A part of my job is to service communities in the arctic Beaufort-Delta region and the Sahtu region. To start with, my first trip was to fly in to a community southeast of Inuvik called Colville Lake for 3 days. Coville Lake has a population of 130 and it is situated in the Sahtu region 50km north of the arctic circle. Most of the people are First Nation Sahtu Dene.
We departed from the hospital to the airport at 9am when it was still pitch black outside. To access communities in the arctic, we rely mostly on planes. The North Wright airway goes to communities mainly the Sahtu region to Yellowknife. For the high arctic region communities, it will be the IBX airway. The plane we boarded was a 8 seater small plane. There were only 3 passengers on our flight.
We had to first flew 1.5 hour to Fort Good Hope for refueling, then another 30 minutes to arrive at Colville lake. Without proper extreme cold clothing, passengers are unable to board the plane. So be sure to keep yourself warm!
It is more like a bus station then an airport in the communities. And the flight felt like I was on a bus too. The take off and landing were super smooth and steady. I love it!
While we were waiting for the B&B to pick us up, a local couple offered us a ride to the town so we went for it! The B&B is quite cozy. We had a reservation for two rooms, but someone took one of the rooms without reservation. There was a vacant room in the other part of the B&B, but the pipes in the kitchen sink and washroom were frozen there. Fortunately, the guy was gone the next day but it added some bumps to our trip.
After work, we went to the only grocery store in town. Ofcourse stuff is expensive but it is pretty well stocked. I got a lime flavored slushy and drank it in the cold~
There was a book publishing event in the community gym the next day. The book series is called the Dene Heroes. It is the forth edition of stories written and shared by the Dene people in order to pass on the traditional wisdom to the next generation. At the end of the event the whole community shared a giant milk chocolate, but of course the kids got most of it.
From North Point To North Pole 