Monday 7-16
We’ll get to the rodents later, but I need to talk briefly about my cool wife Nancy. This trip is pretty much a guy thing. Roughing it in the wilderness, dueling with wild animals, hunting, foraging, making tools out of rocks and vines…lots of guy stuff, but Nancy is my soul mate on this trip, just as she’s been my soul mate and best friend for over 40 years. It’s a wonderful thing.
This morning we broke our habit of late starts and were on the road by 7:15! Last night was not perfect. Some mosquitoes had infiltrated the tent while we were setting up. These guys hid out until we were asleep and then attacked, so we were often awakened to donate blood. Frankly I was not very professional in organizing this tent-camping thing. First, I did the math wrong on converting Celsius to Fahrenheit—the right answer was 39° not 59°--so we didn’t exactly have the right clothes and it was C-O-L-D. Second, I forgot the port-o-potty. Sure, the Provincial Park has outhouses, but to get there you have to cut a swath through the mosquitoes, and hope the bears aren’t laying wait. It’s more prudent to take care of business in the tent and all we had was an orange juice bottle with a very small orifice—use your imagination. So, we got an early start.
Yesterday the scenery was incredible. Today it was even better. You’ll see some pictures in the blog, but none captures the immensity of this place.
Despite very promising surroundings, we saw no big animals today but loads of rodents. One Lemming, three Snowshoe Hares, and 4 Red Squirrels (ergo the title of today’s post). We also saw birds; Gray Jay, American Golden Plover, Pacific Loon, Green Winged Teal, and Northern Hawk Owl (looks like and owl but hunts in the day like a hawk) were all new. More ptarmigans and a Bald Eagle were noteworthy others. Ptarmigan is a funny bird name. Hard to know where the “p” came from or what to do with it. Guess up here they used to ptar and feather people.
Early today we cross the continental divide. South of here everything flows to the Pacific via the Yukon River—north of here into the Artic Ocean via the McKenzie River.
First major stop of the day was Eagle Plains Lodge. Gassed up and had breakfast—our first restaurant meal of the trip. Considering all the blood we donated last night, we were ravenous. At Eagle Plains we learned about Glacier Creek and stopped there next. The water is crystal clear, potable, and ice cold. We filled up our water bottles.
There have been a lot of forest fires in this area lately. There are miles along the road that are recently charred. We can still see some fires burning on the horizon.
15 miles up the road, we came to the Artic Circle. We’re thinking we’re in a pretty small group of folks who’ve been to the Galapagos, the upper Amazon, and north of the Artic Circle. We’d probably enjoy spending time with others in this group. We’re now in an area where there are fewer trees and more tundra. Walking on the tundra is an interesting experience. It’s more or less flat, but there are hard mounds and soft places. In the soft places you sink in up to a foot or so. It’s a little like walking on a trampoline.
Another 40 miles up the road, and we cross into the North West Territories. We’re still thinking. This time we wonder how many Canadians have been to BC, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories? We stop to take our picture and meet MIP 13. He’s a Texan returning from Inuvik. We ask him about the town and he’s not enthusiastic. “You think there are a lot of mosquitoes here? Think again. In Inuvik they’ve REALLY got mosquitoes. It’s real industrial there. Not much to see. And they’ve got a lot of Indians. Not that I’ve got anything against Indians, but it’s kind of slummy, you’ll see.” We call him “Mr. Depression 2”. Not a happy person and definitely not politically correct.
It doesn’t take long to supplant our thoughts of Mr. D2. The next 50 miles or so are awesome (I’ve been trying, you know, to avoid using this word, because, you know, it’s so t-o-t-a-l-l-y over and misused, but, you know, it’s just the right word in this context). Mountains jump out of the tundra all around us. Huge sky. Sweeping vistas.
We’re bound and determined to get to Inuvik today (we have a hotel reservation!) so we just keep on driving. There are two ferries. The one crossing the Peel River is just a barge on a cable. The one at the McKenzie is an actual boat. It’s on these ferries that we realize we’re being followed. There are vans from Ontario & Manitoba and a BMW motorcycle that we’ve seen at several stops along the way. We’re traveling in a loosely organized pack. We get ahead or behind these people by miles, but then at the ferries we reconnect. Could these people be with the CIA (Canadian ___ ___ fill in the blanks)? We reach Inuvik at about 9 PM. Check into the Eskimo Inn (really) and grab a quick pizza at The Roost. I’ve discovered that I’m pizzaniverous. The Roost is locally famous for its stuffed Polar Bear. This thing is so big they had to cut it off at the knees to fit it into the restaurant—it’s still about 7’ tall. We return to the hotel, take real showers, and crash. We’re both exhausted. Nancy had about two hours sleep last night and I four. Goodnight.
