Cambridge Bay

I have an uncle who is a general in the canadian Army, so to get to the remote area of Camridge Bay in Nunavut, we pulled some strings and hitched a ride in a Hercules aircraft. We got some epic pictures.

The higher picture is of the soldiers boarding the aircraft in Toronto (we got on after, someone else took this picture) and the lower is of a stuffed penguin that Manny bought at the airport gift shop, with the Hercules in the background. The flight was cool, especially when they opened the door at the back to let some of the soldiers parachute to the ground. I got an awesome shot of Cambridge from above:

We arrived in Cambridge and not much happened. We saw an Inukshuk that was enourmous (see below), but mostly we just chatted with the locals and helped them out with some chores that are related to life in the North (skinning fish, hunting, etc.). Here is the Inukshuk that we saw:

We also picked up a neat example of traditional Inuit art:

From there, it was back to Winnipeg. We took a Beaver bus, but it crashed on the outskirst of Brandon (no injuries).

Iqaluit

The town with the funny name. We visited this place as our second-to-last stop on our arctic tour. We spent a little bit longer here than in other places (three days). We were quite lucky in our timing (actually, our planning was quite good) because we happened to arrive in time for the Toonik Tyme festival. Advertised as "a way for local residents to celebrate the return of spring as a community and also as an opportunity for visitors to experience the unique culture of the Canadian Arctic", this festival was kind of neat in the sense that they had several events of the variety that one would not expect. For example, one would think tha they would discourage the "igloo" as a stereotype. Instead, they have an igloo building contest (we came in last with our lopsided semi-stable and half-melted structure, as seen below).

We had fun anyways. There was also a neat sport where you had to kick a ball suspended from a rope. There were 6 year olds there that were better than me (Manny was actually not that bad. He placed in an age category that was only two years younger than his own). The second day, we went tubing at the Road to Nowhere. It was fun mainly because they had sort of an obstacle course in the snow. I flew off the tube on the first jump.

Manny made it through the tunnel but his run was terminated at the half-pipe with a bail of epic proportions (he dislocated his shoulder when he landed on it, effectively ending our day). The third day, our flight left at around 6 but we managed to build a snowman to mark our presence.

Inuvik

To get to Inuvik, we took a small bush plane specially chartered for us (at the cost of $245). It was kind of neat because we were close enough to see the cockpit.

As we closed in on Inuvik, I managed to get some cool shots with my ever-ready camera.

I did the same as we left (more on that later).

In between these two photos, we actually did some stuff. For example: we participated in their Mad Trapper Jamboree. We had fun watching the Mad Trappers scrambling around to catch various common wildlife. We were lucky enough to tag along with one of the participants and see the huge buck that he caught.

Again, Inuvik isn't exactly the largest town. Here you can see one of the main streets in Inuvik:

In the distance, you can see the hill that we trekked around. It was really incredible to see some of the natural scenery, not just here but elsewhere as well. I never really realized that it all existed. Unfortunately in Inuvik I forgot my camera with on the tour of that hill, so I can't really share that with you readers. Our stay in Inuvik lasted only a day, then we departed for Iqualuit.

Whitehorse

Although one of the bigger cities on our tour, Whitehorse was not one of the cities that was particularly interesting. They had a museum that we visited, but it wasn't anything different than a normal history museum, and we also saw some cool snow sculptures. We also had the privilege of sitting in on a traditional sauna cleansing session (cleansing the body, mind, and soul. Not the sauna). They would bring in heated stones, then every once in a while they would drop one in some cold water to get a neat steaming effect. It was quite relaxing. We then had a traditional lunch of salmon and a mysterious sort of bread type item with some tasty spread that I later discovered was made from fish oils. We didn't actually stay very long in Whitehorse (only one day). It was more of a stopover than anything. We should probably have stayed longer, but it wasn't in our budget. We found that it was more advantageous to stay in small towns because their lodging rates are cheaper. We were in a gift shop and we picked up this hat:

It's a bit cheesy, but rather fun anyways. Besides, we had some extra cash that was burning a hole in our pockets. Anyways, we ended off this leg with a neat fireworks show then it was off to Inuvik, NWT.

Dawson

The main attraction for us when we chose to go to Dawson, Yukon, was the historic value of the city. Dawson was sort of a rest stop for travelers on their way to find their fortune in gold. The people of Dawson recognize this, and the base of their tourism industry rests on this. Of course, the locations are still historically relevant, they have simply been modernized. For a comparison, see the below photos:

The higher of the two is what the hotel looked like in the days of the gold rush, the lower is what it looks like today. We were told that the hotels above were the actual hotels slept in by miners and prospectors who passed through. We talked to some of the elders, and they passed on to us wild tales of "back in the day" when this town was considered to be an essential rest stop. When someone passed through, they could do so quite quickly if they wanted to. Dawson is quite a small town, but it feels big. Below you can see the main street.

There isn't much more to the town than that, other than local residences and corner stores. On our second day staying in Dawson, we noticed some local kids playing on the ice. Feeling adventuresome, we joined in.

We had fun enjoying the outdoors. We happened to stop during a warm spell (but not warm enough to fall through the ice!). After staying for two days, we had to move on as time was limited and we had the rest of the North to see. Our next destination: Whitehorse, NWT

Yellowknife

Today we visited Yellowknife. The scenery was incredible. Sort of. Actually, it was just a load of snow. We stayed with some locals one night, then moved on to a chep motel the next ($45 a night!! What a bargain!!). The motel was not that great, but at least we had somewhere to stay. There were many historical sites that we decided to take advantage of. For example, the gold mines from the Gold Rush. We went underground and saw some of the tools that were used. We got some awsome souvenirs from there (they were a little but expensive, but it was worth it).

Now we can start our own railroad!! Anyways, the mines were quite intense. To know that people once came here to seek fortune, only to (for the most part) return empty handed or even not at all...... Humbling and awe-inspiring. We also took a hike to view some of the amazing wildlife that they have there. We managed to get really close to some caribou, and snapped some amazing pics.

During this hike (an overnight expidenture) we climbed one of the many unnamed mountains in the area. The scenery that we saw was quite incredible. You could see the whole town from the top! However after several days, we moved on to our next destination: Dawson

Itinerary

We now have an itinerary for the trip. We journeyed to the following cities:

From Winnipeg to Yellowknife
From Yellowknife to Dawson
From Dawson to Whitehorse
From Whitehorse to Inuvik
From Inuvik to Iqualuit
From Iqualuit to Cambridge Bay
From Cambridge Bay to Winnipeg

In an attempt to save money, we have decided on some unusual methods of travel. In addition to the usual airliner or charter jet, we traveled by bush plane (Whitehorse to Inuvik) and by Hercules aircraft (Iqualuit to Cambridge Bay). We also returned to Winnipeg by bus and we took a short detour by ice float in Dawson (see a later post). Also, we have an approximate budget report for the trip. We spent around $7,225. We had to be rather crafty in an attempt to save on stuff.

Introductory note

This blog was created as part of an assignment to take a trip to a part of Canada. A blog seemed like a good way to present it to others. We have decided to travel to the Northern part of Canada (more specifically to Nunavut, Yukon, and Northwest Territories). This blog follows our journey through the upper reaches of our country. Please note that this is fictional, and that any events depicted are of the author's imagination and that certain depictions may not be entirely accurate. The author(s) of this site claim no responsibility for use (proper or improper) of the information on this site and do not wish to purposely insult any person or people in any way. If you have any questions, comments, or complaints, please leave them in form of a comment. If the commenting system fails (we, the authors, are in no way responsable for such an occurrence), please send an e-mail to superpuzzles.quicksolver(at)gmail.com