YELLOWKNIFE
Official bird - The Gyrfalcan
Official mineral - Gold
Official flower - Mountain Avens
Official Tree - Tamarack
Official Gemstone - The diamond
Official Fish - Artic Grayling


June 14th 2007

I am heading north of 60, something I have wanted to do for most of my adult life and more so since Jac moved up there in 2005. My flight was two part - West Jet to Edmonton and then First Air on to Yellowknife (YK).

I arrived early at the airport so I picked up a cup of coffee and watched the people go by. After finishing my more than 100ml size coffee I headed thru security. All was going well until it was time to xray my daypack, well.....here's me thinking with confidence that my middle aged female personification would get me thru no worries...NOT. Now I think that is the reason why my bag was put through the major scrutiny - everything was pulled out and tossed on the sterile metal table - including that most important clean pair of underwear!!! I had packed so carefully, now I was asking myself "why?". Luckily nothing "terrorist-like" was found and I got through.

After transferring flights in Edmonton I was delighted by the service on First Air. The rows of seats were further apart and we got a meal! As my plane started losing altitude, preparing to land, I saw a large body of water (Great Slave Lake) with what appeared to me to have layers of "scum" on it. The stewardess informed the passengers behind me that this was the last remnants of ice which had yet to melt off the lake.

Everywhere I looked there were small bodies of water, which amazed me. When I disembarked the plane and walked across the tarmac (this is a small airport) I had my first taste of the "Midnight Sun" experience. It was 9:30pm and the sky was as light as it would be at 4:30 pm.

Jac and Alvaro gave me the "tour" of Yk and within 30 minutes we were at their place. My kind of city.

The next day, as Jac and Alvaro had to work, I was off on a tour of the city with map in hand. Thankful for the map and Jac's instructions to head for the "orange" building, I was able to find my way downtown and back again. Not having any mountains to give me a point of reference did cause some difficulties, but I managed. Lunch - at $12.00 for Yaki Tori and a drink, whew.

At the end of the school day I headed off to Jac's school, K'alemi Dene School in the Aboriginal community of Ndilo, which was a 30 minute walk from the apartment. The class was still in session when I arrived and Jac was finishing up the day. She had told the kids I was coming and when I walked in and she said "here's my Mom", the children who were sitting with their backs to the door on the other side of a low bookcase popped up like little gophers to see what the teacher's Mom looked like.

That night was family fun night which started off with duck soup (the kids had plucked the ducks - as part of their lessons) and Bannock. Can't say I am partial to the soup but had more than one piece of the bannock. The rest of the evening's festivities were cake walks (didn't win one), face painting, karaoke among other things. Jac had volunteered us to make sundaes. For just a looney one could get a sundae with all the sprinkles, nuts, m & ms, sauces etc. that you could imagine. The kids and a lot of the adults were in seventh heaven. At the end of the night after clean up the night was declared a success.

June 16th - Road Trip!!

In the desidre to show me as much as possible of the country surrounding YK, Jac and Alvaro decided a camping expedition would be necessary. So we loaded up the "scary truck", so named for various reasons, one being the need for a litre of oil every 200 kms or so! We picked up Marco, he has been a friend of Jac's since high school and went to University with Alvaro. Marco introduced them to each other in February 2005 just before they graduated, so I can blame him for Jac's move to the north!!

Heading out towards Fort Providence we saw a white wolf and then further along a fox which was travelling along the side of the road. A few times I had mentioned I would love to see Wood Buffalo and it wasn't before too longe there they were. Down in the lower grassy area at the side of the road we saw our first (but not our last) herd. From small calves to the large, I mean HUGE bulls. They showed no fear as we got out of Scary Truck to take pictures - it was amazing. As we drove further along we saw herd after herd - I don't think I would be exaggerating if I say we saw hundreds of Wood Buffalo in the two days of our trip.

At Port Providence we loaded onto a ferry, similar to the ferry to Bowen Island only it is free, and crossed the Mackenzie River. This ferry only runs during the summer months when there isn't ice on the river. During the winter there is an ice road and during the freeze up and breakup the river cannot be crossed.

We headed toward Enterprise and our first stop, Twin Falls Gorge on the Hay River which is comprised of the two falls Alexandra and Louise. The Hay River gets its name from the colour of the water as it passes over the rocks. We made our first stop at the Louise Falls then walked along an interpretive trail for about 2 kms to reache the Alexandra Falls where we stood right next to water as it toppled over the rocks. The walk along the river was on a well maintained non-fenced path and the hike was a great excuse to stretch our legs and get some excercise.

After a couple of hours of hiking we got back into scary truck and headed to the town of Hay River to purchase some camping "beverages" and a major forgotten camping item..... I won't mention what it was but WE know. Hay River is not my idea of a place where I would set my sights on living at but the CG helicopter pilots have told me that they quite like the place for reasons unknown to me!

Fort Simpson is now the direction we were heading in - are you following this on your map!?? Sambaa Deh Falls (Sambaa Deh is Slavey for Trout River) is where we would be camping for the night. After leaving YK just before 10 am we arrived at our destination just before 9 pm, and except for the noted stops there is nothing and I mean nothing in between. No road side cafes, gas stations, porta potties - nada! The land is what's there, miles and miles of it - oh and mosquitoes (mossies) and horseflies - plenty of those!! While the "youngens" set up camp, I made dinner - a great pasta dish - not great because I made it, but a great recipe. I think the beverage I was drinking from the bottle - don't cringe fellow scotch drinkers - helped in the cooking process!

I should point out that camping when the sun never sets is a VERY interesting experience. I found that my sleep clock didn't want to turn on - the day just didn't want to end. Alvaro and Marco had brought their guitars so when Jac and I finally crashed after midnight we fell asleep to the sounds of guitar strings being gently strummed and mossies slowly sucking our blood!!!

The next moring we woke up early....could it be the fact that it was STILL light. As we got organized Jac made bannock over the single burner stove and with a cup of coffee we had our complete breakfast. After packing up Scary Truck we headed off to explore Coral Falls on the Sambaa Deh (Trout River). These falls are a short distance from the Sambaa Deh Falls and unfortuanately due to high water we could not get as close to the falls as Jac and Alvaro had in their previous visit. We then walked back to where we had left the truck and crossed the highway to the Trout River Gorge and the second set of falls. These are much more impressive and the water was flowing rapidly through the gorge. There was a cross marking what I would imagine is a place where someone may have fallen in. We walked further along the gorge and noticed huge fissures in the rocks at which point we decided that we had gone far enough. Just then the rain started and we felt we could now call it a trip and we headed back to Scary Truck and YK.

Our trip home we stopped at Fort Providence and took a photo or two and then moved on stopping at a roadside park on the north arm of the Great Slave Lake. Next stop was the Aboriginal community of Rae. We drove around the village and noticed a gathering of people under a tent, in getting closer Jac commented that the Dene men were playing what is know as "Hand Games".
This traditional aboriginal team game is one of guessing and deception. Players take turns hiding a token in their hands as their opponenet guesses which hand it is in. The hiding team uses music and elaborate gestures to distract and confuse their opponent in an attempt to force an incorrect guess. When a team guesses wrong they must give their opponents a token and whichever side is first to have all the tokens wins. The boisterous game, which can last for hours, is played by many North American aboriginal peoples and is a chance for stories, legends and songs to be exchanged between groups. Traditionally it would be played when two groups would meet on the trail. .....from "Discover Yellowknife"

After watching the games for a while we loaded ourselves into the truck for the final 100ks to Yellowknife.

The next few days were spent exploring the shops and city with dinners out. One of the places I ventured to was the "Ragged Ass Road"
"Ragged Ass" was the name of a small gold mine north of Yellowknife near Hidden Lake and is slang for "dirt poor". One evening in the 1940s a few of its down-and-out-miners had a little to drink and, thinking of their plight, took it upon themselves to re-name their street. They got some paint and made their own sign dubbing the stretch "Ragged Ass Road". Apparently the gag was a hit, as it was soon approved as the official name of the street. Ragged Ass Road is now so well known that replicas of the street sign are sold and Canadian rocker Tom Cochrane even released an album of the same name after visiting the North.....from "Discover Yellowknife"

The first dinner we went out to was at the Old Town Landing. This dinner was interupted with a 20 minute power outage, a common occurance in YK. These outages are usually caused by ravens (a VERY common bird) frying itself on a powerline. My second dinner out was to Bullocks - noted by Readers Digest as THE best Fish and Chip restaurant in Canada. At Bullocks one helps themself to beverages (alcholic or non) and then when the bill is rung up you report to the waitress what you had. This is by no means a "regular" restaurant by normal standards. The place is small and VERY crowded, the food basic, but I thought my panfried Artic Char was more than excellent. The walls, tables and even the ceiling were covered in bumper stickers, signatures, messages, business cards - each person anxious to leave their mark, including Rick Mercer and David Suzuki. Even Valerie Pringle had written on the wall letting us us know she had left the building!

In the next few days I did more exploring including the Heritage Center and the Museum. I will say I was impressed by both sites. Jac also took me halfway around Frame Lake which is located in the center of town. A pleasant walk about. In the winter the area is used by skidoos and the trails are marked with skidoo crossing signs.

On the afternoon of the 20th I took my sea shells etc. into Jac's class to show them. Jac was impressed how well the kids listened and carefully touched everything. They also got to stick their fingers into the "Pacific Ocean" and taste the salt water as I had taken a jar of Cape Beale sea and sand. The kids drew pictures for me of the sea life I had brought, which I will treasure.

That evening we drove out to Prelude Lake to celebrate the eve of the "Longest Day" at some friends of Jac and Alvaro's. We stayed until the wee hours "after 3 am", which didn't feel that late as the sun had never really set!

Beacause of the fact that it never got darker than dusk - EVER - I think my system was in a constant state of "almost" bedtime!

Aboriginal Day The 21st of June is a statutory holiday in the Northwest Territories so Jac and I headed off to see the festivities at Somba K'e Park (Dogrib for "Money Place"), which is situated minutes from downtown, beside Frame Lake. An Aboriginal fellow started the day with a prayer, an Ojibway lady sang O Canada in her native tongue and encouraged us to sing along with her. The Dettah Drummers followed to begin the rest of the day's fun. We wandered around the stalls and each of us purchased something, I bought a beaded bracelet and an Arctic Winter Games 2008 cap and Jac bought a pottery bowl with ravens on it.

After lunch Alvaro joined us and we headed over to the Legislative building. Although there were no tours that day, we were allowed to wander into the session area where a large polar bear skin covered the center of the floor. The entire building is designed to look from the outside like an igloo made in glass - quite impressive.

On Friday, I joined Jac's and another class on a field trip to the park for the day- the last day I was to see her kids on my trip. I taught one of Jac's students how to skip rope, not bad for a 52 year old woman!!!

The weather on Saturday was warm and sunny with no wind, so Alvaro decided it was a good day to canoe. We rented a canoe from Narwal Arctic Adventures and drove to Prosperous Lake. I sat in the middle while the experts paddled to Tartan Rapids, where we went ashore and watched some canoers shoot the rapids. We portaged across to the Yellowknife River and travelled towards YK for an hour then turned around and reversed our trip.

That evening was the dinner I had been waiting for; a wild game fondue at Le Frolic. Placed before us was a plate of raw bison, caribou, musk ox and elk along with different sauces and a huge plate of raw veggies. The liquid to cook the food in was a meat broth. Not being a red meat eater, this was a challenge for me but one I was up for. I would say the caribou was my favourite as the meat was not too gamey and very tender. Overall it was an enjoyable experience and I thank my hosts for helping me experience this part of my journey.

June 25th - The final day of my northern experience had arrived and the decision was made to go back to Prelude Lake for a hike. Before heading on our hike we headed to the Wild Cat Cafe; Yk's oldest restaurant, located in a log cabin, established during the original gold rush in the '30's. Quaint but VERY pricey. Chef Pierre (also the Chef at L'Frolic and L'Heritage) is one of Canada's top Chefs. The bill for the three of us - 2 quesadillas, 1 poutine and 3 NONalchoholic beverages came to over $50!!! yikes. But the experience of eating there was worth every penny.

The trip to hike in the area around Prelude Lake was to me the perfect ending to my trip. Hiking over amazing pink rocks shot through with lines of quartz around stunted trees.

It is hard to describe the beauty of this northern land - even the insects biting constantly couldn't put a damper on the journey. I was wishing I had put on my runners instead of sandals but I still managed to keep up with my long legged guides!

After the hike, with a growing appetite, we headed home where Alvaro was going to top off the day with a Chilean dinner. It was a feast of flavours and I know A LOT of work went into making it - as I sat and watched him as he created the tasty food. Each dish was as good as the one before it! Thank you, Alvaro for taking the time to oblige my request.

Monday came too soon and it was time to go - a SAD day for me for sure. But as the plane took off down the runway I decided that I would return, next time in the chill of the winter. Mushing and Northern Lights, here I come!!!!!!!