Sunday July 2nd was the big day! Maxi and the guys reached their goal of Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories. Yes, that’s the Arctic Ocean in the background.

Canadians have a sense of humor. Check out the front and back of the certificate for traveling the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway:

I like the image of Maxi dipping her toes — I mean tires — in the Arctic Ocean. A couple more interesting signs from up there:

Wait! the directional sign is clear, but Tuktoyaktuk, the Land of the Pingos? Pingos?? That takes a little explanation for us “south of the border” folk.

Well, a layer of unfrozen ground lies beneath most arctic lakes (and there are a lot of lakes) because the lakes are often too deep to freeze all the way through to the bottom. Then, when a lake drains, a shallow residual pond is left behind. When the former lake bed begins to freeze again, the remaining water slows the development of the permafrost around it. As the lake bed freezes, the water in the ground turns to ice and expands. The extra water cannot escape so it pushes inward toward the center, ahead of the freezing front.

The freezing front advances inward, placing the encapsulated water under pressure so the thin layer of permafrost above it is pushed upward and the “pingo” begins to grow. The pingo is fully formed and stops growing when it is frozen solid. The unfrozen ground becomes permafrost and the pingo’s core is almost pure ice.

Unfortunately, the guys haven’t sent me a picture of a pingo, but this seemed like a good piece of trivia to add to our knowledge bank.

No photo of a pingo, but here are a couple styles of housing in Tuktoyaktuk:

I’m not surprised to see a sod house, but I didn’t expect to see a log cabin! (There are no trees within 60 miles of Tuktoyaktuk.) The last picture explains the puzzle… That’s driftwood that has floated in from the MacKinsey River Delta which is just east of the Yukon/Northwest Territories border along the northern coast.

Jay and Maxi were on Canadian TV again before they started the return trip home. We may have a few days of sketchy communication, but we’ll catch up with them in a couple of days. The adventure isn’t over until they get home!