VivaEnduro

Who would have thought we would have to come to the end of the road north to get some summer weather.  Its been sunny and hot the entire time in NWT.  Today we woke up to more sunny weather and temperatures over 30.

We managed to get a charter into Tuk today, they would only fly if there were at least 4 people so the last minute another couple signed up.  They showed up last night and turned out to be Andrew and Stephanie who rode from Texas and I was going to ride from Calgary with.  They got delayed in Montana and I lost touch with them until today – small world.

The airport in Inuvik is small but remarkably modern and nice.  Its actually much nicer than many of the regional airports in the US I fly out of.

Our pilot Tim was from Ontario, but moved out for a 3 year contract to get more hands on captain experience.

Flying over the arctic gives you an appreciation for why there are so many mosquitoes, because of the permafrost the ground water stays on the surface, the topography is littered with small lakes and rivers.  Tuk is on the Arctic Ocean coast, it is only drivable in the winter when the rivers freeze and turn into Ice Roads (ever watched Ice Road Truckers).

Tuk gets its name from the Iqualiat name for Caribou because the penisnsula looks like a caribou.  The original name was Port Roberts (I believe), but in 1956ish it was the first northern settlement to be renamed to its original native name.

Tuk also has a new modern one room airport.  The previous airport terminal was sold to the town by an energy company for $1, it was in dire need of replacement and was just recently replaced.

Our tour guide Eileen was very friendly and had grown up in Tuk her entire life.  She knew a lot about the history and future for Tuk.  There are rumors about building an all season road, which would be great for tourism, but would also bring drugs and alcohol issues.

Tuk was remarkable, it still had much of its history in place, both traditional and brought by Europeans.  There are at least 5 churches of different denominations here and even the boat that was used by the catholic church to take children to bording schools.  Its amazing to see people that were so poorly treated in the past have such a positive outlook.  When asked if people go to the church, the response was that the people don’t feel they need a translator to speak to the man upstairs. Interesting.

The housing is very primitive which reflects the cost and difficulty to bring materials in.

We took a trip down to an ice cellar, there were traditional freezers that were dug around 40 feet deep down into the permafrost.  It was over 30 outside, but well below freezing inside.

The permafrost has a marbled look to it, there is actually much more ice than dirt in the permafrost.  If the permafrost melted the entire Tuk penensula would slip into the sea.

The traditional houses were built using the plentiful driftwood along the beaches and used sod for the wall insulation.  The middle had a fireplace that would keep it warm.

Once inside it was perfect temperature, very comfortable.  Remarkable how traditional dwelling can perform better than the raised houses blasted AC all day.

Tuk was part of the Distance Early Warning System, or DEW Line.  It was a series of radar stations build by Norad to monitor against Soviet strikes during the cold war.  If the Soviets were to fire missiles, they would come over the Arctic towards the US.  The DEW Line stations were strung along the Arctic coast an actively monitored for a strike that never came.

The DEW Line radar station in Tuk was still standing.  They actually fixed it up and it was back in use (probably not monitoring Soviets).  My Dad was stationed here in the 60s, but you cant do tours inside.  There is nothing left of the housing buildings, just the towers and radar building.  They plan on keeping the station as a piece of history and moved one of the doppler domes to downtown Inuvik.

Below are a few of my Dad’s pictures of the radar station in use in 1964:

Eileen showed us some traditional clothing including this kick-ass pair of polar bear pants.  These were actually used during last years whale and caribou hunt when the guy wearing the pants commented “I hope its not polar bear mating season”.

Lastly we went down to the beach where you could see the Pingos.  They are volcano looking hills that are formed when lakes get low and the frost heaves the center up.

Below is a picture of my dad in 1964 on the top of the pingo on the left looking out across the Arctic Ocean towards the other pingo.  Its hard to deny global warming when looking at pictures of Tuk in the middle of summer and seeing ice still floating out in the ocean.  This year was hot, over 30C in Tuk in late June, the Ocean would remain ice free for the next few months.

It was really hot out so we decided to take the plunge into the Arctic Ocean.  It was actually not to cold and because the McKenzie enters the ocean here it was more freshwater feeling than saltwater.

I’ll add this one to my Dawson City Toe Drinking Certificate.