A last chance bike ride
Yellowknife tour operator sees potential in Inuvik to Tuk road
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Thursday, April 13, 2017
INUVIK
A lot of people drove the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk ice road during its final season of existence. A few biked it.
Dayle Hernblad, left, and David Stephens ride the ice road to Tuktoyaktuk during its last season. The pair took four days to ride all 185 kilometres. - photo courtesy of Caren Kida
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David Stephens, tour operator for Borealis Bike Tours Unlimited, based out of Yellowknife, led such an adventure with Dayle Hernblad, also from Yellowknife.
"I was attracted to the ride certainly for the adventure and the last chance in a lifetime," said Hernblad, who many years ago spent six months cycling around southeast Asia.
"When I heard about this adventure I was absolutely intrigued, although I have to admit I'm not near as young and I'm not athletic. It was a huge challenge for me, which was another attraction. My husband even kind of looked at me like, 'You can't do that.' But of course here I am."
Stephens, along with wife Caren Kida in the pickup truck, rode with Hernblad from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk over the span of four days. They rode about 50 kilometres per day, heading back to the hotel in Inuvik after each session and picking up where they left off the next morning.
"I think the last chance for the ice road, the challenge in front of me and the adventure of it was very attractive," said Hernblad, who had been to Inuvik only once before.
"Once we got to Tuktoyaktuk, I looked at David and said I think we need to cycle the community, have a look at it and do what I call a victory lap. It was amazing to see Tuk, see the people there."
Hernblad marvelled at children being outside playing in -40 C weather, or dogs chewing on a full frozen char in the yard, animal skins hanging all over - that doesn't happen in Yellowknife, she said.
"It's such a cool, neat, traditional community," she said.
For Stephens, it was an experiment for his young tourism company.
He originally hoped to bring many more people to Inuvik, but the costs of transporting all the fat bikes and difficulties with paperwork led to just Hernblad coming on the adventure.
"The thing that struck me the most was how important studded tires are," he said. "It's bare, slick ice. It's all polished. I didn't have studded tires on my bike, so I had to ride very carefully."
He'll be keeping his eye on what the all-season road might mean for adventure opportunities.
"This is a really good trip for us as a learning experience, working through a lot of logistics for the first time," said Stephens. "We were very fortunate to have a positive person on the trip in Dayle."
Hernblad herself sees a lot of potential in Inuvik tourism. However, the cost of accessing what this region holds is the main limiting factor.
"Right off the bat, one of the challenges is the cost to just get here," she said.
"I think that if the expense wasn't so enormous to just get to Inuvik, this would be an amazing adventure playground with unlimited opportunity," Hernblad added.
"I think that the new road will have new opportunities. People are interested and curious about it."
