Road Trip To The ARCTIC - Part 2 | Car Troubles, Polar Dips & Camping At Tombstone | Episode #10

Almost there, 30 kilometers to go and we'll be at the ocean. We're already starting to see the, I'm pronouncing it pingoo, Alana's pronouncing it pingoo, but they're these big frosty lumps I guess formed by the permafrost under the ground. But other than that it's flat, there's not a lot of trees left, nothing but tundra. So this last little stretch of the road, it's been extremely windy. We're weaving through all the little lakes that are around here, so it's windy, we're weaving, and Kyle is dodging pretty decent sized rocks on the road. Small boulders. Yeah. For the last two and a half hours, I mean it's been fairly flat, but out of nowhere you're just, you have to dodge these like fairly big rocks that would not be good if you hit them. Yeah, it's like right now it's a little on the sandier side, but like the size of the rocks on the road, it's just, like how do they get there? Adds to the adventure, right? Yeah, so we're almost there and I'm excited for the midnight sun. We're pretty much gonna have like 24 hours of daylight, which is pretty, pretty awesome I think, just to experience it. Yeah, it's definitely different. Just to say, it's pretty satisfying I think. So far we've clocked in at just below 9,000 kilometers, lots of detours along the way, but from Ontario all the way to Tuktoyaktuk, it's pretty amazing, pretty amazing. Okay, so we're just sitting here in the car right now at our campsite and it's too windy out to cook anything, so we're just kind of contemplating over some drinky poos what we're gonna do. So Kyle's gonna go out and go up top and grab some rice, beans, and some tuna. In a minute. Yeah, we're gonna cook it here, but like I know, I don't know if you can hear the wind, but it hasn't let up since we've arrived here in Tuk, so yeah, we're just gonna hang out in our home. It's quite cozy in here. It's awesome to be here, just to say we're at the Arctic Ocean, but we can't really go outside and enjoy it right now. Yeah, it's pretty incredible, like you know, we were just talking, like they just built this road from Inuvik to Tuk in 2017 and it's definitely the road less traveled because there aren't many people here, it's very quiet, so it is quite an accomplishment and I'm so proud of you for getting us here safe. Yeah, it feels really good to be here, you know, seeing people on YouTube and following along with those people that I follow and just seeing what they present this place to be and then seeing it with your own eyes. Also as a place, like we weren't even going to come here for a while, we were really debating it and then one day we're just like, you know what, we have to, we're already up north, we just, we gotta do it and we're here. A couple minor incidents on the road, but nothing we couldn't handle ourselves and yeah, totally worthwhile. Yeah, pretty incredible. Yeah, so it's supposed to be nice over the next couple of days, so we're just going to kind of hang out and ride out this little windy, rainy storm and then enjoy, enjoy Tuk. Cheers to being in Tuk, in the arctic by the arctic ocean. Oh, can of beans, I've never had this, this will actually be pretty good I think. Lime and cilantro, basmati rice, an avocado from breakfast and sun-dried tomato and basil tuna. We're going to heat all this up. I have a little bit of flavor going on. We're going to pour all, the whole can, you want all that tomato sauce from the beans. We're not wasting nothing here. Okay, we threw a little bit of water in the bottom and if you're wondering why we're doing this, it is very cold and windy outside. It's just not worth getting the propane stove out to cook our dinner. Cooking indoors tonight. Voila, and we do have a window open, so we are letting some of the air out here. Step two, now we wait for our dinner to heat up. Once it starts steaming a little bit, we're going to stir it around with our knife here. Cheers. Cheers. To beans and rice, cheers. Got it. Limited space in here, but we're going to mix all that rice and beans up. And what do we think? It's just exquisite. I knew I was going camping, but this is like fine dining experience right now. Everything was prepped for me. Everything was laid out and explained like step-by-step how it was being prepared. It was cooked right in front of me and now all I have to do is enjoy it with this spoon. We'll see you next time on Cooking with Cal, Arctic Ocean Edition. Take care, folks. Have a great night. Thank you so much. Goodbye now. Kyle. That's me. Excellent. Thank you. Sun shining, ocean, a little windy. Windy as yesterday, so it's nice. We've had our breakfast. Before we leave Tuck today, I think there's just one more thing we we go. The trek is complete. The full Arctic experience. Yeah. Once you're in, it's actually really refreshing. It's freezing, but really refreshing. I feel like the glacier lakes we've been in are actually almost colder. Yeah. Yeah. So it's kind of a mixture from the freshwater in the Mackenzie River flows out into the Beaufort Sea. So it's a little salty, but not too bad. No, no. Yeah. I wasn't in long enough to taste any salt water, but once you're out, your body just kind of, your muscles relax and it's literally a polar dip. Yeah. Yeah. And I got to wash my hair finally. It had been a few days. We're at Eagle Plains and we just had a free hot shower. Yeah. Amazing. Was that? Yeah. That's the price of Spain or paying way too much for gas. Yeah. It's a 250 liter again. So, yeah. And yeah, we were, we knew there were public showers here. We were just like, Oh, I wonder how much that costs. And one of the guys at the, uh, the shop there and just down the building here, he's like, Oh, there's free showers down there. Yeah. So taking full advantage of that. Filled up our water. Yeah. Got some showers. We're just having some snacks. We have a little bit of watermelon, some granola bars. Kyle's been eating like bread and hot sauce. I need carbs. It's crazy. Like groceries are so expensive. So, and Kyle like eats everything. So that's not true. Yes, it is. It's true. That's my snack road snacks. He's just saying he has to eat so much that he's eating bread and hot sauce. I get hungry, but I'm feeling good. Feeling fresh. That's good. We're going to keep, uh, keep on going. We're making good time. Actually, we don't really need to make good time. We have all the time in the world, but. So it's been nice to just stop and like take in all the views that we've missed on the way up. Yeah. So we're going to probably stop in a little bit and make some dinner. Yeah, that's it. We're at Tombstone Territorial Park. Just rolled in. Cars making lots of funny noises. Having issues with it now. I'm not really sure what it is. Sounds like the conveyor belt and the steering wheels. Yeah. Yeah. We were going to just bolt it right to Dawson city, but it's a Sunday right now. So things are probably closed. So. Yeah. So we're here. So we're just going to enjoy it. Yeah. We're going to pretend it's not happening right now. Just finished filling out our permits. So to hang this one on the post and then the other one with the money goes in the bin at the front where you come in. So diesel and I are going to go do that overheard at the interpretive center that there are blueberries in the area. So we just went today just to kind of ask a little bit more. And they said that there are an abundance of blueberries and like other berries. And we learned that they're all edible in Tombstone Park. So we're going to forage some berries. Yeah. We've already ate a bunch. So yeah, we found them right away. We're looking for moss berries, which grow in the shrubs. They're very low to the ground. They're dark, dark blue, kind of blackish, a little bit sour, but they're very juicy. And then blueberries, which we also found just kind of right by our campsite. And then there's a few other berries too. So we have a little book with us just to kind of check, uh, just to know that they're all edible. It's pretty awesome. So yeah. Yeah. So we're going to take advantage of this rainy day foraging for dinner. Foraging for dinner. Yeah. Right off, right off the land. Let's do it. So the moss berries are found in these little shrubs close to the ground. So they're, um, they're quite juicy. Let me try this one. They're juicy. That one's actually pretty good. Some of them are sour too though. Little babies. I think the bears have gotten most of this patch. You can tell what the favorite ones are. Let's see. Just little guys. Berries in the wilderness. Like there's so many back there. All right. Last five kilometers of the Dempster highway. We're just about back to the intersection to take us back to Dawson city. I can't wait to get off this bumpy road. I'll tell you that. Excuse me, ma'am. How do you feel? So good. I I'm happy we're off that road. Yeah, it was beautiful. Just the roads were that's one way to put it. Fantastic scenery. It was amazing. We, um, we're on there for eight days stopping along the way. Of course we were in tombstone for the last couple of days, which is amazing. Got a good hike in finally this morning, but yeah, we're done the Dempster highway. We frigging did it. We're going to go get our certificate now. Yeah. We're going to go see our friend Dawn at the visitor center who gives out certificates for those that have completed the highway and diesel gets one too. Yeah. Woo. Oh yeah. I think we need to go get the car fixed first to be honest. Still making a lot of racket under the hood. The belt sounds like it's squealing. Something's leaking. Um, I don't really know exactly what it is. We haven't had service, so it's not like we can even Google any of this stuff, but we're going to figure that out now and just get it over with and carry on with our trip. Are you happy to be done the Dempster? Yeah. Yeah. I'm happy. It's, it's a strange feeling being in a city right now, considering we've been kind of off grid and in these little tiny, tiny towns secluded from, I guess, reality per se. So it's nice to be back. We have our phones and just checking in because everyone's like, where have you been? Are you okay? And I'm ready to put it down. Already. Already. I feel like I just need to eat and then like tomorrow we'll like check in and fill everyone in with what's been going on. We've been having fun, so that's all that really matters. Good to be back. Cheers Kyle and Elena and Diesel. Diesel. Having demonstrated the initiative, integrity, and bold adventure spirit of Arctic Explorers who have traversed the Dempster Highway will hereupon be recognized as honorable members of the exclusive Dempster Highway Order of Arctic Adventures. Yeah. Good job, buddy. He's so excited. You want to go on the Dempster? You want to go on the Dempster?