Inuvik and the Arctic Ocean

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June 22nd 2012

Published: September 4th 2012

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scion1969

Between Two Great Rivers

Between the Peel and McKenzie Rivers the Dempster Highway rolls past low scraggly forest and lots of water.

The perennial sunlight is wreaking havoc with my internal clock. It's really hard to tell what time it might be. So my sleeping time is moving gradually later and later. I ended up getting up around 9, but I really had no idea what time it was until I found my watch.

The mozzies that had chased me into my tent the night before were still about and caused a hurried pack up and into the car. That accomplished, I headed down to the interpretive centre and had a look through the displays. It was quite intriguing. I heard a lot more from my friend in the centre. He told me more about the old days and how things had changed, mainly because the government had spoiled the people. The government gave the first peoples so many things to get them settled, that the first peoples lost two things. They lost their nomadic, live-off-the-land lifestyle. And they also lost the will to work for what they got. If the government will just give one the necessities of life, there is no need to go out and find it, or make it, or work for it. The traditional ways

The McKenzie Ferry Dock

AT Tsiigehtchic, there is a three stop ferry. Two of the stops are the Dempster Highway, and the third leads into the village of Tsiigehtchic, a First Nations settlement.

started to become lost, the knowledge of how to find a good caribou spot, or a fishing place, or the right berries, or how to make snowshoes to fit the kind of snow, and on and on, it all started to fade. And the young people coming up didn't want to learn it, not with computers and cell phones and now ipods and ipads and all the rest. Why go out in the bush and listen to the birds and the winds and the trees? There are a few still left who cling to the old ways, and who take their children out on the land to teach them the traditional knowledge while they are young enough to be imprinted with its importance. And maybe it will be enough in this time of renewed interest in the cultures that were here before, their importance, and the wealth of knowledge they possessed. Maybe it's not too late to save it all. Maybe.

After a time, it was time to move on towards Inuvik. I headed off down the road and eventually reached the second ferry. This was a three-pronged ferry route, stopping at the Dempster Highway between the

The McKenzie River Ferry

This ferry also is a free ferry for the river crossing and it also only operates during the summer, with an ice bridge in the winter. During freeze up and break up, there is no way across.

two rivers, then across the Arctic Red River to Tsiigehtchic, another of the First Nations villages in the area, and then finally across the MacKenzie River to the continuation of the highway. In all it took around 45 minutes to an hour to get across and on the way again, but it was relaxing.

The rest of the way to Inuvik was uneventful, but still quite scenic. Just before reaching Inuvik, I stopped at a view point at Campbell Lake. It's a nice lake and the view was magnificent, but the real feature about the lake that was of interest was the reverse delta that is increasingly cutting the lake in half. Every year at some point, I forget if it's spring or fall, the MacKenzie River gets backed up. It backs up into Campbell Lake and brings sediments that get deposited in the same place every year. This is building up into a fertile area that is growing and alive. And soon it will will cut the lake in half.

After sitting at that viewpoint for half an hour or so, I headed the rest of the way into Inuvik. And at the

Campbell Lake

This lake is just outside Inuvik. It has a reverse delta in the middle. The McKenzie River backs up into the lake in the spring and brings lots of sediment into the lake. Eventually it will be two lakes.

airport just out of town I encountered pavement again. Yea!!!!!! I was very happy. After all that dust for all that way, it was a blessing to run on actual pavement again, even if I have all the way back to go yet. And so far, there are no problems with the car, aside from the dust that has gotten absolutely everywhere.

Just in town, I found the visitor centre and I stopped in to see what options were available to go and see the Arctic Ocean. As it happened, there was a board in there where they have updated tour schedules for just that, a Tuk (Tuktoyaktuk) tour that included a flight and two hour tour of the town. It was only 420 dollars. Aieeeeeee! Lots more than I had hoped. I talked with Sheila, the woman in charge of the centre, for a while about it. I knew that I was likely going to be doing it, but I just needed to have a little time to get used to spending that much money. But the tour included everything that I would be wanting out of the area and before long I knew that I

The McKenzie Delta

From the small plane on the flight up to Tuktoyaktuk, the view of the McKenzie River delta was fantastic.

wanted to call immediately and arrange it if possible. There was a tour that was scheduled for about an hour later, so I called that company and asked about it. There was one seat left on that particular tour. It seemed to be the situation was waiting for me. So I told them I would be right over. I headed over and signed up.

It turned out that I was joining a group of seven people who were up in the area on a tour. They were travelling together in a van with a man named Tony who operates tours out of Vancouver. They all appeared to be retired, but one can never tell nowadays, so I won't say for sure. They were all also very entertaining. I enjoyed their company immensely. It was a great group to join in with.

Now I will just describe the tour a bit with more or less a bare bones accounting of it all. But this needs to be said: It was absolutely stunning scenery. I think the only way to experience the area is to be able to take a flight over the tundra and the

The McKenzie Delta

More scenery from the delta.

delta. There was another tour that was a boat ride through the delta on the way to Tuk and then a flight back. That might have been even more exciting and scenic with the chance to see the delta close up. I've seen deltas before, so I wasn't really upset that I was too late to do that one, but it was the same price and took longer, because of the boat ride. I don't feel ripped off in the least though.

The flight out was about an hour for the almost 100 kilometers. We flew the scenic route over the delta. It was spectacular.

We passed the an old radar station that was for the DEW line somehow.

We also passed a plane crash site that the pilot was happy to point out. I'm not sure I really needed to know it though.

We passed the Canadian Parks Service protected biggest pingo in Canada. (A pingo is a mound of dirt that has a large hill of ice underneath. It forms when one of the seasonal lakes that forms in the summer dries up. The water underground

A Plane Crash

I'm not sure why the pilot felt compelled to point out the sad fate of a different plane, particularly as we were in the air at the time.

freezes and heaves. The next year a bit melts, but water gets underneath, so in winter it freezes and heaves a bit more. This continues until all the water has frozen into a permafrost state. What is left is a “pingo.” There area lots in the area, some 1400. And the biggest one is being protected. It's also still growing.)

And there was just so much water everywhere.

In Tuk itself the eight of us got on a bus with a local guide named John. He took us around the town of Tuktoyaktuk. He was a local Inuvialuit man and live in Tuk. (The people who long ago were called Eskimos and then became the Inuit, are now classed into three unique groups, one of which are the Inuvialuit. I was wasn't completely clear on the distinction, and even John told us that they can still be referred to as Inuit.) It wasn't actually necessary to use the bus, as the town had maybe four or five streets and we didn't really travel more than possibly two kilometers. But then, there could have been a swarm of insects, nasty biting little creatures, so the

Pingo

A peculiar geological formation that is caused by ice that builds up under the earth, and never melts. This pingo is still growing and is a national landmark of Canada.

bus could very well have been welcome. It was welcome anyway. John was very personable. I really liked his style. And because he was from Tuk, he knew all about everything there.

We started at the Welcome To Tuktoyaktuk sign. I ended up taking my photo with Jennifer, one of the people I was tagging along with. She was great fun and asked lots of great questions of John.

Then it was on into town, with a stop at one of the pingos. We had passed the biggest pingo on the way in the plane, but this was in Tuk itself. We climbed to the top and John explained how they formed. (See the explanation above.)

Then it was down to the water for my main event, that had suddenly become less main after the amazing scenery of the flight. But it is still one of the things that I wanted to accomplish and the main reason I wanted to get up to Tuk in the first place, so it was still rather exciting to be able to put my feet in the Arctic Ocean. The really amazing thing was that

Welcome to Tuktoyaktuk

I took my tour to Tuk with a group of people on a bus tour to the north. Jennifer was the only one who would pose with me under the welcome sign.

the water wasn't cold. It was almost comfortable in fact. Not quite swimming temperature, for me, but much warmer than I had expected. John explained that the bay where we were (and his house was right behind us) was very shallow. The sun shines 24/7, so it warms up quite well. But I accomplished my mission.

Then we went up to his house and had some whale, beluga whale. The way it was prepared was called muktuk. They the skin of the whale and some of the blubber, about half an inch or so. It is prepared in a variety of ways, from raw, to fried, to boiled. We had it boiled. It had an interesting taste and texture. John was very apologetic for not being able to provide us with other local foods, dried fish and such. It was just at the end of the rations from the past year, and the people hadn't gone out to hunt for the new year yet. I still got to try whale, so I wasn't complaining. For a tour that had started out as being about putting my feet in the Arctic Ocean, this had turned out to be

Tuktoyak tuk

Tuk is a very small community on the Arctic coast. It's a town on the edge of the world.

soooooooo much more. And I was pleased.

Then we headed off to see sod huts and the local community freezer. The sod huts were a more permanent structure than the igloo, and would be built when people were planning to stay put for a while for some reason.

The community freezer was a hole in the ground. But because it was a hole dug into the permafrost, it was a freezer atmosphere and stayed permanently at a temperature of about -12 Celsius. There was currently nothing down there but the storage areas, but there are still some people who use it. And the community uses it to store the whales they catch every year. Apparently they get about 40 belugas every year, which sees them through the rest of the year.

Across from the sod huts were the old log structures that were still used as whaling stations where the whales would be brought ashore and butchered.

Finally we headed off the northern edge of town where we saw the old ship, Our Lady of Lourdes, originally a missionary vessel, then a school bus of sorts, and now

More Proof

I have now put my feet into all but one ocean. This is the proof that I was in the Arctic Ocean. It was surprisingly warm.

an historical relic.

Beyond that was the beginning (or the end, depending on your point of view) of the Trans Canada Trail. A marker said so.

All in all it was a very packed couple of hours for seeing Tuktoyaktuk. We headed back to the airport, where John said goodbye and gave us our You-put-your-toe-in-the-Arctic-Ocean club certificates.

Then it was back onto the little plane for the flight back to Inuvik, this time over open tundra, which was every bit as spectacular to look at as the MacKenzie delta had been.

That was possibly the best 420 dollars I have ever spent, and the best in quite a while.

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