Day 2 in Inuvik, NT.

This is the land of the Midnight sun...late June and early July, as well as 24 hours of darkness, late Dec. to early Jan.

Last nite the sun set at 11:32 AM, and I was able to read on my balcony until almost 12:30 AM.

To get here there is only one dirt/gravel 766 km. road that runs north from Dawson City, Yukon, through the Artic Circle, into the Northwest Territories and at the end of the road is Inuvik, NT. Did I mention that the Demster crosses two big rivers, the Peel River, and the Mackenzie River, where the only way across is by ferry ?

There's no great time to take this road on a motorcycle...but dry is best, even though the huge 18+ wheelers that speed along kick up so much dust that u drive blind for 15-20 seconds, not to mention the huge rocks they kick up.

Then there are the sections that are constantly being graded by these huge graders/tractors where you suddenly find yourself on a 5 cm. bed of soft gravel where it takes all your skills to not end up going sideways and flipping over.

And finally there are the damp and wet sections, either from natural springs or recent rain that are the worst because here the dirt, clay, and gravel mixture turns to a greasy, slippery mud with deep ruts from the heavy trucks. All you do here is hold on for dear life and hope u don't go down.

On the way up I passed a number of cars that chickend out and turned back.

I leave Inuvik tomorrow, Sunday morning, for the 2 day drive down the Dempster to Dawson City, YK...I'm keeping my fingers crossed for DRY weather!!!

One thing u see up here in Yukon, NT., Northern B.C., and Alaska, is that a lot of the big highways are called by names...the Cassiar Hwy, the Yukon Hwy., the Demster Hwy., the Top of the World Hwy., the Alaska Hwy, etc.

Life in Inuvik is quite different from the lower latitudes we r used to...for example, there's a Muskrat Jamboree the first week of April, featuring muskrat skinning, snowshoe racing, log sawing, tea boiling, ice chiseling, nail driving, egg tossing, and of course, dog team racing.

However, all that being said, Inuvik resembles any small town of 3-4,000 people, except that because of the permafrost here, all buildings are supported by pilings which are sunk deep into the permafrost and sit a few feet above the ground so as not to transfer building heat into the ground, which could cause melting of the permafrost, resulting in the shifting of the supporting pilings.