

    After breakfast we spoke to Judi of Arctic Chalet Adventure Tours about whether whether our Tuktoyaktuk trip was possible today. She needed two more people to make the trip feasible and hoped it could take place today. She promised to contact us as soon as possible about our options. In the meantime we got to play with their lovely white huskies!

    Soon after we learned that our Tuk trip would take place at 5PM. We headed into Inuvik to take a look but found most of the businesses closed because of the holiday. We will try again tomorrow.

    We had a nap because this day would be long and met at the office at 4PM to head to the airport for our flight to Tuk.

    The flight followed the Mackenzie River at about 500ft in altitude and soon we were able to see the Arctic ocean and land at Tuktoyaktuk.

    We were greeted at the airport by Eileen, our local tour guide, who picked us up in her van, air conditioning running because of the heat wave.

    She drove us to her house where he husband showed us various furs and clothing made from them.

    Those Polar Bear pants look really warm!

    In the meantime Eileen prepared some traditional food for us to sample. Whale, caribou soup, Muskox and smoked white fish. All delicious!

    Next she showed us some of the traditional clothing her mother made.

    This was followed by a visit to her smokehouse by the beach and here we had the opportunity to go for a swim in the Arctic Ocean!

    The water was surprisingly pleasant and we had a lot of fun. One of the other tour members even went skinny dipping! We all got a certificate of achievement.

    We toured the rest of the town and learned a lot about the people who live in this community.

    Again the subject of the Residential Schools was prominently displayed in the form of a ship that had taken children from this community, including Eileen’s husband.

    There is a Distant Early Warning System station here that was built in the 1950s during the Cold War.

    It was time to fly back to Inuvik and enter our impressions in our blog.

    Note: Map doesn’t show track to Tuktoyaktuk as the van GPS didn’t come with us on our flight.

  • Eagle Plains, YT to Inuvik, NWT

    If we had some doubts yesterday about continuing the second half of the highway after yesterday’s rough patches, today confirmed we made the right decision to continue.

    We left the Eagle Plains Hotel and Campground after breakfast, a long shower and filling the van with gas.

    There are three companies that run Tuktoyaktuk trips out of the Inuvik and coincidentally we ran into Judi and Olaf, the owners of Arctic Chalet and one of the trip organizers. They were heading off on a 4-6 hour hike with some staff and asked whether we wanted to join them, and we decided to do that.

    The second half of the Dempster Highway is in much better shape than the washboarded section we drove through yesterday. Apparently this is because they are short of water on the southern part and can’t run the grader through without turning everything to dust.

    Our first stop together with Judi and Olaf was at the Arctic Circle. This is the location north of which on June 21st, the sun doesn’t descend below the horizon, giving 24 hours of daylight.

    The next stop was the hiking trailhead and we packed our cameras, lunch and some water and started our hike with the guidance of Olaf and Judi. Walking through the tundra is like walking on sponges filled with water and moving beneath your feet. The ascent into the mountains was sometimes hard work but we were reward with amazing views, wild blueberries, cranberries and cloudberries. The further we hiked up the mountains, the smaller our van got in the distance. Half way up, Ruth discovered that her hiking boot soles were disintegrating and we patched them with some duct tape which worked really well. We stopped for short water breaks and a longer lunch break and enjoyed the magnificent view we earned by climbing all the way up the hills.

    This hike was pretty strenuous for the two of us and we drank lots of water and took a rest in the van before continuing our journey up the Dempster. It wasn’t much further until the crossed the Northwest Territories border.

    We drove through beautiful mountains until we descended into the Peel River area for our first ferry crossing.

    This was followed by a second ferry about 70 kms later to cross the Mackenzie River.

    The ferries basically just drive up to the shoreline and lower their ramps. Sometimes this doesn’t result in a completely flat surface and on this ferry they needed to adjust the ferry position and ramp for us to be able to get off.

    Free of any more ferries or mountains we travelled fairly quickly towards Inuvik and dodged rabbits sitting by the side of the road until we came to a stranded car. A young couple from the Czech Republic had problems with their alternator. We gave them a boost and let them drive ahead of us. It wasn’t long before we found them by the side of the road again but this time they claimed everything was fine. Turns out it wasn’t and Judi and Olaf who were behind us picked them up and took them to their chalet, cabin and campground where we were also staying. What a reunion!

  • Canada 2017 Overview