Day 13 – Arctic Circle to the Arctic Ocean

I have made this a marathon. We were supposed to get to this point by Day 15, so we are two days ahead.  It is probably because it has been much colder than I expected up here and I have decided that I want to get to the trip goal and then back down to lower Alaska where we can maybe get 60-70 degree days.  

We woke up this morning to snow on the tent so we quickly made coffee and packed up and headed North again.  We had about 300 miles to go today to get to Tuk.  We made great time and found ourself in Inuvik about 2:30 PM where we stopped at the Visitor’s center and took a quick spin around town.  We met the town mayor and the fire chief at the City Hall today and they recommended a restaurant, a gas station, and a food truck on our way out.

It tool about another 2 and half hours to get to Tuk.  The landscape went from a boreal forest to a tundra, but looked more like the deserts where I grew up with the only exception that there are lakes, streams, and marshes everywhere.  We still have not seen the mythical Grizzly despite the signs that this is their country and where they live.  

We did get to the Arctic Ocean and met some real cool people along the way, including three guys from Vancouver Island the drove a silver and a yellow FJ.  We took pics and swapped stories and compared vehicles.  I was going to go take a dip in the Ocean, but there were “No Swimming” signs.   I have been fighting a cold for a few days and think that may not work out well for me, so I’ll pass that for some other time.

Again, I will add pictures to the posts as soon as I can get good internet.