First off, I must apologize for the lack of updates since arriving in Yellowknife. The fact of the matter is that I’ve been incredibly busy, if you can call sitting on a sun porch watching the endless sun from a far, safely protected by the mosquitoes, wasps, and brief amounts of rain ‘busy’. The beauty of the capital city of the Northwest Territories has impacted me in more ways than one, and I found myself quickly settling into a very comfortable spot in life. So far, this has been the pinnacle of the tour, and I liked it so much that I canceled my flight out of the city, and extended my stay for another week.
Yellowknife, population 18,000 is at the end of the road – In the summer. Concrete and gravel are the only ways during warm months to get around on wheels, where as the landscape opens up nicely in the winter, when the many lakes, rivers and bays freeze up, allowing for transport of goods to remote communities, creating makeshift driveways to park in front of your houseboat, and opening up a whole opportunity for new forms of recreation.
My stay, was a full on summer experience however. Meeting my target of arriving for Solstice was the best decision I made of all trip. Within minutes of arriving, I met new people in the Coffeeshop ‘Javaroma’ which had some of the fastest internet connectivity I had seen in months, which offered a wonderful opportunity to upload photos, video, and send another copy to another location for backup paranoia. On the first day, I ended up riding over to the campsite to grab a spot and caught a wave from someone out of the corner of my eye. It was Anne, one of the women I had met before at Chan Lake, who invited me over to her daughter and soon to be son-in-laws house. Highlight of the moment was being offered to have a sleep in the backyard shed – darkness for the first time in a month! I slept until the late morning before having a little chat, and headed over to the coffee shop again. It was raining for the entire afternoon, and the sun poked its head out until another set came down – rain coming down in sheets nearly sideways. I wasn’t moving.
I ran into a series of people, all interested in the hairy guy with a bike fully loaded down, some cyclists who had performed a long distance run down to Hay River a few weeks before, and some planning a longer excursion to Edmonton. 180km days were being planned, and I shuddered a bit thinking about it, definitely needing a rest. The shop closed and I was approached by a few cyclists, who asked if I wanted to go for a midnight solstice ride – but of course! It was a nice 80km route, and I was invited over to two of their houses afterwords for Brownies and Blueberry wine. They were nice enough to have me stay in their guest room and giving me the key to their house should I wish an extended stay. I took off the next morning dealing with some laundry and looking forward to checking out the celebrations on National Aboriginal Day, a territorial holiday.
When I arrived, a huge lineup was snaked down onto the street for those interested in getting a free meal served by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a fish fry complete with pop, bannock, and corn on the cob. I went back for seconds it was so savory. I stopped and watched some of the local bands while people were invited to dance jigs and then headed over to my bike to perform some maintenance, change my shirt (I change my shirt every 30 minutes to body dry the fabric as its all wool). In the process I managed to snap the tip off of my other knife – The SpyderCo Mini Manix that has a very nice grip, sharp blade and smooth operation. Frustrated, I packed it up, headed back over to the celebrations before getting a nudge in the ribs to a familiar face – The massage therapist I met on my first 10 minutes in town! We chatted for a bit, watched the celebration and made plans to go riding on down to Yellowknife River, where another celebration was going on. It was great! She hadn’t ridden much on her new bicycle and the 12km ride was good for her, with the end result in us watching another traditional fish fry, more bands, aboriginal handgames, jig dancing, and throat singing. The sun was shining, and we ended up going over to a showing of a movie titled ‘Reel Injun’ put on by a local film collective known as Cinema Politica. The movie was interesting, an hour and a half documentary on the travels of a film maker seeking to understand and showcase how Hollywood portrays aboriginal people. Informative, with a dash of hilarity the end of the movie brought out the director Neil Diamond for a lengthy question and answer session. Beaming, we headed off and had a few cocktails and had a meal afterwords – the midnight sun blazing.
It turns out we shared a few things in common, both had itchy feet for travel, and we shared stories and trip adventures well into the late night, and I had the opportunity of watching a presentation of the recent 5 month travel across parts of the USA, Canada, and Mexico and an impressive amount of different beds slept in – 53! Couchsurfing.com was a major part of the stay for her and I relayed my experiences with Warmshowers.org. It turns out her parents have been hosts in Prince Edward Island (and even wilder, for 11 years the longest I’ve seen anyone on the site) – so I made some notes to look them up when I make it over there.
The next couple of days went by quick. Bike Rides, meeting new people, coffee shop excursions, and dinner parties peppered the long days with warm weather. The community, with the average age of 32 was very welcoming, eco friendly, progressive and full of creativity. Yellowknife’s uniqueness stretches many different ways. For example, the dump is the equivalent to the Craigslist in local cities. One can find many gems in a seperated section away from the majority of the messy stuff. A glass recycling shop, which spends its time cutting wine bottles into drinking glasses also operates a bicycle repair/co-op facility. I quickly fell into a real solid group of individuals, eventually being asked to stay in Old Town, on a house elevated on the top of a rock. It seems everyone has their mitts in something, piano, guitar, painting and I was happy to take in an environment that had so much positive energy circulating.
A community of houseboats exist in one of the bays, where many people live year round. It’s a vessel without a motor, so one must canoe to them when the whatever is flowing and live on it property tax free while it is in ‘distress’. Some of the loopholes in the law are certainly being executed and at Government Wharf there is a barge currently being assembled in very short order for another couple to partake in this popular activity.
Dumpster Diving is alive and well in the city. Grocery stores, restaurants and stores refuse are routinely picked through, and some of the friendly folk I met routinely distributed this food to others in the city. I’ll just say that the potlucks and dinner parties were fantastic, diverse sets of food, and good times had all around. The cost of living is incredibly high in the area, Electricity costing 3x the amount I would have paid in Vancouver, food typically 2x the cost, and even water in some parts of the city requiring to be trucked in and out on a regular basis. Luckily, there is ample work for everyone, and the occurrence of minerals from Ore to Gold to Diamonds that are being routinely discovered ensure that one is able to keep finances in order.
I accepted an interview request from a local news website, talking for 25 minutes about some of my past experiences, in an attempt to inspire other viewers. I was known as ‘that guy’ who cycled in, some chuckling that I was a local celebrity. All was taken in good jest and I was able to exchange many contact details for later hangouts in the week, or to be used as a contact should I run into trouble. Another weird, but oh so necessary experience was when I was riding my bike around and noticed that a big truck was beside me, with a woman yelling at me asking what I was doing. “Riding my Bike” was the logical reply, and I was told that I needed to come for dinner at her house that evening. Sure – why not – I’m saying yes to things I normally wouldn’t on this trip and it just worked. I brought Lindsey, my friend along for the experience, which turned out to be one of the nicest, prolific encounters I’ve had while on the trip. The woman, who had never invited a stranger into her house was trying things new as well. A tumor was discovered and she had to deal with brain surgery years before, and she had one of the most positive attitudes of anyone I met. Sharing stories, handmade aboriginal gifts, and teaching us phrases in Denai, the language of the local aboriginal tribe made for a real heart warming experience. I took her address and will send over a few postcards along the way, with her stating that she’d make sure she beats it and lives another 5 years. It was because of that experience, and some other positive events that prompted me to change my flight, and continue to rest – not feeling complete from my experience in Yellowknife. The extra days would allow me to forge further relationships, and celebrate Canada Day, hoping to meet up with friends that I had met while on the road who would be in at the end of the month, not to mention the film crew, who of which I had heard were making their way slowly up, encountering a few issues, animal encounters, and welcomes that I shared on the very same roads.
A young city that only really exploded in population in the 1930s, the area of old town still has many of the old buildings standing, where as the newer downtown core up the hill on its main drag makes way for a few skyscrapers. A visit to the heritage museum offered a glimpse at northern life over the past 100 years, touched upon traditional cultures, aerospace, and mining. It’s a great place to spend an afternoon, and is right beside the Legislative Assembly building, an architectural marvel designed to allow as much light as possible into the building. It’s fairly new, 10 years old or so – Members of the parliament used to convene to discuss matters of the territory in Regina, Saskatchewan – something that confused me greatly. I got so excited in my trip, that I didn’t leave enough time to even visit the inside of the building, dulling my goal of checking out the caucus rooms of each Province and Territory. Not sure what to do about that one at this stage.
I’m entranced by the beauty of the area. NWT does a spectacular job of promoting themselves, and keeps a number of recreation sites available for those wishing to check out its beauty. I had the opportunity to head over to Prelude lake, for a late night camping trip, leaving at 6pm, arriving at 9 and camping on a huge rock overlooking a beautiful bay. Good company, good food, and minimal bugs allowed us to laugh, reading a children’s book aloud to each other (Gary Larson, one of my favourite cartoonists used his quirky humour to put together: There’s a hair in my Dirt!), listening to music, sharing stories, and later catching a movie in the tent. The campsite manager was excited to see a bunch of cyclists come in and even asked to ride my bike around! He was beaming, nearly took a tumble during mount but took it all in stride.
Canada Day, due to the loop of the sunlight, I missed the parade festivities but spent the time meeting up with the film crew, who arrived, visibly haggered, did a few video shoots with them, and went for a nice dinner, before sharing a bottle of champagne with some other friends. Sleep was minimal, as I wanted to take in the most experience I could of the city before departure. I’m now in the southern part of British Columbia (more later) and in a whole other world, dearly missing the warmth, hospitality and wonder of this Canadian Gem.
My next stage of the trip has me heading up north, through the rockies another time, into the small communities of Fairmont, and Invermere, where I’ll wave goodbye to British Columbia finally. It’s going to be good run to get to the other side of this continent before the weather turns sideways, and I’ll need to be diligent, focused, and in good health. 14 days of rest has been good, yet I do worry about how the next few weeks will be. I experienced a bit of body pain with my knees, and want to make sure I don’t harm myself any further. My Bicycle, is holding up well, but visibly showing wear. I managed to destroy my left pedal, and need to get something replaced in Edmonton. I also did a good job by snapping the head off a bolt which will impact how my front rack will hold up. Zip straps on hand for the ensuing carnage. My health is good, even though I’ve been known to have been smoking Djarum clove cigarettes over the past few weeks and I’ll nip that habit once riding, and may get a bit of weaving, hacking and short breath symptoms – solidifying my goal to not inhale those horrendous sticks of poison. A few posts back, I posed the question of what should I do with my hair – One person publicly commented, and I’m getting the gears from my friends on Facebook and other Social networking sites, that I am looking quite like a hippy. I do like the feeling of running my hands through it, and find I’m looking a little bit less intense, even though it does have a little itch factor associated with it. I’ve never grown my hair out like this, and it just seems fitting. New stage of life, so give it a whirl until I’m good and ready.
I’m now ready for the next step, even though the tearing away from one of the most enchanting environments is going to be tough – I’ll push forward. Thanks Yellowknife, the people, the creativity, and the magic – it’ won’t be forgotten. Hopefully you readers will undertake the journey up to this little goldmine, as rough roads reap large rewards.
Recent Comments