I Made It!

690 songs and 4890.6 km later I made it! I finally made it to Inuvik. I stopped in at the visitors center and received my certificate for crossing the Arctic Circle, and wandered around town for a bit. I washed my van, it was seriously muddy and went for a bite to eat. I'm staying a this place called the Arctic Chalet. It's a psudeo-B&B. I say psudeo because they don't actually make breakfast for you, they call it “self catered”, which is a nice way of saying “get your own dang breakfast!” They do have stuff to make pancakes, toast and coffee, as well as other things to eat for lunch and what not, so in a sense they provide a little more than a traditional B&B. My room is nice, and I have a private balcony so that's rad!

At the bottom is says, "The Order of Arctic Adventurers bears witness that Ken Peters, having demonstrated the initiative, intergiry and bold adventurous spirit of the true Arctic explorers who have crossed the Arctic Circle, will hereafter be recognized as an honorable member of the exclusive Arctic Circle Chapter, Order of Arctic Adventures." I think that's pretty cool!

My trip from Eagle Plains was pretty uneventful, I left in the morning and drove to Ft. McPherson, NWT. Along the way I drove across the Arctic Circle, so I'm officially in the north!

Mr. Monster like hanging around at the Arctic Circle :)

My first impressions of the NWT wasn't that good. It started to rain as I was taking my pic at the "Welcome to the NWT sign” and it rained off and on for the rest of the day and evening. The camp ground that I stayed at was so-so. It was quiet, and I was able to get some firewood to keep the bugs away while I heated up super. But all was redemed when I started to interact with some of the local people. The gentleman at the visitors center, was this older native man. He was a delight to talk to, I don't think that very many people stop at that campground. The drive from Eagle Plains to Inuvik can easily be done in one day, which btw I'm gonna do on my way home. The people in Ft. McPhearson were also really friendly, they greated me with a smile and made small talk. My big purchase yesterday was a real ax! It's the best $40 I've spend this whole time! It totally made chopping wood last night WAY WAY WAY easier!!

The biggest drawback of me ever coming back here again is the mosquitos! I stopped at this look-out point today, this was the sign there said,

Did Someone say Mosquito? Water that melts on top of the permafrost collects into pools. It is these same conditions that are perfect to breeding mosquito's the mosquito population here is a close second to that found in the Amazon. Fortunately, the mosquitos in the North do not carry diseases, such as malaria. A sudy revealed that mosquito's can take as much as 125cc (half a cup) of blood daily from an adult caribou!

So the moral of the story is that if you don't like mosquito's … don't go to the Amazon! He!he!he!. But they really are insane. This morning I was ambushed by the nasty little bugs the moment I got out of my van, and it took a few minutes to kill all the ones that got in when I closed the door to go. They were sooooo bad that I didn't even make breakfast. I lit my mosquito coils so I could boil water for coffee then I was off. So I had coffee, a couple granola bars and some Sun Chips (harvest cheddar … yummy!) for breakfast. The worst things is they land on the tip of your nose and fly into your eyes! I think they coordinated attacks, using distraction so others can bite your hands, arms and neck!

Between Eagle Plains and here I took two ferries. The first was a cable ferry, which was weird cause it didn't feel like you were moving … but it did at the same time, hard to explain but weird none the less. The second was a powered ferry, cause it had to make a stop in between. The rivers that I crossed were the Peel and McKenzie/Arctic Red. The latter is where the Arctic Red flows into the McKenzie. On the way back I'm gonna stop at the little village, the ferry makes a stop on the way to the other side, why they don't just make a road that connects it was the Dempster is beyond me, but the ferry is the only link to their Dempster.

The road conditions from Eagle Plains weren't the greatest either. Because it was raining it was also muddy and slippery, more so today than yesterday. My van was crazy muddy, but I was able to find a car wash today and hose most of the mud off. But it wasn't any more muddy or slippery than at home on the gravel roads, the redeeming factor is that there is less traffic so I was able drive right down the middle of the road.

Before!

After!

I still have mud in my tires I'll need to take care of before I leave, but at least I can get in without getting my pants muddy!

I took my picture at the welcome to Inuvik sign as you say at the beginning of this post. It also signaled the end of the Dempster. I just want to give a big shout out the bus load of cheaters who pulled up as I was leaving the sign. You can fly here and a guide will take your around and show you the sites, which includes the welcome to Inuvik sign. If you want to come up here you should drive. It's part of the experience. I talked with a guy in a local shop (I bought a “I drove the Dempster” sticker from there) who said he gets people in all the time asking what's its like. If you fly up you miss the a unique piece of Canada that you can't see anywhere else. There is nothing like Tombstone Mountain Park, or the cool little canyon that I drove through yesterday or the miles and miles of little lakes dotting the country side. Even the muddy roads are a bit different here than at home. Driving here gives me a sense of accomplishment. I did it! All by myself! I dove as far north as possible in the summer … I'll have to come back in the winter so I can drive the ice roads … Those people probably will hop back on their plane tonight and head back to Dawson City where they'll get in their rented RV and head to Alaska. Alaska is cool, but the Yukon and NWT are way better in my opinion.

And now a word from our sponsors … I mentioned prices in an earlier post, but I wanted to find out a bit further what things cost up here. So I went the grocery store in Ft. McPhearson and here to see what common things cost.

Gas – Eagle Plains and Ft. McPherson 1.69/L

Gas – Inuvik 1.65/L

Co-Op in Ft. McPherson

• Bananas: $4.39/kg
• Delissio Frozen Pizza $16.99
• 2gb SD card – 22.99
• Ax (not the one I bought) $65.99 (mine was $39.99, not sure why the price difference)

Big Way Foods in Inuvik

• Bananas – $4.89/kg
• Bell Peppers – 10.99/kg
• Tomatoes – $8.29/kg
• 4L of 2% milk - $11.79
• Boneless skinless Lilydale chicken breasts - $1.41/kg. The pasckage I looked as was 27.95 (the crazy thing is that a Crispy Chicken meal, 4 strips of chicken, fries and a drink is $9.59
• 60 pack of Huggies diapers - $24.85
• 46 pack of Pampers Cruisers (like I buy for Eva) - $29.29
• 8gb iPod touch $319.29 (compared to $229 from Apple.com)
• Sony Bravia 40” LCD TV - $1349.99 (compared to $796 on Bestbuy.com
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix hard cover - $43.00 (compared to 15.03 from Amazon.com)
• 36 case of Pepsi - $31.99

In other words, things here are expensive! I'm not sure how people can afford to live here, minimum wage is only $10/hour, I'm not sure what the wages for career like jobs are like but it's crazy that the processed crappy foods are way cheaper than the fresh stuff. I understand why, cause everything needs to be either flown in or shipped via transport truck. But it's still astounding.

I only have one more thing to accomplish before I head home. I have a container of water that I want to dump into the arctic ocean, and to do that I've to get to Tuktoyaktuk. Hopefully I'll be able to go tomorrow, if not tomorrow there is a trip on Sunday that I can go with. I'd rather go tomorrow cause the one on Sunday goes at 2pm and I want to drive to Eagle Plains that day. It's only 6 hours from Inuvik to Eagle plains so that's not too bad, and it's not like it ever gets dark, but it will make for a long day. I also lucked out and there will be a big cultural festival starting on Friday, so I'm gonna go check that out.

That's all for now. I'll be sure to blog all about my experiences in Tuk and Inuvik in the next couple days

~ Until Next Time