Day 43 (June 26). Dempster Highway, Part 3 (of 4)

From: Inuvik, NWT

To: Eagle Plains, YT

Miles today: 231

Total miles: 9670

I survived the first half of my return trip back down the Dempster Highway today, making it back to the half-way point of Eagle Plains.  The sky was full of smoke from one or another of the wildfires that are common this time of year.  The effect is very similar to smog, and it prevented me from seeing the views as I reentered the mountains that separate the Northwest Territories from Yukon.  In a way, this was a good thing: it allowed me to concentrate fully on the road, which was just as challenging returning as going out.  In many places the gravel is an inch deep, which led me to slow to a crawl to maintain control of the cycle. 

The population in these parts being small, I got a chance to ask a road worker (in the bar at Eagle Plains) why they use so much of it.  His reply was straightforward; when the road gets wet, it becomes so slippery that the gravel is the only thing that allows any grip at all.  Note to Canada regarding your interest in getting more tourists to visit the far north:  If dumping a half-inch of gravel on your road surface is used to IMPROVE its driving properties, your road surface is not tourist-friendly. Just sayin’. 

Gravelly road and smoky sky in the Arctic

A few parting thoughts on the town of Inuvik.  Despite the Inuit-sounding name, the town was created in the 1950’s by the Canadian Government to be a hub for oil, gas, and mineral exploration in the far north. It has three or four large hotels, and a few smaller ones, but no “Quality Inns” like High Level in Alberta.  As far as I could tell, the town has one gas station.  In talking to the bartender the first night – bartenders generally like to talk to people, and know the town since they live there – I was told that the housing prices there, like elsewhere in the Canadian North, continue to be depressed.  They keep waiting for that call from Calgary (I thought it interesting that he didn’t say Edmonton) that some new attempt to drill or mine some resource was underway, which would bring a welcome flood of business to this hotel and the rest of the city.  They have been waiting for a while now.  Also, Inuvik has a reasonable selection of stores, but no movie theater. 

Virtually all of Inuvik’s supplies come via barge traffic down the Mackenzie River from Hay River on the Great Slave Lake, where I was earlier on my trip.  That is, they all come during the few months of summer.  There is no rail connection to Inuvik, the airport is small, and as I have noted, the one road to it is 450 miles long (from Dawson) and unpaved.  They are able to get satellite TV, but all other information services appear to come via telephone microwave towers.  When “the telephone line” went down as I sat at the bar, I was told that they could still take credit cards by using the old mechanical “card impression machines” that they kept around for this purpose. Canada is discussing laying fiber optic cable up the Dempster, but nothing has been decided.

Canada decided a few years ago to extend the all-season Dempster Highway from Inuvik up to Tuktoyaktuk (where I was yesterday).  Construction is well underway and will be completed in 2018, according to plans.  Inuvik was not happy about this; they are concerned that this will move both tourist and business travel up to Tuk, leaving their town as an oversized Eagle Plains; just a stop along the way.  However, Tuk is virtually at sea level and so is prone to flooding, and the Arctic freezes solid there; they could get supplies in winter via ice road, but not by ship.  Furthermore, it has the usual construction and infrastructure problems associated with tundra and permafrost.  The Inuvik site was chosen specifically in the 1950’s to minimize these problems.  I think Inuvik will be ok.

The sun at 12 am over Inuvik, through smoke.  The dome on the right is the unusual "Igloo Church" (actually Catholic).

The Igloo Church in Inuvik at 2:50 am, when the sun is at its lowest.  It is obscured by smoke and/or clouds, but you can see it is still "daylight."  This shot is looking essentially due north, straight over the (axial) pole.