THE TRUE NORTH

Vancouver is gone in a flash: gleaming skyscrapers, metal and pavement, then farms, lush green mountains, all still familiar. We start the C.D. player and discuss camping and destination plans. At some point, the Fraser River has crept up beside us slithering along it's serpentine route at a deceptively sluggish rate. This deception is revealed at Hell's Gate. We buy tickets and travel in a red tram down into a deep valley where the walls of the canyon are so close together that the river crashes and tumbles its way through. The best part, though, is the fudge factory at the bottom. We buy five different flavours!

We camp somewhere, then travel to Prince George. I was here before when I was eight and it's the farthest north I've ever been. I mark it as the true beginning. Here we visit Barkerville, a restored mining town from the days of the goldrush. I vaguely remember it from before and want to see it again, even though it's about 200 km. off the main road. This is all new for Imi so he's interested too. There's people dressed in vintage clothing, and I learn a lot about this period of history. Many people became rich mining gold in this area, but more were to come here only to find an often difficult and demanding life with little of the riches they had imagined. These people included not only Europeans and Americans but also many Chinese who often scraped away at discarded mines with grim determination. Many flourished, though, through their hard work and Barkerville is full of remnants of these people: a hillside where once someone tried to recreate the terraces of China, shops that sold imported goods, and old artifacts such as a magical humming bowl. We watch a play, and try to recreate the old town in our minds. Later we visit a nearby lake, and talk about one day buying a cabin for our family, and check out prices on properties.

It's after Prince George that we begin to enter the true north. The first things I notice are that there are fewer gas stations. I notice the gas stations because they are like little ports of civilization, where you can get hot coffee, and go to the washroom. The towns are smaller too. We get to a point where the highway branches off in two directions. One way heads east, then north, the other towards the west first. We decide to do a loop: up the western route, down the eastern. We are told this is the more scenic route, which turns out to be true. We are very quickly thrown into the middle of nature, with the highway being gravel at the better parts, and gas stations are only found every couple of hundred kilometers. It is here that I truly feel the meaning of the word massive. Looking around me at the endless untouched land, and then finding the small part of Canada on the map that this represents, is amazing. We head towards a small, cozy town named Stewart, nestled between huge glaciers and mountains, and surviving off fishing and transport from the inlet that it sits upon. We cross the border into the states here for a few hours and visit Hyder, Alaska. Imi buys a pack of Marlboros, and I explore a shop that sells religious relics, wood carvings, postcards, and touristy items.

The land is flatter now, and we often wait until ten o'clock or later to set up camp. The sun is still up at aound 11:00 at night at this point, and it's much warmer than I imagined the north to be. There are a lot more animals, and we are often warned of grizzlies at campsites. At one site, a ranger tells us of a grizzly mom and her cubs living across the lake. He says we might get a chance to see them. Grizzly bears are actualy a lot more shy than their reputation leads us to believe. Imi and I see a few on our trip, but they are always running away as we turn a corner, so we really only ever see their behinds. I'm sure that people have given them enough reasons to be afraid. Other creatures are much friendlier though, like the marmots we see at the crossing into the Yukon. These guys were a little too friendly, running right up to us, grabbing at our feet. We leave pretty quickly! There are also artic foxes, hares, black bears and brown bears.

We stay in Whitehorse for one night, and buy two gas jugs. We want to make sure there will be enough fuel for the final bit of our travels, which is an eight-hundred kilometer gravel highway, with only one gas station in between Dawson City and our destination, Inuvik. We spend an afternoon in Dawson city, where gold is still currently being mined. We eat lunch by the river and buy ice cream. It is probably around twenty degrees celcius . My big winter coat has quickly made its way to the bottom of my bags. It is warmer here than back home because of the long days. We just happen to be here the day a group of people from different countries in Europe are coming through, in an "around the world in eighty days" tour, in their collector's cars. Imi is excited, and I lose him to the cars for a couple of hours.

We leave Dawson City in the late afternoon, and begin our journey to Inuvik. By now the sun is not setting at all. Rather, it drops to the horizon, travels along it for a bit then starts coming up again. That night we want to get to the gas station at the halfway point, so we don't set up our camp until around three o'clock in the morning. The day was a bit unreal, driving in the sunlight so late, two large, really bad coffees keeping us on the border of sleep and wakefulness, surrounded by the totally unfamiliar landscape of the tundra. Some hills are just great piles of stones. Dry grasses and moss cover everything. Sometimes I'll see some animal darting into the bush.

We stop along the way a few times just to enjoy the complete silence. Sometimes we travel upwards for awhile, not really realizing it, until cresting a hill we find ourselves faced by a colourful vista extending into eternity. The few hours during which the sun rides the horizon, its rays play colors of purple, pink, and red over everything, only strengthening the surrealism of the place. After sleeping well into the day, we start the last bit of our journey. Inuvik is a fair-sized community, part of a larger community not accessible by roads during the summer, but attached by ice roads during the colder months. Imi and I eat moose burgers, and explore. The whole water system for the city is above ground, as below the ground a layer of permafrost makes digging very difficult. We also learn that during the winter the water is kept constantly running, and heated, so that it doesn't freeze. That night we make it back to the lone gas station. And the next morning marks the beginning of the trip home.

© Jennifer Dorkin 2001