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| July 28, 2008. Day 47 - Dempster Highway, NT km 50 - just past Fort McPherson km 86 |
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| After the momentary blip of sun that was yesterday, today looks overcast
and bleak. The crew makes a valiant attempt at the hill just up from our
morning rest spot but whatever charge remaining in the battery is quickly
exhausted and we retreat to a flat spot to await the rays. Max arranges the XOF1 promotional posters as windbreakers for the campstove and before long we are breakfasting on mr. noodles, hot chocolate and granola bars. Todd gets a rousing game of highway soccer going -interrupted only by the infrequent road maintenance trucks and nearby pond. More than a few NT Ministry of Transportation employees stop to take photos and a closer look at the XOF1. Most seemed to have been keeping abreast of the web updates (hey guys! :) ) and a few commented on Marcelo's interaction with the wolf (see July 26 if you missed it.) One of these folk, Arvin, arives not long before we are set to leave and as he is also heading to Inuvik, says he will be around us for the rest of our day's drive. Todd, needing to get back to Edmonton Wednesday mornng for his flight home to Washington, DC scores a ride with our new friend to Inuvik and tomorrow's connecting flight. The road has been newly covered with gravel and clay and some highway maintenance workers considerately compact it down to make it easier for Marcelo to navigate. We reach the Peel River ferry crossing at around 5:30 and roll into Fort McPherson thirty minutes later. Within seconds there are loads of curious kids on bikes surrounding XOF1. Fielding lots of questions as we go, the array is quickly set up and pylons out. Max has a David Lynch experience filling up the gas tank and Mo & Carrie take a long walk to the one cafe in town which at this hour, is already closed. Inquisitive townsfolk ply us with questions and after hearing about it, are very interested in seeing photos of our wolf encounter. We meet Catherine Lambert- Koizumi, from the University of Alberta/ Gwich'in Renewable Resource Board who reinforces our belief that our experience was an unusual one. We also meet her extremely cute 8 month old daughter Yuki and colleague Brook Land-Murphy, from SFU who is up here researching the social/community impact from the new pipelines. Marcelo finds a power outlet to charge up electronics. Todd, Carrie & Mo take a walk in the other direction and locate Jo, the mayor's wife, who makes us a burger and pizza. Around 8:30 pm we take one last picture of the Whitehorse - Fort McPherson leg crew before regretfully, Todd leaves us to head to Inuvik with Arvin. At 10:00pm, though the sun is still out, the incoming charge is nearly nothing so we begin to pack it in. Dwayne, an overworked friendly RCMP officer stops by for a quick chat. He invites to his home/ office for a coffee on the way back. Not long out of Ft. McPherson, with the battery still low, we take note of an oncoming steep hill and a flat gravelled road entrance to the side. We pull over intending at first to only charge enough to get over the hill but decide to stay here for the night. Marcelo is excited to witness the midnight sun with no cloud cover and a glorious sunset bathes us in red glow. At last a dream come true. XOF1 solar array is tilted towards the midnight sun. Defenetly a world first! |
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