holy sh-Inuvik!

AKA: I wear my sunglasses at night, so I can, so I can...
AKA: It never got dark. Period.
AKA: I'd hate to be there in the winter.
AKA: North of the arctic circle.
AKA: ...





As previously indicated, I did actually make it up to the end of the road in Canada (with Katherine) -- Inuvik, NWT (the proper abbreviation is actually NT now, but I'm so old-school it hurts). My cousin lives up there, and absolutely loves it, and I can see why.


The trip to Inuvik happens via the world-famous, 750 km dirt "highway" called The Dempster. It's the most beautiful trip I've ever taken in a car. The majority of the ride is spent gazing out the windows in a dream-like state, looking over the tundra and the seemingly never-ending mountains and hills, with the road lined with a beautiful pink flower known as fireweed. If you ever get a chance, you should ride this road. We hitchhiked both up and back. After we smelled it, we saw the smoldering of a new forest fire on the way back down the Dempster.



This is the famous church in Inuvik. A real crowd pleaser, apparently. I'd never heard of it.

We were in Inuvik for thier annual Northern Arts Festival. It's the big deal for the year, so we were there at just the right time. Artists from all over the territories and BC come to display their art, which ranged from impressionism, to soap-stone and wood carving, to traditional Native art.




One day, my cousin and her friend, Katherine and I headed out after they had finished work for the day to go fishing. We loaded the truck with a couple canoes, boxes of tackle, rods, and all necessary accessories. We paddled around one of the beautiful creeks for what felt like just a few hours, catching a number of pike. When we got back, we cleaned them on the back of the truck, and then headed back into town. The town was still bussling, at least the strip of the streets in front of the bars. When we got back to my cousins house, we found that it was almost 2:00 AM! We didn't get to bed until after 4:00 that night... again... it's just so easy to stay up when it's not dark outside. What a mind-fudge.

Yep, so Inuvik was great. We stayed for 5 days, instead of the 1 we intended to stay. And thank goodness for my cousins generousity -- an excellent host, and she ended up driving us a good way down the Dempster on the way home, because after 6 hours in the sun one day trying to hitch a ride home, she decided that she'd just come for the drive and we'd camp out that night. What a doll. Thank you so much J, you are wonderful.

I'm a naughty blogger, still trying to catch up.. I'm writing this from southern BC...