VICARIOUS | Discovered: Visit to the Arctic Ocean

Discovered

Visit to the Arctic Ocean Road Through the Northwest Territories

Story | Lisa Calvi

Photography | Lucas Scarfone

Choosing just one highlight is diffcult when you take the trip of a lifetime to the top of the world.

It’s also tough to define why the Northwest Territories road trip on the new all-season, 138-kilometre Inuvik- Tuktoyaktuk Highway, the first road in Canada to reach the Arctic Ocean, was so special.

North of the Arctic Circle, it’s dusty, muddy, cold, and lacking in luxury. But the people are warm and welcoming, full of love, culture, and a sense of community. And the land, oh, the land. Wild, remote, desolate, pristine, spectacular, and expansive, the land is all the adjectives you can think of. On steroids.

Having been to the area before, I knew how friendly and open-hearted the residents were. About 15 years ago, in the dead of the frigid winter, with near 24-hour darkness, I drove from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk on a 190-kilometre road plowed on the ice of the frozen Mackenzie River and, for the last 40 kilometres or so, on the rough ice of the Arctic Ocean.

For decades, in the winter, that road on the icy “Mississippi of the North” provided the only contact between the two outposts besides flying. For me, the notion of driving well above the Arctic Circle, at the top of the world, on a remote frozen body of water, was both exhilarating and terrifying.

Construction on a permanent gravel all-season road had been a dream of the Northerners since the 1960s. Well, the dream has become a reality since November 2017. Though the all-season road provides freedom, improved accessibility and increased safety to Tuk residents, there is a certain sadness. The thrill of driving the ice road— the dizzying feeling of rounding that corner from the Mackenzie River and driving onto the choppy ice of the Arctic Ocean for the homestretch to Tuk—is gone.

No more menacing warning signs: “Caution: Large Crack Ahead”. There was no messing around up there. In the glacial semi-darkness when the sun barely makes an appearance above the horizon, the raw and real “what if“ scenario played through my head incessantly.

I feel fortunate to have had that ice road driving experience in my lifetime.

A road has been built in some of the most challenging geography on the planet. Now you can hop in your car anytime, anywhere in Canada and drive to Tuktoyaktuk.

Highlight #1 of my most recent trip to the North, by a strong margin, was meeting and gettng to know the exceptionally passionate people of the Town of Inuvik and the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk. Besides being incredibly hospitable, the people of this remote corner of the world stick together and all act as loving ambassadors for their region.

The area is also truly truck country—the perfect place to launch the all-new 2019 Silverado 1500 pickup truck from Chevrolet to media from across the country.

The pickup truck is king up here. And any one you see is usually covered to the windows in dust, dirt, and mud. There’s a good reason for all that dust and mud.

The only paved roads up here are in the town of Inuvik itself. South looms the notorious 700-kilometre Dempster Highway to Dawson City and Whitehorse, where the gravel is seemingly alive and your windshield will know it.

North of Inuvik, for the first time in history, you can drive to the Arctic Coast during the summer on the Inuvik- Tuktoyaktuk Highway. The ITH is an engineering marvel for a few reasons. It is built on permafrost and meanders across Arctic highlands, through an area of glistening lakes and onto the barrens. Travellers cross the tree line halfway then drive across tundra to the Arctic coast.

“ Wild, remote, desolate, pristine, spectacular, and expansive, the land is all the adjectives you can think of. ”

A project of this magnitude in the high Arctic had never been undertaken without cuttng into the permafrost. Known as “a beast of a project”, the two-lane, packed gravel highway was built over four years in the cold, dark winter in order to protect the permafrost and the tundra.

The road travels through the grazing range of the North’s only herd of domestic reindeer that have grazed in the area since the 1930s, crosses the habitat of three caribou herds and reaches the world’s largest cluster of ice-cored Pingos, a national landmark on the outskirts of Tuk.

I drove the first 2019 Silverado to reach the Arctic Ocean. It was a white Silverado LT Trail Boss. When I first saw it in Inuvik, it looked too wholesome and clean. After its 320-kilometre round trip up and down the Inuvik- Tuk Highway, it looked brawny and purposeful—mud spatters, road rash and all. Come to Mama.

Chevrolet has been building trucks for 100 years, so they should know what they’re doing. The new Silverado, the most-tested GM vehicle ever, with over 11 million kilometres of real-world driving, is proof they do.

Numbers and ratings were not important to the kids in the two communities of Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk though. They just wanted to see Chevy trucks. Their unbridled enthusiasm was apparent at the Open House at the Inuvik Arena where kids of all ages crawled over the trucks. We watched as one little boy, quivering with excitement at seeing not just one shiny new truck, but ten on display, ran from one truck to the other in disbelief, yelling “Truck! Truck!”.

For such a small community, Inuvik is always bustling. We made sure to check out the iconic Igloo Church, built by Brother Maurice Larocque, a former carpenter and a Catholic missionary to the Arctic.

“ The low long light across the pristine land, the impossible blue of the sacred Husky Lakes, the burnt orange aqpiq berry patches, the green tundra, dramatic clouds in the azure sky – every turn elicited gasps.”

He designed the church with no formal architectural training and sketched it on two sheets of plywood. It is perfectly symmetrical in every way.

We also saw the northernmost mosque in North America and the inspiring community greenhouse that gives Inuvik residents the chance to extend a much too short growing season.

The vibrant Hamlet of Tuk pulled out all the stops. After an Arctic-breezy boat tour to view the Pingos (surrounding Tuktoyaktuk is the world’s largest cluster of these other-worldly land formations that exist only on permafrost) and a mystical visit with elders in the cozy traditional Sod House, we headed to Kitt Hall, the hamlet’s community centre.

It looked like all 900 citizens had come out for the Community Feast held in our honour. Although the delicious home-cooked food and enchanting music and dancing (featuring the award-winning Siglit Drummers and Dancers, the youngest troupe in the Territories) may have been the draw, judging from the wonder on the children’s faces as the new trucks rolled into Tuk, the Chevy Silverado was a hit.

The final drive south on the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway was most definitely a highlight. The low long light across the pristine land, the impossible blue of the sacred Husky Lakes, the burnt orange aqpiq berry patches, the green tundra, dramatic clouds in the azure sky – every turn elicited gasps. I can’t wait to go back.

Winter road trip anyone?