It was spring of 1993. I was now on my fourth trip hiking up the Alaska Hiway heading back to Seward, Alaska in the thickness of the hoarding mosquitoes! I truly was terribly far away from the decay of the south!
I had left Russellville, Arkansas, eleven days earlier and had made it as far north as the township of Whitehorse, in the Yukon Territory of Canada.
I started my long walk up and out of the Yukon River Valley out of Whitehorse. I finally walked back out to the Alaska Highway and picked up a ride to the hiway cutoff at Carmacks Junction some 110 miles further north.
As I stood there thumbing for a ride, I thought about where I was at that time and how this might be my last trip up this way for a long time, so I made the decision to hitch it up to the Beaufort Sea town of Inuvik, instead of going on to Alaska right away. (Inuvik is on the river delta of the Mackenzie River that devides Yukon and Northwest Territories, so some consider Inuvik in the NWT and some view it as being in Yukon. It depends on who you are up there, what and where you consider yourself being).
My first ride from the junction was from an older couple that lived near the town of Mayo/Keno. I was invited to stay the night and get a hot bath, food and a warm bed for the night, so I took these nice people up on their offer!
The next morning, after an awesomly deep and good sleep, we ate Moose sausage and eggs alongside biscuits and gravy! (Of course all homemade)! I then was asked if I wanted to live forever with these people, but I declined, knowing my mind was already made up on getting north of the Arctic Circle again.
The year before, I had hitched up the "Haul Road" from Fairbanks, Alaska to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska on the Arctic Ocean and simply loved it the entire way up! I really wanted to do the same thing in Canada as far as reaching the Arctic Ocean.
My next ride took me yet further north to the town at my second junction near Dawson, where I changed highways then took highway 5 north from there; also known as the "Dempster Hiway".....(Not "Dumpster" Hiway)!!! Ha ha!!!
That night, I slept nicely at my second offer of a hot bath, food and shelter!
(God were the mosquitoes bad this year)!
The next day, after nearly ten hours of standing with my thumb out, I was picked up by yet another couple. They were headed for Inuvik. Wow, I thought! All the way to the Arctic Ocean again!
When we pulled up to the Peel River in the town of Fort McPherson, we boarded a ferry and crossed the river. Roughly 40 miles further, we boarded yet another ferry in order to cross over the Mackenzie River, then on to Inuvik, Yukon/Northwest Territories.
(During the winter months, these two ferries don't run because of the ice, so drivers must drive across the ice to reach the other side)!
During my two day stay, I had again been asked by several other people in Inuvik if I wanted a place to live for good. There seemed to be only two types of people up this far north! One; the Inuit Natives. Two; the people that had given up on the modern ways of life that they had further down south. These people had chosen to move here and live here because it was far, far away from the normal, everyday decay of society that they were used to down south.
I was in love with Inuvik and its people, but my love for the rails/road were even greater! So, away back south I hitched and finally back to the Alaska Hiway, then on back to Alaska.
I only wish now that I could meet these people again and take them up on their offers! This time I'd absolutely stay for the rest of my life in the NWT's and Yukon!
