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Aug. 4th, 2013 07:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolariSo, I marathoned Ice Road Truckers over the last few days, trying to finish up before Dean got here, and the scenery really made me wistful for a trip I never managed to do - Seattle, Washington to Inuvik, Nothern Territories.
Shortly after my move to Seattle, Emily showed me a website about the Lonliest Roads in North America, hundreds of kilometers long with almost no civilization until you reach the destinations, which were hydroelectric plants on glacial lakes. I've done many crosscountry trips, and felt that I could do these roadtrips - but getting to Quebec, where those roads were was a haul in itself, before you even GOT on the lonliest road.
With a little more research, Emily found a trip that was the farthest north you could travel by car, and wasn't a haul to get to. Inuvik, Northwest Territories. On top of that, Inuvik was above the Arctic Circle, had a month of continuous daylight before and after the solstice, and had a week long event during it.
We made a plan to eventually make a drive up there. It would take, at least, six days to drive up to Inuvik. With some research, we also realized we wouldn't be seeng much civilization once we got past Prince George, BC. This meant no gas, no services. We'd need to get Cheyenne shipshape before we went, and get some supplies.
The truck's engine was in good shape. She'd just had a new fuel pump put in, The pickup got about 600 miles to the tank, but there were spots where we would be going significantly beyond that. 15 gallons of extra fuel, would cover that. The pickup had a fresh set of tires, and a spare. A sixth wheel wouldn't be a bad idea either, considering the road is rough dirt for most of the way. That was easily done.
Personal accomidations, though, weren't going to be as easy. Most of my cross country trips, I simply pulled into a rest area and slept there. The ones I've done with passengers all ended with us going to hotels. Considering some of the distances involved, I tried to plot our trip so we'd end up in towns with lodging...but not every day ended up near a town. In fact, two stops ended with us in the middle of nowhere.
We kind of banked on two things for those stops. (1) The farther north we went, the longer the day would get, the longer we could drive. I know I can do about twelve hours of driving nonstop. Emily was good for as many as well. So for the space between Prince George and Whitehorse, we would simply swap out when we got tired and keep going while the other slept/relaxed generally chilled. (2) Between Whitehorse and IUnuvik, though, there was NOTHING. And it was far too long to just keep swapping out. A shelter would be necessary, either a tent, or a cheapie tarp over the bed of the truck to sleep in.
My usual cross country meals would come into play - MREs. I figured two cases would get us through the trip, and help if we got stranded - 48 or so meals, when cut in half.
The trip up and down would be two weeks. What to do once we were IN Inuvik? Well, turns out, if we went on the solstice, not only would the temperature be nice, and the roads extremely well kept, but Inuvik has a week long festival of the midnight sun. For a week. Three weeks. Working at Nintendo, I got two months off a year. Perfect.
Sadly, things went south pretty quickly. There were a lot of financial setbacks, but the trip was always on the table. Always "next year." Even after out breakup, we still felt we could make the trip to Inuvik together. And even after we stopped speaking, there was a possiblity of Pazi and I going.
Sadly, once we got the new house, the Inuvik trip was taken off the list. The two year lease was signed with the expectation that if I wasn't hired by Nintendo, I would be back in Texas when the lease ended. Maybe flying up there for the festival could happen. And eventually, it completely fell off the radar until I saw Ice Road Truckers.
And then I found out that the trip was actually mapped out in Google Street View. I could take the trip I'd always wanted, albeit from a monitor in my bedroom. I've seen a few sites here and there - it's a beautiful as I thought it'd be.
http://goo.gl/maps/sgFUb
Shortly after my move to Seattle, Emily showed me a website about the Lonliest Roads in North America, hundreds of kilometers long with almost no civilization until you reach the destinations, which were hydroelectric plants on glacial lakes. I've done many crosscountry trips, and felt that I could do these roadtrips - but getting to Quebec, where those roads were was a haul in itself, before you even GOT on the lonliest road.
With a little more research, Emily found a trip that was the farthest north you could travel by car, and wasn't a haul to get to. Inuvik, Northwest Territories. On top of that, Inuvik was above the Arctic Circle, had a month of continuous daylight before and after the solstice, and had a week long event during it.
We made a plan to eventually make a drive up there. It would take, at least, six days to drive up to Inuvik. With some research, we also realized we wouldn't be seeng much civilization once we got past Prince George, BC. This meant no gas, no services. We'd need to get Cheyenne shipshape before we went, and get some supplies.
The truck's engine was in good shape. She'd just had a new fuel pump put in, The pickup got about 600 miles to the tank, but there were spots where we would be going significantly beyond that. 15 gallons of extra fuel, would cover that. The pickup had a fresh set of tires, and a spare. A sixth wheel wouldn't be a bad idea either, considering the road is rough dirt for most of the way. That was easily done.
Personal accomidations, though, weren't going to be as easy. Most of my cross country trips, I simply pulled into a rest area and slept there. The ones I've done with passengers all ended with us going to hotels. Considering some of the distances involved, I tried to plot our trip so we'd end up in towns with lodging...but not every day ended up near a town. In fact, two stops ended with us in the middle of nowhere.
We kind of banked on two things for those stops. (1) The farther north we went, the longer the day would get, the longer we could drive. I know I can do about twelve hours of driving nonstop. Emily was good for as many as well. So for the space between Prince George and Whitehorse, we would simply swap out when we got tired and keep going while the other slept/relaxed generally chilled. (2) Between Whitehorse and IUnuvik, though, there was NOTHING. And it was far too long to just keep swapping out. A shelter would be necessary, either a tent, or a cheapie tarp over the bed of the truck to sleep in.
My usual cross country meals would come into play - MREs. I figured two cases would get us through the trip, and help if we got stranded - 48 or so meals, when cut in half.
The trip up and down would be two weeks. What to do once we were IN Inuvik? Well, turns out, if we went on the solstice, not only would the temperature be nice, and the roads extremely well kept, but Inuvik has a week long festival of the midnight sun. For a week. Three weeks. Working at Nintendo, I got two months off a year. Perfect.
Sadly, things went south pretty quickly. There were a lot of financial setbacks, but the trip was always on the table. Always "next year." Even after out breakup, we still felt we could make the trip to Inuvik together. And even after we stopped speaking, there was a possiblity of Pazi and I going.
Sadly, once we got the new house, the Inuvik trip was taken off the list. The two year lease was signed with the expectation that if I wasn't hired by Nintendo, I would be back in Texas when the lease ended. Maybe flying up there for the festival could happen. And eventually, it completely fell off the radar until I saw Ice Road Truckers.
And then I found out that the trip was actually mapped out in Google Street View. I could take the trip I'd always wanted, albeit from a monitor in my bedroom. I've seen a few sites here and there - it's a beautiful as I thought it'd be.
http://goo.gl/maps/sgFUb
