On Saturday my colleague invited us to go for a short day trip to visit a town by the Arctic Ocean – Tuktoyatuk. Tuk is the furthest north one can drive to in Canada. It is a three hour drive from Inuvik to Tuk. Because Tuk is so far north, the trees could not grow after passing a certain latitude. However, there were still some very short and cute baby trees on the way to Tuk. Another famous unique natural formation you can see in Tuk is called the pingo. Pingos are small hills made with permafrost. It was originally a lake before the ice age, but because of the cold the water turned to ice and became a hill.
There were some churches, ships and traditional houses around town. In the summer, there will be tourists coming up to see the arctic ocean. Luckily it’s pretty quiet now.
There were some unchained husky puppies chasing after us when we were off the car. I was a bit concerned but they were pretty cute and harmless.
Tuk also marks the end of the trans Canada trail. The Trans Canada Trail is the longest trail in the world (24,000km). Six months ago, we were at the beginning of the tran-Canada trail in PEI. I joking said at the end of the trail there might be a polar bear waiting for us. (Un)fortunately we didn’t see one this time!
I thought it was safe to walk on the arctic ocean because there were footsteps on the ice, but we all fell through after taking a few steps! Luckily there was a second layer of ice underneath. I think that was enough adventure for me on the arctic ocean for this winter.
From North Point To North Pole 