This section of road was finished just six month before, but due to the elements, it has been quite damaged.
It rattled our van to pieces. At a certain point, the bumper rattled loose and due to metal fatigue, the frame mounts even sheered off.
The tundra is an odd place. I read that the frozen ground is ice for meters and meters underground. So in the summer, it’s basically a bog with slush on top of icy dirt.
This makes driving very dangerous. For the most part, the ground it flat (thank Zeus) but in some places there is a slope. So in a lot of ways, it’s like driving on thick mud, water, slush, and ice.
On the day we drove in, it was 34 degree F in July. It even snowed and rained.
It was white-knuckle driving the whole way up and whole way back to Inuvik.
Even though it was a gamble to drive up to Tuk, it was worth it. However, unless the roadway is improved, I probably won’t voluntarily drive this again.
