Northwest Territory

A new sticker for my RV map of states and provinces visited, Northwest Territory! I arrived about 5 minutes before closing. The managers of the 60th Parallel cg and visitor center, Eric and Vi, are fantastic people! they gave me a quickie tour and some literature on the territory, told me to feel free to park for free in front of the center, and invited me into their house! We sat around having coffee, telling stories, and looking at pictures of their home further north and their annual vacations to the Baja Peninsula of Mexico. In the morning they had fresh coffee waiting for me and a more thorough tour of the museum. They are a great introduction to the Northwest Territory. As I drove further north I stopped at the twin waterfalls of Louisa and Alexandria. It's amazing the volume of water that cascades over every minute of every day. Absolutely beautiful! The young kid at the Hay River visitor center had the door locked and was napping. He heard my knock and sleepily opened the door. It doesn't seem that there is much to do in this little town but I guess I'll have to wander around and see for myself. The cg is at the southern end of The Great Slave Lake. It's a huge lake, one of the largest and deepest in the world. It's June and the lake is still frozen with what appear to be icebergs floating a ways out. The local museum is a long walk from the cg but didn't have any signs facing the road I came down so I missed it and ended up at a dead end with some municipal workers taking road measurement. I worker I asked where the museum was turned out to be the museum docent's dad. The two teenagers staffing the museum gave me a very detailed, personal tour. They were obviously proud of knowing many of the local artists who paint, carve, create some very beautiful art work. I found a father/son who are establishing a private cg (as opposed to the territorial one I camped at). Their location is down a rough road which is off a dirt and gravel one. We chatted a bit and the son agreed to take me out ATV'ing along the lake shore and into the woods. He wanted to see the results of a major fire which burned several acres of the forest. It was lots of fun driving the ATV, equipped with larger tires than I was used to, over the many logs which accumulate along the lake shore. At times the logs were so huge the only way around was to break through the shore ice on our ATV's and go around. This was a very cool ride and different from other ATV'ing I've done. I went to the nearby Dene First Nation village to check it out. The young girl was very friendly and began showing me their various artifacts. When I asked a few questions she wasn't sure about she got the museum direct, Raymond Sonnafrere. He and I seemed to hit it off and we spent about two hours just chatting about life. Turns out he's the son of the current Chief of the Dene. He then took me for a ride around their village and gave me the names of the local chief's in the villages I was planning to visit. What a great afternoon I enjoyed.


The ride to Ft. Providence was only a couple of hours. On the way I took a short dirt road to the village of Kakisha where I met Chief George Simpson. He and another resident of this small village were working by a very pretty lake. The three of us stood around chatting a little. He shared with me that the village does have a gas pump but it's broken and they're waiting for parts. He also told me that they would normally be out fishing for the great pickerel in the lake but unfortunately the ice machine is broken so they wouldn't be able to keep the fish they would catch. Ahhh, the problems of a remote village (lol). I stopped again at the Lady Evelyn Falls. They are yet another waterfall along this route which is called "The Waterfall Route", lol! These falls were equally as impressive as the twin falls of Alexandria and Lousia earlier on this route. I caught a photo of them with a rainbow as well ;=)! The ferry across the MacKenzie to Ft. Providence is now gone, replaced by a bridge. Incredible views from the height of the suspension bridge, ice floes moving up the mighty MacKenzie. Just over the bridge I saw my first bison, three of them grazing by the river. The Ft. Providence Territorial cg is pretty sitting right along the river. Peter and his sister manage the cg but unfortunately told me they were completely full due to a bicycle race in the area. He was going to let me stay in an overflow area when another camper suddenly had to leave a day early. I got the site for free ;=)!! The drive to Yellowknife was absolutely incredible with bison along the road most of the 200 mile drive. At one point I saw a cloud of dust coming toward me and began to slow down. As I got closer I saw that it was a mini-stampede of about 25 to 30 bison. I came to a full stop as they roared from one side of the road to the other. I managed to get from photos of them as they charged past on my driver side. Absolutely magnificent! The road to Yellowknife is mostly a pretty good one, until the last 40 to 50 miles when the "whoop dee doos" began in earnest. Whoop dee doos are dips in the road that play havoc on cars and trucks and can darn near wreck an RV if you are going to fast. I slowed to about 30 mph on the 55 mph road. When I set up at the cg "stuff" was all over the floor of my RV. Fortunately, nothing broke. The Yellowknife cg was again by a little lake which even has a beach. Many locals play volleyball on the beach along with picnics and some fishing. The visitor center had a nice museum and video about the area and also let me use their WiFi. The center sits next to another lake with a trail around it and a large First Nation Cultural Center on the other side. Yellowknife is a fair sized city of just under 30,000. I discovered I've gotten less fond of cities and actually felt crowded. Kind of funny for a kid who grew up in New York City, lol! While in the area I drove to the end of the Ingram Trail. This is a very rough dirt and gravel road which leads about 20 miles or so, basically into a wilderness. At first I was surprised by the number of vehicles on this road, especially the number pulling row boats and other small craft. Over the 20 or so miles I bet I passed almost 50 lakes!


On my ride back toward Ft. Providence I again saw lots of bison, even though none stampeding. This time I actually had to pay for my site, oh well. The cg had a free barbecue for everyone which was great. I never did find out what the event was. Based on the number of bikers I guess it had something to do with their race. I thought the MacKenzie Highway was all dirt and gravel but it was actually paved and some of the best road I've been on. That is for the first 20 miles of so, then it got real rough, living up to its reputation. As rough as the road is I just slowed down and made sure to pull as far over as possible, coming almost to a full stop, whenever another vehicle passed in either direction. Most other drivers do likewise. Sambaa Da Falls Territorial Park is managed by Raymond and his wife Mavios. They came out to greet me as I drove in. Mavios gave me a tour of their little museum and Raymond let me pull into the park the wrong way so his water hose could reach my RV fill port. I marveled at all the knowledge Raymond has of the territory, rivers, falls, and especially wildlife. Mavios shared that outside of Northwest Territory he is referred to as "Rain Man" instead of Raymond. I took the two short hikes along the river to the two waterfalls, one upstream and the other downstream. This is yet another spectacular area! After another almost hour of rough road I came to the even rougher side road to Jean Marie River, a Dene village about 17 miles off the tough MacKenzie Highway. As I started down the road I realized it was barely more than a bull dozer track covered over by poured gravel mixed with a liquid calcium. At times the road was so soft my truck and RV would literally slide. The ruts and dips and bumps were incredible. Two small bridges over creeks were nothing more than planks and scared the heck out of me as I drove my combined nine tons over them. The 17 miles took about an hour. When I arrived my truck and RV looked like someone had intentionally caked them in dirt and mud! The village people are all Dene First Nation. It's a quaint little village right on the MacKenzie River. You can access Jean Marie by small boat, a short dirt airstrip, or the road I came down. They did have fuel (thank you, thank you) which is actually much less expensive than the rest of the territory since the First Nation is exempt from some fuel taxes. Their campground is a grassy field near the river with some picnic tables but no hook ups. Coming down the "road" (if you can call it that) I got a flat on the RV. The Dene road crew workers, without my even asking, showed up with a heavy duty jack and helped me change the tire. They came by later with some fresh caught pickerel and we had a picnic. It was very interesting to chat with them, that is until the bugs were enjoying us more than we were enjoying the great outdoors (lol).
The drive back out the Jean Marie road wasn't any better than the drive in but at least no second flat tire. After my side trip the MacKenzie Highway seemed like a super highway. I was surprised to find that the road is paved from the junction with the Liard Highway to the Ft. Simpson ferry. It was a pleasant change. The ferry crosses the Liard River going to the Ft. Simpson Island. I was the only one out of my vehicle chatting with the deck hand. He told me a little about the rivers, the island, the town, and where I should be able to get another spare tire. Once off the steep ferry embankment, the few miles into town was paved road. The cg is again right on the river, near the confluence of the Liard and MacKenzie Rivers. The are awesome rivers, almost a mile wide with very swift currents. Immediately after setting up the RV I went to the visitor center. They were very friendly, calling the tire shop and one of the two float plane operators in town. Simpson Air had a charter leaving for the Nahanni Park Preserve in a couple of hours, but they wanted "a lot" for the couple of hours flights. I also really needed to take care of getting a new spare tire before getting back to perhaps the roughest part of the MacKenzie Highway, heading to Ft. Liard. The tire shop didn't have any in stock but could get some if I ordered it in the next couple of hours. They could then order from Hay River and a truck could arrive by the next mid-day. On my way back to my RV to get the exact tire specifications I passed the second float plane operator, Wolverine Air. On a chance I stopped in. François and I were discussing possibilities for a flight when Jacques, the owner arrived. He is a 6' 4" gregarious, very friendly guy. He and I seemed to hit it off immediately. In minutes, we were sitting at his computer looking at google maps and telling each other stories of the many places we have travelled to. He and his wife enjoy RV'ing to the Las Vegas area. Jacques himself has truly travelled the world. He and I were in the Far East within a few years of each other. We have both also travelled extensively through Central and South America. We both have broken our right collar bone on motorcycle spills. It was incredible the number of coincidences we had. Lots of stories of people, places, and especially food. After a couple of hours I said I had to get to the tire store on time to order my tire. This of course prompted the story of the flat. I finally left and went to the tire store. As I was ordering the tire Jacques shows up. Of course as one of the major business owners in town everyone knew him. He asked the store not to place my order, telling me he had lots of trailer tires he could lend me. He has an airplane hanger operation in Ft. Nelson, where I'll be going in a few days, and I can drop off his tire there. I follow him back to his float plane operation, we load a tire in his truck, he drives me back to my RV to make sure it's the right size (it was). We left the brand new tire with the sticker still on it at my RV. While driving back to his shop he gets a call from François that they have a flight to Wrigley about to leave. Jacques asks me if I'd like to go (did he really need to ask?). In minutes I'm aboard with François at the controls and we're flying over the immense wilderness of the Northwest Territory. We fly up the MacKenzie River for about an hour, with a side detour over some incredible buttes. In every direction, as far as you can see from 3,000 feet in the air, there is wilderness, no town, roads, nothing right to the curve of the earth. There are so many lakes I doubt that they've all been explored or named. After landing at Wrigley for the errand we fly back along the eastern edge of the Nahanni Preserve. The preserve is over 11,600 square miles, that's larger than the entire state of Massachusetts!!! The mountains, called "The Unclimbables" are spectacular. The huge waterfall, the Virginia Falls, are about 300 feet high! This is an absolutely incredible land. When we get back, I find Jacques short handed in his effort to move two river docks about a half mile downstream. I insist on helping him. Five of us spent the rest of the afternoon moving and resetting the two docks he uses for his float planes. Two of his employees were on land using a truck to hold the docks in place. Another employee was on the docks, one at a time, throwing and securing rope lines. Jacques drove and maneuvered his boat while I threw, caught, and secured the rope lines from the docks. It was a beautiful day with a light breeze. Everyone else was working and I was having a great time (even if they said I was also working) :=))) After all our efforts, Jacques invited everyone back to his home for drinks and a barbecue. Tor already had a date. François was late for a baseball game. That left only Adrian and me. Jacques wife is just as incredibly nice as he is. It stays light out almost all night so it was after midnight before I realized what time it was. Before leaving Ft. Simpson I stopped by to say good by. Jacques insisted that I use his power washer to clean my truck and RV. I truly hope we cross paths again. I've met some great people in the Northwest Territory.
The ferry ride back was still a cool experience. As I got closer to the Liard Highway I began thinking that it couldn't be too bad after the MacKenzie Highway and especially the crazy road of sorts to Jean Marie River. My first concern as I turned onto the Liard Highway was the big sign and warned against any vehicle over 4,500 kg. For those not familiar with the conversion, that's a little less than 10,000 lbs. My truck and rig combined are over 18,000 lbs!! The RV by itself is about 12,000 lbs! Just when I'm wondering about the mess I'm getting into, a tandem fuel tractor/trailer approaches coming off the Liard. Oh well, if he can do it, so can I. Anyhow, the only road around adds about 1,000 miles. What the heck, here goes! The first several miles weren't to bad going about 40 mph. Just when I thought it would be okay, if a little slow, the road went to washboard and I dropped my speed to 20 mph. This is going to be a long drive. The scenery is very pretty and I passed lots of black bear. After only about 5 hours I finally got to the town of Ft. Liard. During the entire time only one truck passed me from the other direction and no one passed me from behind. Also, there wasn't a single cross road. This is real wilderness! The town is a small First Nation Dene village right on the river. The visitor center had a little museum of sorts and lots of local crafts. They had fuel (thank you, thank you), a small grocery store (I treated myself to an ice cream), and the campground on the river is actually free!! I was somewhat tired from the long drive on dirt and gravel. A little reading and an early last night in the Northwest Territories. Tomorrow I'll re enter British Colombia at Ft. Nelson.