Ice Road Over the Great Slave Lake

Today Janier and I took one of the kids from Janier's work on a road trip to Dettah.  To get there, we drove on the ice road over Great Slave Lake.

Ice Road

Someone exercising their dogs on the ice road

Frozen boats and docks

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha Church, Dettah

Abandoned mining equipment on the drive back

It's Getting Cold!

Janier likes to cook with his thermal underwear

Temperatures in Yellowknife have been getting down to -40C lately with the windchill, and we've had to be creative on ways to keep warm.

The first time it got down to -30C, we decided enough was enough, and went on a trip to pick up some thermal underwear.

I'm also learning to knit.  So far, I've finished my first scarf!

Janier modeling my first scarf!

Cross-country skiing with a co-worker

This is what -40C looks like

View over Frame Lake, Yellowknife

Shortages in Yellowknife

After arriving back in Yellowknife this afternoon, the first thing I did was go grocery shopping.  At the grocery store near our place the shelves were looking empty.  No milk.  No produce.  No bread.  That leaves frozen foods and things in cans.

Why??

The ferry at the Mackenzie River crossing is currently out of service.  This is the only way that Yellowknife, and many other northern communities, has road access to the South.  Low water levels are making it impossible to load and unload cars (and trucks carrying supplies) onto the ferry.  When we first drove up to Yellowknife, we saw a bridge over the Mackenzie slowly being built.  But it's taken a long time, and a real bridge is not happening anytime soon.

Once it gets too cold (and too treacherous because of ice) for the ferry to cross the river, an ice road is built on top of the river for cars and trucks.  Usually I think this happens sometime in January.  In the spring, when the river starts to melt again, there is a period when the same thing happens - it's not safe to use the ice road but it's still too icy for the ferry to run.  So supplies aren't delivered as regularly.

I think some places, and some restaurants in particular, ship supplies up by airplane when this happens.  This what they're doing right now with gas, although the price of gas in town is around $1.99/litre.

The good news?  According to CBC, the ferry should be starting up again soon.

First Trip to Inuvik

Our Lady of Victory Roman Catholic "Igloo Church", Inuvik

This week I traveled to the community of Inuvik, which is located 6 degrees above the Arctic Circle at the Mackenzie Delta.  You can drive to Inuvik from the Yukon if you take the Dempster Highway, but the only way from Yellowkife is to fly.

It's much warmer here in Inuvik right now than in Yellowknife.  Today it was around -13C here, as I was walking around town doing interviews for work.  Last week in Yellowknife the temperature got down to -31C, which felt like -40C with the wind chill.  We had to buy thermal underwear to keep warm, and I'm learning to knit.  When it's that cold, your eyelashes start to freeze and then stick together after awhile, if you don't wear goggles.

I'm not sure if you'd call this a sunrise or a sunset...I took this picture at around 2:30pm.  I noticed it stayed pitch dark today until around 10am, when the sun slowly started to rise.  This was the first time I experienced that, since Inuvik is much further North than Yellowknife.

Polar Bed & Breakfast

Cafes and galleries, downtown Inuvik

Inuvik's greenhouse!!

Brightly colored houses

Chinese food!

It was a little surprising to see a Chinese food place in Inuvik, although after talking to some locals it seems that Inuvik is quite diverse, considering it's size of around 3000 people and it's remote location.  There is a large Filipino population, and a new mosque was just recently built in town for the Muslim community.  Of course there are the indigenous Gwich'in and Inuvialuit people, as well as the rest of the mainly white population who come from all over Canada.

The last picture I took today was of the above-ground sewage system!  The pipes can't be buried in the ground because of the permafrost.  This is also why all of the houses and building are built up off of the ground.

We fly back to Yellowknife tomorrow afternoon, which is too bad, I wish I could stay here longer!

Yellowknife in October

Dettah

This past week I went to a conference in Dettah, a small community about a 40-minute drive away from Yellowknife on dirt roads.  In the winter, there is an ice road that connects Yellowknife and Dettah over the Great Slave Lake, and it takes the travel time down to 10-15 minutes.  These are some pictures I took during my time in Dettah.

Since I took these pictures last week, we've had a bit of a warm snap in Yellowknife.  It got up to 5C this weekend, and the snow turned to slush.  The chains we put on our car don't do so well when the ice melts.

Images from Yellowknife in October

Mural on a building

Houseboats in Great Slave Lake

A shot of downtown Yellowknife

Float-planes and houseboats

Mural from a building