EAAE - food on the road!

 We ate well on our journey.  We patronised restaurants and eateries along the way, starting with an excellent dinner at El Tostador in Stewart, and continuing through many more great meals at various places on our journey.  

But we did not depend solely on restaurants, we also cooked for ourselves at various campgrounds along the way!

Before we left Terrace, Aileen set us up with a dozen pouches of homemade pancake mix.  I quickly adjusted to the difference between cooking with a small fry pan on a single burner stove instead of my usual big griddle.  Each package was the right size to feed four of us.

The yoghurt container was very handy as we were driving, we kept it in the truck with us as a garbage bin.  Perfect size for small things like eggshells, peach stones and the like.

In Inuvik, we enjoyed fried spuds and fresh veggies with our barbecue steaks.

Morning coffee and one of my favourite books - a collection of short stories by some of the world's best travel writers. I had great fun waking up early to make coffee with my little moka pot.

Day 8-9 - Tuktoyaktuk Rescue!

 Next morning we started the BIG DAY - we had an early start and headed north on the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway for the 150 km drive to the Arctic Ocean!

As we approached Tuk, we saw our first pingos.  A pingo is a hill formed by ice thrusting up through the permafrost.  We saw this pair of big ones from a distance, and later on in Tuk we saw some smaller ones.

And then we arrived at Tuktoyaktuk!  Naturally, we pushed through the town to the Arctic Ocean.

And celebrated reaching the end of the road.

Tim and I took the plunge.  Yes, that's really us, even that it's hard to see with the backlighting!

Arthur and I explored the town.  We found recreations of traditional sod huts, made with driftwood and covered in sod for insulation.

Saw this house in town and thought of Barry!

The obligatory signpost - 2054 km to Edmonton, 6079 km to Moscow!

We enjoyed a fantastic lunch of fresh Arctic whitefish at Grandma's Kitchen, then turned our vehicles south, back to Inuvik.  

Panorama view of Tuk from the top of the pingo in town. As they say in Quebec, "ce n'est pas une métropole!"

We spent our second night at Jak campground, enjoying a great campsite meal.  Next morning, we packed up our vehicles and were just getting ready to start the trip south, when Doug walked into our campsite.  We first met Doug at the Yukon-NWT border, when we recruited him to take a group photo.  He was travelling on the highway on his motorbike, travelling with a couple of friends.  We met him and his buddies a few more times along the way, including seeing them in Tuk the day before.  Anyway, Doug had a request for us.  

Doug's travel buddy, Halvor from Norway, was stuck in Tuktoyaktuk.  The 150 km road is heavily gravelled, and requires careful attention to the road in order to avoid sliding around.  I'm not a biker, so I can't comment on what it's like to drive on a road like the Inuvik-Tuk road, but according to Doug it was very difficult, requiring the biker to stand up almost all the time in order to keep control of the bike.  On reaching Tuk, Halvor was completely wiped out, so he camped there on the beach, hoping that he'd be refreshed the next morning so he could ride back.  Unfortunately, on waking he realised he didn't have the strength to ride back to Inuvik, and called Doug to ask for help.  As we had a 1-ton pickup, Doug asked if we could help out.  Naturally, I agreed right away.  

And then I remembered that I was travelling with others, so I needed to check with Arthur, Tim and Matt.  We had a quick chat, and figured that we had a day of flex left in our schedules, and then agreed to make the run to Tuk to pick up Halvor.  Tim and I quickly made a few arrangements, Arthur and I unloaded the truck, and we then headed to Inuvik with Doug (after first stopping at a lumberyard for a length of 2x6 to load the motorbike).

We stopped for a photo op at the Tuktoyaktuk sign (Doug on the right).

We then found Halvor at the beach, and loaded his bike onto the truck.

And then got the bike secured safely with some comealong straps, thanks to Doug for his experience securing loads on trucks.

We then had a lunch of fish and chips at Grandma's Kitchen, and then hit the road back to Inuvik.  We had to stop a few times to re-secure our load!

But we eventually reached Jak campground and unloaded the bike.

This was followed by a delicious meal to celebrate,  Tim barbecued steaks, and we also fried potatoes.  I made sure we had fresh veg as well, but Tim scoffed.  So we let him know that he is destined to die of scurvy as we chomped down on them!

With great relief, Doug and Halvor enjoyed the evening, and shared their story.

Halvor, it turns out, is a motorbike enthusiast (go figure!).  He long had a dream to bike to Tuktoyaktuk, and shared this on a facebook group.  Doug, who is a retired farmer from Swift Current, Saskatchewan, joined in the discussion, and others did as well.  After Halvor determined that there were no practical ways for him to ship his bike to Canada, and his efforts to purchase a bike in Canada or the US fell through, another biker from Strathmore (a town just outside of Calgary) offered to let Halvor borrow his bike. And so things came together.  Halvor flew to Canada, and joined up with Doug and another biker from Medicine Hat for the great trek north.  

After our celebration, we all headed off to bed, ready for the return south the next day.

And finally, for Brian, here is a map showing our travel over these two days.

EAAE Day 6-7: Driving on the Dempster Highway

 The Dempster Highway is about 740 km from the intersection with Yukon Highway 2 (the Klondike Highway) to Inuvik.  Yukon has a great guide to the highway here, and as mentioned in a previous post, the Yukon information centre in Whitehorse gave us this guide.

We woke up in Tombstone Territorial Park feeling refreshed.  We took a few minutes in the morning to explore the area around the park's information centre.

Everywhere we travelled, we saw loads of Yukon fireweed.  Very pretty!

The landscape in the park is stunning.

The info centre provided lots of information about the history and ecology of the area.  The Dempster Highway is named for RNWMP Corporal (later Inspector) William Dempster, who led the patrol that found the famous Lost Patrol of 1910, and later improved the main overland trail between Dawson and Fort McPherson.

Arthur and I explored the short interpretive trail.

We then set off to our next destination, but stopped at the viewpoint to look up the valley toward the Tombstone Mountains.

Arthur almost even smiled!

A short distance along the Dempster, and the look of the country changed significantly.  The mountains were no longer jagged and rocky but now rounded, looking like gigantic talus piles.

We now reached the most rugged part of the Dempster, north of Engineer Creek over Ogilvie Ridge to Eagle Plains.  Views were spectacular, but the road was uneven, bumpy and rocky.  We now had to slow down, and drive carefully with care for potholes and similar irregularities.

At the end of Ogilvie Ridge, we found the Eagle Plains gas station and hotel - an absolutely crucial oasis for travellers on this highway.  Eagle Plains is almost exactly halfway between the start of the highway and Inuvik.  It's 369 km from the start of the highway, so a crucial opportunity to refuel your vehicle, and with the restaurant, also to refuel your body, for the next 180 km to Fort McPherson.  

40 km after Eagle Plains, we made it to the Arctic Circle and our next photo op.  As usual, extremely beautiful landscapes.

Arthur and Matt, too cool for school.

And of course the full travel team!

Our next stop was Rock River Campground, aka Mosquito Central!  Tim and Matt went full bug suit.

Arthur preferred to hide out inside the truck.

I found that the river had fewer mozzies, as there was a pleasant breeze there.

The campground had a great, bug-proof cooking shelter!

Next morning, our first stop was the border between Yukon and the NWT.  Weather that day was wild, as we woke with sun, then drove into cool and cloudy conditions at the border - but we were back into the sun by the time we reached Ft McPherson.

Getting closer!

Next stop was the cable ferry across the Peel River just outside Fort McPherson.  This is a free ferry, just drive up, wait your turn, and get carried across the river!

We fuelled up in Fort McPherson, then carried on to the next ferry, the MV Louis Cardinal across the Mackenzie River.  The Louis Cardinal has three stops - two for either direction on the Dempster Highway, and the other is the connection to the small community of Tsiigehtchic, which was known as Arctic Red River in 1932 when it was the home base for Constable Edgar Millen during the hunt for the Mad Trapper (see my other post for the game we played based on this event!).  The Mackenzie is a massive river.  

Tsiigehtchic from a distance - quite pretty but we didn't have time to visit :)

Swallows built nests on the ferry - safer for them, and it was fun to watch them fly around!

And next stop was the Mackenzie River Delta and Inuvik.  We have left the mountains of Yukon and are now in the second largest river delta on the continent.

And finally Inuvik!  The sign is meant to be evocative of the Northern Lights.  Note the motorcyclists in the background to the right, they will be significant in a future post!

We stopped into the tourist centre, where we were directed to Mavis's house.  Mavis is a coordinator for local artists, and sold us some absolutely gorgeous handmade items.  We then set up our tents at Jak Territorial Park - a fully serviced park on a ridge to the south of Inuvik.  The campground had showers (absolute luxury for us!), as well as a viewing tower that provided more spectacular views of the Mackenzie delta.

Then off to bed, in prep for the trek to Tuktoyaktuk the next day!