August 10th, 2014
Facts about Fort McPherson
Originally the site of a Hudson’s Bay Company post the community was named for “Murdoch McPherson”.
The Gwich’in people of Fort McPherson are very welcoming of strangers and go out of their way to make them welcome. Most people have vehicles and regularly make trips to either Inuvik, or Whitehorse.
Friendly Faces
Ellen & Ghislain: We were just leaving Fort McPherson when we saw these two appear out of the dusty Dempster heading north. We stopped and chatted beside the road for about 10 minutes. I felt like we connected with these two and hope that we can explore parts of Northern Canada together by bike.
Today’s Highlights
Andrew writes:Chasing Ellen and Ghislain into town, only to lose them, but spending a great night free-camping next to the church. Lots of people in town have been so friendly, coming up and chatting with us, it has been really nice.
Today’s Lowlights
Andrew writes:Not finding a washroom in Fort McPherson anywhere near where we were camped out.
What happened…
Andrew writes: I didn’t sleep very restfully last night, or perhaps I should say that I woke often. Partly because I was worried about bears, partly because I was worried about the property owner finding us, and also partly because every time I looked outside of the tent, the hue of the sky was incredible.
When we finally did roll out of bed at the crack of 9:30, we took our time, drank a few cups of coffee, and enjoyed chocolate chip cookie pancakes. Mmmm! We then reorganized all of our equipment, and packed our gear, and again it wasn’t until 12:30 that we left to go cycling. Still, it was going to be a light pedal through rolling hills to just past Fort McPherson. The terrain had been flat for the last two days but the landscape definitely had a little more effort required today with lots of ups and downs. I look forward to a few days from now when we’ll be in the mountains and the real fun begins.
Oh man, the sunlight right now is incredible. Everything is such a soft golden colour, and if it weren’t for the hundreds of mosquitos trying to eat me to death then I could very well be in Nirvana
We arrived in Fort McPherson around 5pm, stopped for our first bit of junk food, and then left. As we were leaving, we saw two cyclists approaching from the opposite direction. Enter Ellen and Ghislain, gosh I hope I spelled his name right; it’s French, and hard to pronounce too. Anyhow, we totally hit it off with these two and I felt like we could have chatted all afternoon and evening with them. Yet I got caught in the stupidness of cycling which told me that we still had 10km to go to the campground. Off we went, and the two of them headed into the Fort. About 2 minutes later, I asked Amanda if we were doing the right thing; going to the campground instead of trying to get to know these two better. She posed the question back to me and that caused me to make a big U-turn and head after Ellen and Ghislain.
We thought they had said they would be sleeping in the church and that’s where we went. The doors to the building were unlocked, but no one was home. In the end, they never showed up, but lots of people came up and talked to us and made us feel really welcome. Ken Martin showed me the traditional Gwich’in summer home behind his house. I could spend a few nights in one of those for sure. The whole town seems to enjoy walking, cycling, ATV’ing or driving around in circles; so I think we saw pretty much everyone.
I think just to be done everything early felt good. It gave me time to recharge my Macbook and camera, play my recorder, Amanda made lunch for tomorrow, and we’re off to bed early tonight. The sun will still be setting for another few hours here, but I’m not sure I’m ready to call it a day. I would like to just sit on this bench and watch the world go by.
Today’s Photographs
