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Today’s Temperatures
14F in Inuvik, 6F on the ice road

The end of the road
While the ascent of Everest is challenging, the return journey is just as critical. This is also true with the ice road trip to Tuktoyaktuk.

We set out from Inuvik at 7AM local (6AM Pacific) and drove down the boat ramp onto the Mackenzie River portion of the ice road. The road seemed smoother than in 2004, with some well signed rough sections and a few large ice-potholes.

After about 2 hour drive, which included seeing the sun rise over the Beaufort Sea, we arrived in Tuk. There is a monument which marks the northernmost place you can drive in Canada, though this year’s ice road comes around the northern tip of Tuk making the marker temporarily wrong by 100ft.

We took some photos at the marker, called Ann with the sat phone, then drove to the General Store, which opens at 10AM. It did not have the usual assortment of Tuk souvenirs, unfortunately. We didn’t wait for the other shop to open (noon) and decided to head for Inuvik.

Driving on the ice road is straightforward, and really isn’t slippery except in some of the corners “polished” by all the traffic. These corners caught out a few of the rally cars who wound up in the snow banks.

On one of the long straights we stopped for a stretch and photos and resumed with the customary “donut” competition. Car 1 did some nice pirouettes and I was finally able to do the perfect pirouette in place for almost a minute. I could see the circular grooves in the ice around us and not wanting to end up like Wile. E. Coyote and falling through the ice, we ended our fun and resumed course for Inuvik.

end of a few pirouettes on the ice road (video by Steve and Kathryn, Car 14)


About half way down the ice road the visibility started to get much worse, fog and frost descended over a large group of cars. We didn’t gas up at Tuk because the road was so clear on the way up and we had over half a tank remaining. Yet another lesson of being up north, never pass gas as I noted before but also that conditions can change quickly and this is why staying on top of the gas situation is important.

We slowed down to almost 20MPH for quite a while, with frost forming on the windshield and requiring an almost constant spray of washer fluid to remove it, even though the defroster and wiper heaters were on full blast. We were even losing sight of cars 3-4 car lengths in front of us and more importantly, not easily being able to see where the road was going. There was a lot of radio chatter with people trying to work their way through it.

(One little trick I have is to follow the grooves in the road left by the ploughs, which works about 90% of the time.)

We eventually emerged from the fog and had a clear run back to Inuvik with gas to spare.

We shopped in Inuvik for local crafts and had lunch and then began the long drive down the Dempster to Eagle Plains, with a brief sightseeing detour to the Inuvik Airport.

The mountain weather was very clearly moving in to the passes and we experienced one brief white out (not a total white out but very close). We filled up again at Fort McPherson and made it in to Eagle Plains in time for a nice buffet dinner.

Eagle Plains Lodge is a very remote, rustic location, complete with photos of such interesting items as the face of the Mad Trapper after he had been shot by the RCMP.

My plans to observe the arctic night sky from Eagle Plains with my small telescope were scuttled due to the heavy cloud. After a few drinks we hit the sack, though I think some of the other teams may have stayed up for a few more drinks (ahem).

Pictures
Sorry, still behind on these. I will update this post as I am able to upload them.
More stunning scenery, trust me!

Glenn