EPIC ADVENTURES!

First and foremost, I have created a new album for our amazing roadtrip down to Eagle Plains and back... Eagle Plains Road Trip

I know it's been a while since I've written, and I'm dangerously close to reaching that point where there is simply too much to tell, so I write nothing at all!  I fell as though I could fill a book with everything we've been up to, but I'll give you the highlights.

So..

Last Thursday, a couple of the other guys staying in the rowhouse, Dave and Adam, invited us along for a drive down to Eagle Plains.  Michelle and I had already been scheming on how to get ourselves down the Dempster before our time was up.  And though we didn't make it all the way down (Eagle Plains is just about half way), it was an amazing experience!  I think Michelle and I were both getting a little stir crazy, a little restless from the day to day routine and the opportunity to go for a drive was just what we needed.

There are two ferry crossings down the road.  The first crosses the Mackenzie at Tsiigehtchic and the second ferry crosses the Peel River near Fort McPherson.  The first ferry crossing takes about 10 minutes, while the second takes about 2 minutes.  The driver on the Mackenzie crossing is actually from Richmond, BC, and was quite the character.  He loved his job and let Michelle drive the ferry on the way back!  The ferry was also home to a 'gulp' of cliff swallows, there little mud nests plastered across the rafters.  They dove all around the ferry as it cruised back and forth.  Very cool!  That also makes 45 bird species on my list!

We crossed the Yukon/Northwest Territories, snapping a hundred photos, before heading up through the Richardson Mountains.  I can't begin to describe the beauty of the landscape or how it changed so subtly from the golden colours of the soft, rolling peaks of the mountains to the blacks and greens of the black spruce valleys.  I was so content to sit in the backseat, listening to tunes, chatting, gazing out the window on and on, snapping pictures around every corner, over every hill.  It was amazing.

Nearer to Eagle Plains, we were waved over by a Swiss couple that had gotten a flat on their trailer home.  They spoke with Michelle in German, as they were more comfortable with that than with English.  The woman was asking for a ride into Eagle Plains, were there is a service station, so that she could get someone to come back with her to help them change their tire.  Apparantly she refused to let her husband do it himself.  Anyways, we all arrived safe and sound in Eagle Plains, which consist of a hotel and a service station... the only built structures for miles and miles.  We ate lunch at the restaurant and had a shot in the wacky bar next door called 'The Claw' (the drink that is, not the bar).  It's a mystery shot that lets you keep the shot glass afterwards.  I'm pretty sure it was a mix of Bailey's and whiskey, and I quite liked it in my coffee.  We strolled around the area a little, taking in view.

It was getting on to early evening, so we headed on our way, only to here the car beeping at us that our tire pressure was dropping rapidly, not 5 minutes away from Eagle Plains!  We tried driving back, but had to stop after a few minutes as the tire was flat as a pancake.  We amused ourselves trying to figure out how the handle for the jack worked and managed to drive back to the service shop on our dinky little spare tire.  The guy there was great.  I think he said we were his 15th flat tire that day!  Apparently they use shale as gravel on parts of the highway due to lack of other gravel... meaning you're driving over razor sharp shale pieces shaped like bullets!  Which is exactly what he pulled out of our tire and what Dave kept as a souvenir.  We watched and chatted and swatted at mosquitos as he patched up our tire.  We were all quite intrigued with the process having never seen it done before.  Anyways, we were sent on our way as he closed down the door to his shop.  Take Two!

It wasn't long after that we really realized what time it was.  We weren't going to make the Mackenzie ferry crossing before it closed!  Having that thought hanging over us for the drive back put a bit of a damper on things, but stopping at the Arctic Circle helped lift our spirits!  The mosquitos were relentless and we laughed our asses off trying to get a few pictures without being eaten alive!  Very amusing.  We also stopped at Glacier Creek to fill up our water bottles, where the mosquitos were even worse!  I almost couldn't grasp what was going on, they were just everywhere!  I've never seen that many mosquitos over my whole life time combined!  We all earned ourselves a few more bites before we were on our way again, blood streaked and frazzled!

We made the first ferry crossing and asked a guy on the boat if he knew of a place we could stay in Fort McPherson.  We were afraid the hotel would be much too expensive and probably full.  He said he knew someone that had a sort of bed and breakfast.  He lived in the little red house as you pulled into town with two white vans out front.  'Can't miss it' he said.  And we didn't, but it was after midnight by the time we got there (how did we not realize the flaw of our timing sooner?!).  We didn't want to go knocking on his door, so we thought we'd try the hotel first.  There was no one around and we asked some of the local kids hanging outside the Co-Op if they knew if there was anyone from the hotel around that we could talk to.  They told us to go find a nail and ask it.... very helpful.  We did fun into one of the hotel guests as he came out for a smoke... said the hotel was full but he had heard about the bed and breakfast.  He thought it might be taken for the night, but that we should go knock anyway.  As we were talking a man pulled up in his truck... just so happened to be Ernest who had the BnB!  Of all people.. we couldn't believe it.  At first he said he didn't have any room, in a very raspy worn voice.  You could tell he had trouble speaking.  But he changed his mind and said 'Follow me'.  I was beginning to read the plot of some horror film in the events of this night.  He took us back to the little red house and checked in with his wife.  Apparently the people that had been staying in the BnB had left that day and we were welcome to use it for the night.  "How much is it going to be?" we asked.  "Let me help you out," he said.  He came out with bags of blankets, pillows, toilet paper, coffee and a coffee maker.. everything we could ever ask for! And drove us over to the little guesthouse.  The place was very empty, and we had to pull in some mattresses from the storage unit out back.  But it was better than a cold, cramped night in the car!  I passed out on my mattress immediately, as we were up early the next morning to make the ferry and head back to Inuvik to get in a day's worth of work.  But while we sat in the living room in shock, we couldn't help the feeling that this was the point where the people watching the movie are shouting at them to turn back!  I was sure something lived up above the creepy attic door.  But the morning came, and we were all alive.  We drank some coffee out of styrofoam cups (probably saved my life at that point I was so tired) and made our way back to the Dempster.

On the way back, we saw something on the road and stopped just in time to see a lynx run off to the side.  As we got closer, we realized that it had just lain down in the grass and willows at the roadside and we could still see it there staring right back at us.  I can't believe that such beautiful creatures live up here!  It seemed so exotic.  We were later told that it's rare to see a lynx on the highway, and there are even some locals who haven't seen one before!  Needless to say, by the time Michelle and I were back in our place in Inuvik, we were bouncing from the amazingness of our adventure and how unexpected it all was.

There's still more to say of what's happened since then, but I'm on my way out to go to the old time dance performance in town.  This week is the national Truth and Reconciliation event here in Inuvik.  There are people from all over to share stories, enjoy big feasts and live performances!  Got to run, but more later!