Our first morning (September 1, 2006) in Inuvik was leisurely. We took our time having coffee and watching CNN on satellite TV. After our trip up the Dempster, we were tired and felt like we were a long way from home . . . CNN is not my favorite news channel - but it was good to see it that morning. After a continental breakfast, we visited Inuvik's Interpretive Center and a young woman told us of the tour to Tuktoyaktuk, a native hamlet on the Arctic Ocean which was approximately 100 miles north. We made our way over to the tour office and soon realized that the end of the tourist season was upon us and many of the normal activities for tourists were closed or closing. Although a flight to Tuk had not been scheduled for the day, enough tourists showed up and by 1:00 p.m., Kay and I were on our way to the Inuvik airport where we boarded a one engine Cessna to fly to Tuk.
On board were a father and his son as well as a rotund man with gray hair from Austria whom we had met at the Arctic Circle on the way to Inuvik. (We had asked him to take a picture of all three of us - and he agreed to take one but only one. He refused to take any with my camera when I asked. C'est la vie! He was a man who knew his limitations!) As we were boarding, the young man remarked to the boyish looking pilot, "I heard you lost a plane a couple of weeks ago." My heart skipped several hundred beats when the boy pilot in whose hands I had given my life replied, "Yeah, and we don't know what happened. He was our best pilot!"
The Inuvik airport was not J.F.K. It was not even Wiley Post in OKC.
But we eventually made it into the air and my trepidation eventually eased when my mind became focused on the tundra and lakes of the Mackenzie River Delta.
Near Tuk we saw "pingos" which are unique to this area of the world.
Pingos are volcanic looking hills created by lakes, ice, and the permafrost.
There is a large one close to Russia but except for that one, pingos are unique to the area surrounding Tuk.
Tuktoyaktuk is an Inuit hamlet on the coast of the Beaufort Sea of the Arctic Ocean.
There are around 600 people who live in this community which has no trees nor any other barriers between it and the open sea.
We landed on the gravel airport runway and coasted to its bright blue terminal building.
Tuk lies about 50 miles from the Arctic ice cap. 
Ricky Mac, our Inuit guide, and his 10 year old son, Blaine, met us at the airport. Life in this community is much like it has been for years and years.
An icehouse is shared by the community. Inside a white wood-planked shed that appears to be another outhouse there is a ladder that leads 25 feet down into the permafrost. At the foot of the ladder is a long hallway carved out of the ice has "rooms" jutting out. Three families share a room and store their meat there for the year. The rooms stay 3-4 degree (c) throughout the year. Homes are built on piers as they are in Inuvik, and fishing and hunting are the community's main "industries" - and evidence of this is found throughout the hamlet. Many of the buildings are decorated with the antlers of caribou, moose, etc. 
The Catholic and Episcopal churches also show the community's ties to hunting and fishing. The altars of both churches were draped in seal skin.
Antlers were used as candle holders on the Catholic altar.
Christmas lights and the head of a caribou with antlers decorate the steeple of the Catholic church.
The Catholic church had a larger worship center and was in a newer building than its Anglican sister.
The Anglican church is the oldest in Tuk, and its building needs a bit of T.L.C.
The benches are made of wood and the building is heated by a wood stove which sits right in the middle of the aisle. I imagine that the opening procession of priests, acolytes, etc is a bit different here than in a lot of other Episcopal churches around the world. But in spite of its structural difficulties, there was an attractive simplicity here that was remarkable.
The Inuits hunt polar bear and will guide individuals on hunts for $20,000 per person. Our guide emphasized that polar bears must be hunted with dogs to insure that the bears don't circle back and begin hunting the "hunters." Sled dogs are fed two fish every other day and on hot days, they just get water. The community also uses smoke houses for their fish and it continues to hunt whales today with spears. If guns are used to hunt the whales, Ricky explained that the whales will just sink when shot.
While in Tuk, Kay and I walked barefoot in the Arctic ocean - but we didn't walk far. The rocks were so sharp - it was absolutely brutal!
But what a dream come true!!!!
