#2trucks2tuk - The road to Tuktoyaktuk and the Arctic Ocean

On June 27th 2019 we embarked on a 23 day, 8515km round trip journey with two trucks and 4 people from Vancouver, British Columbia to the Arctic Ocean and the small remote community of Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories. Of this 8515km's, over 2100km's was spent on gravel roads.



Up until November of 2017 the farthest north you could drive in Canada by road (not including winter ice roads) was Inuvik, NWT via the iconic Dempster Highway. The Federal and Territorial (NWT) governments spent a total of $265 Million (CAN) and 4 years constructing a permanent all weather highway from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk. This new road known as the ITH (Inuvik-Tuk-Highway) now makes it possible to drive to the Arctic Ocean in Canada year round eliminating the need for a winter ice road linking the two communities and permanently linking Canada from "coast to coast to coast."



I first heard about this new road during a presentation at the BC Overland Rally in the summer of 2018. Ray Hyland (NW and BC Overland Rally Organizer) and Chris from Overlanding BC were one of the first to complete the trip along the new highway in their Land Rovers. I knew instantly after their presentation that this was going to be my next big trip with the truck. There is something awe-inspiring about photos and videos I've seen from the north. Besides Alaska, there really isn't anywhere else in North America where you can drive and camp in such a remote and untouched landscape. Not wanting to do the trip solo I was luckily able to convince my good friend Mike and his girlfriend (Tanya) to do the trip with me and my girlfriend (Morgan). At the time Mike didn't even own a truck, or a even a Toyota. We had a little bit under a year for him to find himself a suitable rig and for us to get both of the trucks ready for the huge adventure ahead of them.

Mike eventually decided on a 2008 FJ Cruiser Trails Team Edition. The truck was stock when he got it but it wasn't long before he had it transformed into an Overlanding beast. Over the year leading up to the trip besides a whole host of maintenance related items the previous owner had neglected the truck got a 3" lift, new UCAs, 33" all terrain tires, Warrior Products roof rack, Freespirit Recreations Adventure Series 55" Tri-Layers tent, and a custom front bumper with winch built by ARC One Industries. The extra fuel storage required for this trip was solved by 2 Rotopaxs and custom brackets attached to the roofrack also built by ARC One Industries. Mike and myself also built a cabinet for the back of the truck which would hold a cooler (or a fridge) and food/gear storage and 2 pullout tool storage trays.



My Tacoma has been an ongoing Overland Style build since I bought it new in 2014. I've been terrible with updating my build thread on this site, but over the last year in preparation for this trip the truck received a 3" suspension lift, new UCA's, 33" All terrain tires, UHF/VHF Mobile radio, RAM mounts for Radio, Tablet, Cellphone and I rebuilt my bed sleeping platform to include drawer/stove pullout. I also had ARC One Industries fix and install a damaged ARB bumper that I got for free and got them to make some custom modifications to it in their signature lighting setup. Extra fuel storage was solved by building a tray to house 2 Scepter MFC (Military Fuel Cans) that bolted into my Frontrunner roof rack. We were a little unsure of whether or not we would have any campfire bans during our trip so I decided to bring a chainsaw and also a 20lb propane tank and a propane firepit incase there was any bans. The 20lb tank and chainsaw found their homes on the cabrack with the fuel during the trip. Because I sleep in the canopy of my truck the more things I could keep out of the bed means its easier for me to set up camp every night. This was crucial on a trip were we would be setting up a new camp almost every night. Both back seats of my double cab were removed, one side has a 12v fridge on a slide out and the other is used for more gear storage. This system proved effective for this trip and I would say that I can set up my bed to sleep as fast or even faster then Mike can set up his roof top tent to sleep.



In this thread, which I will be updating constantly over the comings days and weeks, I will be going through our trip day by day and sharing some of my favorite photos from the trip and a little write up of our journey along the way north to the Arctic Ocean. If you want to see more photos from the trip you can search the hashtag #2trucks2tuk on Instagram. I've posted some of the photos of our travel already on my Instagram @Leppz and I will be posting more content and some video content on youtube at a later date.

 

God speed & safe travels!

 

Looks like an awesome trip!

 

Well........ did they make it home?

 

Alright guys. Sorry for the Hiatus. Yes we made it home. Life has been busy. Between moving homes and still trying to get outdoors every chance I get this summer while the weather is still decent I haven't had much time to sit down in front of my computer and update this thread. If you'd like to stay more up to date on any of my adventures, its best to follow my Instagram which can be found under the same name "Leppz". I plan on updating this thread with more info and pictures through the fall/winter as time allows and releasing content on a day by day basis following our trip north through BC, Yukon and Northwest Territories.

I will start by leading off where our journey began, at this years BC Overland Rally.



This was the third year for the BC Overland Rally, each year growing in size. To handle all the new attendees the event organizers decided to try a new location for 2019 near Whistler, BC. The event was held at Whistler Olympic Park which was the location of the Nordic events facilities for the 2010 Winter Olympics and is located in the Madeley Creek basin in the Callaghan Valley, west of Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. The facility hosted the biathlon, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, and ski jumping. Our campsite for the weekend was at the base of this ski jump. We absolutely loved this new location although it would have been nicer if the weather behaved a little better for us. This year was exceptionally wet!





If you are driving from the Vancouver area, one has to take the iconic "Sea-to-Sky" highway from North Vancouver to reach Whistler, BC. For those that have never done it before, this is a drive in itself. The highway meanders along the rocky and steep shoreline before reaching Squamish where the to-sky portion of the highway begins as you climb and wind your way through the mountains. This is evident by the elevation chart/map below.



I've been lucky enough to attend every rally since its inception in 2017. I actually blame the fireside presentation "The road to Tuktoyaktuk" by Ray Hyland and Chris Walker in 2018 for being one of the main driving factors behind planning this trip. Ray and Chris were one of the first to travel the new all-season road to Tuktoyaktuk. I knew as soon as their fireside chat was over that I must go north and that I would not be disappointed in doing so.



The rally was a great place for us to start our trip. It gave us the opportunity to talk with lots of other adventurers who have been north. We got tons of tips and helpful information that insured we didn't miss out on anything and gave us some reassurance that we were as prepared for this journey as we thought we were. While networking, making new friends and drooling over overland rigs we were also able to attend some of the courses being taught at this years Overland Rally. One of the most valuable being vehicle recovery techniques instructed by Bob Wohlers from the Off-Road Safety Academy.

I wish I took a few more photos from this event, but the rain was off and on and I didn't have my camera out much. Every year I've attended this rally I've wanted to just hop in the truck after and go on a multi-week adventure. This year we decided to make that happen.

 

Ah I'll have to check this out when I'm not on mobile. Tuk is an experience. Just walking around town there are so many clues that you're a long, long way from home.

 

Sunday morning we left the BC Overland Rally and made our way north along Highway 99 past Pemberton, along "Duffey Lake Road" till we hit Seton Lakes and the town of Lillooet.







Its pretty crazy to look back on these photos of the trucks from the beginning of our trip to see just how clean both of the trucks are still.




We fueled up the trucks in Lillooet and headed for a lake called "Hihium Lake". Because it was a Sunday, and a long weekend (Canada Day, July 1st on the Monday) we knew the chances of getting a spot at Hihium Lake were slim to none. Regardless we decided to check it out anyways. The campground at Hihium is an RV accessible lake that is popular with anglers. I spent many summers on Hihium lake camping and fishing with my family as a kid growing up. It had been about 5 years since I was last there and I wanted to check the area out as in 2017 the Elephant Hill Forest Fire which effected a total of 191,865.0 hectares burned through this region.

I was happy to find out that the forestry campground was 100% not effected by the fire. Although the campground was full, I knew that were lots of other lakes nearby that we could potentially camp at.




We got back on the main forest service road and eventually found ourselves a nice quiet (besides the buzzing of the mosquitoes) lake to camp on for the night. Everyone always warns that the bugs up north are ruthless. I would say that without a doubt, the bugs here were far worse than anything else we encountered up north. I guess that's what you get for camping next to a small marshy lake.

Night 1 officially on the road. Hudson's Bay Lake.

 

It’s a fun drive, nice, easy roads, plenty of gas and places to camp and good views if the weather cooperates.

 

Yup, although I wouldn't say there is "plenty of gas". I wouldn't do the trip without extra fuel cans. Not to say that you can't without, there is enough gas stations spread out with a max distance of about 350KM that you can make it fine between them without dipping into the reserve. However, if you were to get turned around past the halfway point for some reason, you might not have enough fuel to make it back to the last place you got fuel. Most vehicles traveling this far north are carrying extra fuel. The north is too unpredictable with weather, forest fires, road closures, etc to not be prepared by carrying extra fuel.

 

Day 2 on the road to Tuktoyaktuk

Leaving Hudsons Bay Lake we drove just over 400km to our next stop at the old historic town of Barkerville. For those that have never heard of it before Barkerville was the main town of the Cariboo Gold Rush in British Columbia, Canada, and is preserved as a historic town. It is located on the north slope of the Cariboo Plateau near the Cariboo Mountains 80 kilometres east of Quesnel.



The typical route to this town sees most travelers coming in from the west off highway 97 at Quesnel and turning east onto Highway 26. Not wanting to do the highway route we left Highway 97 near 150 Mile house (just south-east of Williams Lake) and continued on a pavement till we hit the town of Likely, BC. From Likely, we took the 160KM gravel road called the "Likely-Barkerville backroad". This road is your typical gravel Forest Service Road and maintained in good condition.


Stopping at the general store in Likely with some what still clean looking trucks.


Make sure to pickup a guide book from the general store. There are signs like this along the entire stretch of backroad with different sights and adventures.


Arriving at Barkerville the trucks got their first coat of dirt and mud during the trip.

The weather wasn't that great and it was getting late in the day so we made a brief visit checking out the town before heading for a nearby campsite.

Night 2 on the Road to Tuktoyaktuk - Forest Rose Campground - Barkerville

 

Day 3 - Exploring the town of Barkerville

After packing up camp we heading back into town and walked around the town, bought some souvenirs and had lunch at one of the restaurants.

 

Did you build your bed slide out entirely out of wood?