Northwest Territories

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Vacation Countdown

It seems that, once again, the weather has turned favourably just days shy of my embarking on another bucket-list journey. Unless something unpredictable happens, I will be en route to Inuvik on Monday, right on schedule.

Driving the Dempster, visiting Inuvik, and taking a charter plane to Tuktoyaktuk to dip my toe in the Arctic Ocean is my last major North America bucket list item. Oh, there’s so much more I’d like to do and see, but nothing so pressing.

I went to the Dempster information centre today to get updated road information and literature, then I schlepped over to the General Store for some food items and the Trading Post for a small propane cylinder. I will be camping and making most of my meals to keep costs low.

It is difficult to put into words what this journey means to me. I tried for so long, the better part of a decade, in fact, to find a job north of the Arctic Circle or some other circumstance that would bring me there. And now I’m going, under my own steam, having found my own northwest passage. Life just doesn’t get any better than this.

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Tuckered Out

It was a trying weekend seeing as I had the night phone 3 nights out of 4. I’m constantly amazed by the people who think that’s an easy job ‘because the phone just about never rings.’ To me, the very possibility that it could ring is enough to keep me from getting any sort of deep sleep.

Moreover, I learned yesterday that it’s not the bears we need to be worried about up here but rather creatures less than an inch long. I was stung on the arm by a wasp and chided myself for being such a woose, but then discovered just how powerful wasp venom is, even for those who are not allergic. My arm swelled up for a time, then went numb, then tingly. Now, it is insufferably itchy and I fill achy all over like my body is fighting something.

I will be ‘on vacation’ in a week and I hope the change of pace will recharge my batteries. I still don’t know where I’m going! If the Dempster has dried out, it’ll be plan A, Inuvik, of course. I don’t mind doing it sloooooooowly if the road is rutty, but I am not insane enough to do it in my car if it is muddy. Plan B will be Fairbanks if the Taylor highway is open. Plan C will entail having both the Dempster and Taylor highways closed and will probably take me to Anchorage, but the insane amount of driving that this detour would entail makes Plan C unappealing.

This summer has gone by so fast! I’ve been back in Dawson three months to the day and will be pulling out in exactly a month!

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Two Kinds of Northern Travelers

There are two kinds of travelers to Yukon, Alaska, and the Northwest Territories.

The first type are those like myself who consider the northern roads like the Dempster and Top of the World as being part of the adventure. Sure, it can suck to drive in thick mud or have a rock ding your windshield, but you at worst accept it and at best consider the experience the adventure of a lifetime. Those folks are prepared for the worst, respectful of the roads, and flexible. If the road is bad today, they will go tomorrow. If the roads are in good condition, they know that means they still cannot drive like they were on a highway in the south. These folks come off these roads with mud an inch thick on their rigs and a huge smile on their face, accepting any vehicle damage as a badge of honour.

The second type are those who become angry that they have to be inconvenienced by such road conditions in order to visit the north. They resent the mud, the dust, the slow pace. They have many more damaging incidents than the first group; broken hitches, flat tires, and other issues because they refuse to slow down and drive for the conditions. They are on a schedule and the road is in their way. They will go today even if locals tell them to wait, and they will curse every rutty mile.

That’s it. The only distinction between northern travelers is how they handle the road conditions up here. The size, age, or shape of their rig has no bearing. I saw two people pull into today in huge several hundred thousand dollar motorhomes. The first guy’s rig had about an inch of mud on it and he was so proud that he’d ‘conquered’ the Top of the World Highway. And he had the cracked windshield to prove it! The second guy’s rig also had an inch of mud on it and he was so angry that his beautiful rig was so sullied and that he’d have to waste an hour washing it. He was only staying in Dawson a night because he was ‘sick of the roads’ and scowled when I told him there are a few gravel patches and frost heaves on the way to Whitehorse.

To the first group I say “Welcome!” To the second “Why did you bother coming?”