Am I an Ice Road Trucker?

I drove a truck 165kms from Inuvik to Tuktoyuktuk on the Ice Road (the McKenzie River and the Arctic Ocean) with a sleeper in the back (aka Uncle Wayne) and delivered flats of pop and ice to the church for the Tuk Jamboree. Does that mean I'm an Ice Road Trucker?  (I've been around my uncle too long this week). 

We had an incredible day!  We started off in Inuvik and I got to drive all the way to Tuktoyuktuk, or as the locals say, Tuk.  The ice road was smooth most of the way and the scenery was absolutely beautiful!  If it weren't for the huge snow banks on the sides of the roads it would have been hard to differentiate between the road and the deep snow......everything was just white and blended so easily. The ice road is bigger than most highways, probably the width of 8+ lanes in most parts.  There were some narrower parts where it got down to about 4 lanes wide and it was very windy in some parts with a few sharp turns.

Driving the Ice Road

Some of the gorgeous scenery

Plowing the road

Once we left the McKenzie and started driving on the Arctic Ocean the snow cover disappeared from the road (due to the high winds in the area) and we were looking down on clear cracked ice!  It was incredible and very creepy as the fact really sank in that we were literally driving on ICE!

Swimming? on the Arctic Ocean??

The ice was so clear! Creepy......

As we neared Tuk we saw a few Pingos, these are hills that look a lot like small volcanoes, and one of the Wonders of Canada. From what I understand they are the result of a crack in the permafrost and the shifting of the ground below which pops up through the permafrost creating a pingo. There are about 1,400 pingos around Tuk.  We saw three, it's quite neat how everything is so flat these little hills just pop out in the middle of nowhere.

And then we ARRIVED!

No one wanted to get out of the truck so I had to take my own picture.

The population of Tuk is about 800 people, 80% are Inuit/Inuvialuit.  And not to sounds like I'm stereo-typing but they wore parkas with fur around the hood and bottom! I loved their parkas, they looked so cozy and cute!!!

The Tuk Jamboree was getting started, with ski-doo races, drum dances, a feast and much more. They run on Inuit time though so when things are to start at 2pm they won't start till well after 3pm. So we didn't get to experience a lot of the jamboree, we saw the ski-doos warming up and doing some test runs before the race, and enjoyed a burger out on the Arctic Ocean.

In a concession tent on the ocean waiting for lunch

Picnic time on the Arctic Ocean

Mom enjoying her burger on the Arctic

The winds were starting to pick up and they had had a few blizzards and high winds up to about 90kms/hr this past week so we were anxious to get back on the ice road before it was too windy and they closed it. So we didn't stay too long to take in any of the jamboree festivities.

It was FREEZING and windy, I was bundled up and Tessa got a Screamer (Slurpee with ice-cream)

Auntie Della drove back and she put our faith to the test.....we were very thankful for how wide the road was as we fishtailed and slid around a couple of corners.....but we never landed in a snowbank!  We were really really close to landing in a snowbank but didn't and that's all that matters..  Auntie Della just knew I love roller coasters and slip-and-slides.

I didn't get to stick my toe in the Arctic, but I'd say driving on it, walking on it, having lunch on it, lying down on it....have got to count just as much!