Northwest Passage 2, Yellowknife, Saturday August 31, 2025

Smoky sunset in Yellowknife

Yellowknife. It’s even smokier today than it was yesterday. I’m glad we had a walk to the legislature, and the museum while the smoke briefly cleared because I don’t think we will be walking far today. We’ll go out for brunch in a little while and will probably make it as far as the museum. It was closed last night when we went there. Then I think we’ll hang around the hotel room and entertain ourselves until it’s time for the meet and greet. If we decide to go out for supper we’ll venture out again.

It’s odd how much the light affects my opinion of a place. I noticed that gorgeous northern light from the bit I could see out the window of the plane yesterday. When I think of Whitehorse or Kingait, I think of that same crystal light. It’s a signal to me that I have come to a place that I love. Today the world is grey, not the grey that you get in Vancouver in the winter but the grey of wildfire smoke which I know well. At home when it’s smoky like this, the sun often shines through with an angry orange glare. Here there is no glare, just a kind of dirty mist. It’s as if there is no horizon and the world simply drops off. It’s kind of eerie and instead of the comfort I generally feel when in the north I feel unsettled. That’s not Yellowknife’s fault but I think my memory of this place will always be tinged with a bit of unease.

4:56 pm

We have picked up our jackets, our bus tickets, and our name tags. We will be in room 4038 where we have stayed before. We are on the second flight tomorrow and I’m glad we had a chance to catch up on some sleep last night because we need to be finished breakfast, and be in the lobby at 7:45. We’ll get the scoop at the briefing later but rumour has it that we will need to have our checked luggage out in the hallway at 5:00 a.m. That means we’ll be putting it in the corridor tonight.

I’m really excited but also a bit sad because this will probably be our last trip with Adventure Canada. We first travelled with them 10 years ago when they chartered the Ocean Endeavour for the first time and we thought we’d do a ‘once in a lifetime’ trip to celebrate our 30th anniversary a year early. Well, here we are moving toward our 40th anniversary and we were figuring out that this is my 10th trip with Adventure Canada and Richard’s 9th. As Richard, quite rightly, points out, there are other places to see. I will miss the familiarity of these trips because of the people, the ship, and the routines. I will miss thinking about what to pack over the winter when the dailiness of things seems unending at times. Now, I’m putting those thoughts away for another time after we get home. Three people on the staff greeted us with huge smiles and one person told us how good it was to see familiar faces among the sea of new ones.

We ate with Jean, a friendly and interesting woman from Saskatchewan. This will be her first trip with AC and we were able to give her our perspective on a few things. We also met the woman who sat beside us on the plane yesterday, and a man who talked to us on the shuttle bus from the airport.

We did go back to Rickie’s for lunch. Richard had an omelette and I had breakfast burritos. There were a lot of potatoes in the burritos, and while I love potatoes, it wasn’t what I was expecting.

We walked with Jean over the the museum and spent a couple of hours there. It was really interesting and just big enough that we didn’t feel rushed and saw everything that we wanted to see. I was glad of the notebook Craig gave me for my birthday. There are some things I want to make notes on rather than just photographing the information. It’s the old thing about the ideas passing through my brain and hand onto the paper that makes it easier for me to remember the significance of something. I’ll probably do a separate post on the museum but these initial ones are about getting underway. And speaking of that, I think I’ll head back down and see if I can spot anymore familiar faces. People watching is always fun. More after the briefing.

10:01 p.m.

I made very bad choices of food today. I’ve mentioned lunch already and for dinner I ordered a Thai salad which came advertised as noodles with vegetables. There were a couple of grated carrot bits, some cilantro, and some hot peppers. I’m hard pressed to say that there were vegetables in it, and we ate in the hotel because we thought it would be more expedient. Turns out the dining room and the bar both have the same kitchen and the service was slow. They were overwhelmed with the AC folks and there were only two guys in the bar, where we ate, both doing the drinks and waiting tables. The meal was expensive and we could have been to Rickie’s and back in the time it took in house. Oh well. Sometimes your decisions work out really well and sometimes they don’t.

The reason we wanted to get supper done smartly was that we either had to have our checked luggage down to the holding room before 9p.m. Or before 5:00 a.m. You can guess which one we chose. We are on the second flight but the first shuttle bus so we have to be in the lobby with our carry on at 7:45.

Chris Dolder our expedition leader spoke to me as I was wandering around with a cup of tea. He said I Iooked like I had been on these expeditions before. I said I had and we had a good chat. Turns out that he was on the infamous Into the NWP where we didn’t make it and spent an extra day on the ship trying to figure out where we could go so we could be extracted by plane. We met the photographer who is from NL and I saw a couple more of the staff who were on the trip last year as well as other years.

It is supposed to be a high of +2C in Kugluktuk tomorrow so we have our gloves, toques, and insulation layers in our carryon luggage. I tightened the straps on my duffle quite a bit now that two of my sweaters are out.

I’m calling that a wrap for today. I need to have a shower and then get things all laid out for the morning which will come very early. I’m glad we had a chance for a good sleep-in today.

Looking Back on the Holiday

This is rather out of order but I was thinking about our great holiday adventure today and mentally checking off all the people who made it memorable.

Here's a partial list:

• The French Canadian woman in the campground who spoke English to us and then when we said we were trying to speak French she asked us questions in very slow measured French so we could understand although we had to answer them in English. We laughed together.
• Jack and Mary owners of a Roadtrek camper van who spent the evening with us, showed us where everything was in their van, came over to our campsite to look at our van and then invited us back for chocolate and tea.
• Frederick a park ranger in Gros Morne who took a year-long woodworking course. He showed me photos of a chair he restored and I showed him pictures of my shop. We talked about wood and he told us where his camper van was parked and invited us to take a peek inside on our way out. Later in the campground we met him again. He was previously stationed in Banff for 8 years.
• Richard and Deanna, the two retired teachers from North Bay and owners of their third Roadtrek. He gave us ideas on what to look for in a used Roadtrek and what we should be prepared to spend. We stood on the beach on the shore of Lake Superior and exchanged teacher stories.
• Michaela, the ranger in Gros Morne who told us about the overnight hike and who came back with Richard and me when I realized I was in over my head. She was lovely to talk to and made a tough hike much more pleasant. She will make a good guide.
• The interpreter in the lighthouse who had lived in the area all her life and talked about doing her work in order to keep the stories and the culture alive.
• The woman in the campground check in who asked where we were from and when we told her her comment was, “You probably know more Newfies than I do.” That made us laugh.
• The man who, when he learned that Richard was born in Newfoundland, said, “You're just a Newfie who lives in Alberta.”
• The guys in the Chrysler dealership who ordered the water pump for Flopsy from Toronto and got us back on the road with 8 litres of the proper concentration of antifreeze so we could get home.
• The young man in the Canadian Tire in Marathon who got the socket set out of his car and took off the remaining bits of mirror, helped us look for a solution to the problem and then took the nut and the new mirror into the back and welded them together. He came out to the parking lot with us and attached the mirror to the bracket and adjusted it while Richard sat in the driver's seat.
• The woman in the information centre in Quebec who gave us all kinds of literature and a map on which she highlighted the best route around Montreal.

Then there were the friends we were able to visit as we crossed the country.

• Betsy and Dave. I have known Betsy since she was we were both teenagers and was delighted to meet her husband Dave and stay in their home. We had a lot of years to catch up on.
• John J, owner of Lost Loon Island, who cut a piece of 2X4 to wedge the battery in so that it wouldn't slide toward the front of the van since one of the clamps had rusted through. We had a good visit and went for dinner before heading off the next morning. On the way back, we actually got to visit Lost Loon Island when we didn't think the timing could possibly work out.
• John and Kris, friends since my first few years of teaching, opened their home on PEI to us. They wined us and dined us and we talked and laughed long into the night.

We saw gorgeous scenery; we walked and cycled and had campfires and hid out from the rain and the bugs. All of those things are memorable but the best thing about the holiday was the people who enriched our lives if only for a few moments. I hope as, we move through our lives, that some of the people we meet might be able to say the same about us.