If I had to pick the best day of the trip I wouldnt do it because they all had their moments, but today was the most life changing and influential day, hands down!
I slept through my alarm I set for 0745 and woke up at 0900, because I was on holiday, that's why! I had a cup of coffee and a banana and peanut butter sandwich for breakfast then walked down the street to a gear store called Weaver and Devore to try and find a smart wool facemask. It turned out they didn’t have one but the store had tons of winter gear along with some camping stuff and small some grocery items, so now I know I will be covered on most gear if I forget something next time. Weaver and Devore even had some authentic fur hats, and they were really warm but I didnt fall for it!
I walked back to the house and was planning on driving around town and then…my freaking car wouldn't start! I had the car plugged into the car charger all night like I was told I needed to do but still…nothing. I became even more disappointed with National Car Rental because they would not help outside of calling a tow truck and making me pay for the car to be started. I then called USAA to see if I could use my roadside assistance in Canada but I was put on hold for over 15 minutes until I hung up and called…..wait for it……. AMEX! AMEX platinum to the rescue! It was a typical AMEX platinum call, no wait time, no menus, just have a straight conversation with a representative! I explained the situation, and she had me squared away in less than 10 minutes. I got a text with the tow truck driver’s info and he showed up within the hour, an hour earlier than scheduled, and he jumped the car back to life. The company was CJ’s Towing and the guy was super friendly, just like everyone else in the town, and had me ready to attack the day. The tow truck driver was interested that I was from Texas and said he really wanted to go and asked when the best time to go would be so I told him I recommended March, just my preference.
On a side note, I have AT&T for my cell phone provider and my plan is the unlimited plus package, which includes Mexico and Canada, so I didn’t have to worry about an international plan up here.
The frozen car turned out to be a good sign because I used the time I was waiting for CJ’s Towing to start this blog. I could've whined or been angry that my time in Yellowknife was not being maximized but I made the best of it. So...I made a sandwich, opened my MacBook, and started typing away while my feet thawed out by the wood-burning furnace. I had called Beck’s Kennels, the company Kim recommended I use for dog sledding, and initially explained to them the tow truck was scheduled to be there at 1340 and I probably would not make my 1400 dog sledding, so I had them reschedule me for 1500, but since CJ’s was on point, I called Beck's Kennels back and changed my sled time back to 1400!
I didn’t feel to bad about letting my car freeze over because all of the local’s cars were dying as well, which didn’t make me feel like I was Nick the new guy. It was just that damn cold!
I drove around town prior to going dogsledding and went looking for a local coffee cup. I went to a few souvenir stores, even though I don’t like souvenir stores, and came up empty handed. The first shop was a typical souvenir shop with over priced junk, and I’ll have to admit, I almost fell for the trap and bought a $20 license plate, but showed restraint (Thankfully I would get a much more meaningful souvenir at the end of my trip). I then asked the girl where I could get a coffee cup with the specifications I wanted and she suggested I go to a place across the street inside the Aurora tours shop. I went there and…they did not have anything good when it came to coffee cups…BUT...I did talk to a guy that worked there and he was a native Inuit and I got to talking with him and learned quite a bit. He taught me how to say thank you (pronounced die-gu) and then I asked him how to say your welcome and he said there is no your welcome in our language. I asked him about this item that looked like a knife in a case and he said it was called an ulu. He explained to me how he was given his at birth and it is used to cut through frozen meat. He referred me to another store behind NWT Brewing and I went there after I went dogsledding, and that place had tons of nice pieces of art but no coffee cups. Everything was VERY expensive, like we’re talking $300 to $1500 Canadian for local paintings, the paoints were really nice though!
I showed up to Beck’s Kennels and I could immediatly tell they meant business with their process of getting people in and out...I am sure the cold weather was partially to thank for that. They appeared to have their system down pretty well with dogs coming in and out from the frozen lakes and rotaing groups fairly quickly. I walked into a building to check in and immediately was blown away by the delicious smell of food and freshly baked Bannock. I then saw a sign posted that the food was only for the staff and was super disappointed, but understood that these employees, that are freezing all day for us, should come inside to a warm delicious meal in between sled runs. The dog sledding was unbelievable and breathtaking like everyting else I did up north. It was just raw and powerful, I felt one with nature. Beck's Kennels didn't mess around either! I walked outside, got on a sled, was shown how to use the break, and off I went alone and unafraid on Kam Lake. The dogs were really running the show, because they knew exactly what to do and where to go, but I was alone in nature. I try to stay away from tourist type stuff, so dog sledding at Beck's Kennels is the place to go if you want to do a tourist activity but not in a tourist group.
The sled time of about 45 minutes was a perfect time on the sled for how cold it was outside, any longer and the experience would have started to become painful in -48 with wind slapping me in the face. After I was done, I went to immediatly turn my car on to warm it up and went inside to thaw out. A local tip is to leave your car running and to lock it with your extra set of keys on you. Unfortunantly most rental car places dont give out extra keys. I had some delicious hot chocolate to warm myself up ater the sledding and spoke with two guys from Ohio while i waited. The guy my age was prior Army and showed me a bearded pic of him in Afgan(the guy was really cool though) and his father was a Navy Corpsmen in Vietnam (really cool dude).
I drove back to the Air bnb after dog sledding and sorted through and edited my photographs. I had a long debate on where I was going for dinner and ended up going to Thorntons on 51st. This was recommended by the Air bnb folks but I thought is was super underwhelming compared to the food I had at NWT Brewery. This place was the first and thankfully the only less than surreal experience I had up north. The restaurant was all around underwhelming, but I was open minded and trying to not let my inner bitch boy food snob out. I ordered the bison dumplings and the arctic char ravioli and the dumplings were an epic fail but the ravioli was very tasty! The place had a Michelin star on the wall and I asked the server/bartender about it and I am pretty sure he had no idea what it was and lied to me. I said, “why do you guys have that Michelin star on the wall.” He replied, “To display it of course.” then went on with doing whatever he was doing. I then asked if the restaurant was awarded it and he said, “Yeah.” I do not know why he would lie about something that he must have sensed I knew a little about based on me asking about it. He was not very good at holding conversation because he was working the whole dinning room by himself along with making the drinks. He was doing a great job with service but not at holding conversation. I left the restaurant and went back to the Air bnb and chatted with Graeme for a little bit. I finally found out two places I could go to get a coffee cup. This new Barron Grounds Brewing Co in town and his best friends place called Erasmus Apparel. I also learned of a restaurant with elk stew in the Explorer Hotel (Graeme said it was his favorite).
Okay...Here we go....the top reason I came to Yellowknife...I had put off seeing the Horthern lights the two previous nights because quite honestly I was ignorant and did not know if their was a special spot or time, or meathod I had to veiw the lights so I just went off of this forecast website, which said that evening was it! The former Navy Corpsmen I had met at Beck's Kennels warned me the lights may look underwhelming at first, like small bands of white, but to let my eyes adjust so I left the house with that in mind. I was out the door on my first aurora hunting trip! It was around 2230 and as I was driving over the Dettah ice road I immediatly spoted fant bands of white! I stopped the car on the ice road and stayed in my car until I could see the colors start to change. I got out of the car on the frozen lake and was immediatly hypnotized with feelings I can't even describe. The lights move and change colors fast and wildly. I again thought of a Game of Thrones reference...The dance with dragons! I took a few photographs but want to drive further away from any light polution so I drove through Dettah to the Ingram Trail and away from any light sources for about 30 minutes. It did not take that long to get away from the lights but I wanted to be completely bymyself with no chances of other cars coming where I was. I kept seeing the tour busses slightly hidden off the sides of the road while I pushed further north east.
I finally stopped on Ingram trail, threw my snowshoes on and started hiking through the woods onto a frozen lake. It is now between midnight and 0100...I am all alone, on a frozen lake, in -50 - -60 degree temperatures...This was an experience of a life time. I felt like I was the only person on the planet and could not stop gazing at the lights as they danced across the sky, full of enery. I set up my tripod and started to shoot. I did not get any photograhs that could make it in National Geographic, but I was very impressed with my photographs for it being the first time I had captured the lights. I hiked back to my car and took off back to the Air bnb. All I could hope is that my pictures tuned out because it was so cold my camera had iced over and I could really see the pictures on the display screen. I got back to the bnb and was very happy with what I had captured and went to sleep.
The next day Graeme asked how it went to I showed him. He was happy I was able to see the lights and I showed him my pictures. I am sure he has seen the Northern lights and captured some insaning cool pictures over his 34 years living up there, but he pointed out somethinging I did not see at first glance...He told me one of my photographs looked like an eagle. I thouht it was really cool how he spoted it in the negative space of the photo and thought to myself, if an eagle could be my spirit animal?!?!