45 hours to drive 160 miles.

Yukon Mike

Yukon Mike

Well-known member
For the first time in ten years conditions have allowed for the building of a winter road across the tundra to a little town called Old Crow in the northern Yukon. People either have to snowmobile 160 miles cross country to get to the closest road or fly in and out. All the building supplies, fuel, KFC, etc come in by air. This summer gas was $18/gal there. Once you are there, travel is by snowmobile, quad or river boat.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/old-crow-winter-road-challenges-truckers-1.2558469

The first convoy of trucks made it in I guess, but 45 hours on the trail is a long day for anyone. This is a very big deal for people living there.

I know I've posted this up before, but its just such an isolated place.

http://www.oldcrow.ca/index2.htm

One of the major owners of Air North which is the 737 we can take to Vancouver or Calgary is the Band in Old Crow. Because they rely so heavily on air travel to sustain their community, they bought an airline - that's smart!

Mike
 
Wow, Mike. The website for Old Crow is pretty cool with a lot of interesting reads.


I'll guarantee that not many kids here in the lower states could relate to going off to "culture camp" to learn the skills necessary to be a member of the community. They'd be lost being without an I-phone for 15 minutes. On there, I was reading about kids who thought one of the coolest things about culture camp was learning how to burrow into the snow properly to spend the night sleeping in a snow shelter.... and then doing it. Talk about "My grandpa taught me how to live off the land" - they ain't messin' around!!


A neat look at a unique place, for sure!
 
Mike,
Thank for posting this thread. I always enjoy reading your posts and the one about the remote towns are extremely interesting. Some day I would like to make it to far northern Canada.

Keep the late winter early spring pictures coming. I have a feeling your feel just like I do recently. There is finally sunshine and its time to get outside and play!
 
There's no high school there, so one option for the kids who want to get their diploma is to come to Whitehorse and live with friends or in the dorm. Over the years I've taught a few of the kids from there. For the most part they are very quiet, calm, easy to talk to young people. Mostly we'd talk about hunting, trapping and fishing, but sometimes school. It must be really difficult to live in that context and go to the kind of schooling we offer. Who the heck needs Chem 11 anyways? Sure not a professional guide and muskrat trapper. I had a squirrel skinning contest with one of the boys one time - we tied. I think he did it on purpose to not show off.

It would sure be a neat place to visit and explore.
 
Mike
Interesting web page of Old Crow. What government do they respond to? That is some landing strip. I wonder if that road going in is a mistake. They seem to have everthing under control. Thanks for sharing that.
wis boz
 
And here we think our place up in Manitoba is at the edge of civilization! Somehow I'm comforted, though, to know the existence of places such as this, and thanks for sharing. While working for Cessna Aircraft, I witnessed first-hand how far northern folks are so dependent on general aviation. Here in the U.S., flying just means putting up with a crowded airliner ...
 
They are a First Nation under the jurisdiction of themselves, Yukon, and Canada. The teachers and nurses there will be Yukon Territorial Gov't, the RCMP have a post there so they are Federales, and the Dept of Indian Affairs (Fed) is where the Band's money comes from. They can pass their own local laws (like bylaws) and have, as far as a prohibition on drinking - its a dry community officially.

No worries about the road, its only temporary for 3 weeks or so. It will help people update big items like snowmobiles and roofing tin without having to have it brought in by Hercules. YTG bought them a school bus a few years ago that had to be flown in.

I flew in there once on a Hawker Siddeley I think it was and that runway didn't look very long!
 
Steve,

Yep, planes are the pack horses of the remote communities for sure.

Where's your place at at Riding Mountain? My family broke a homestead on the east side of the mountain back in Louis Riel time and I grew up in Hamiota, SW of the park. Its a beautiful place, that's for sure.

Mike
 
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