"North of Ordinary" people in the Yukon and NWT

I like the slogan for Yukon that proclaims “North of Ordinary”. Indeed, our northern experiences have been far north of ordinary in all respects. Having twenty-four hours of daylight is just the beginning. I wish I had the moose’s fours stomachs the easier to digest the remarkable three weeks we have just spent “north of ordinary.” Not to overburden our friends, we decided to talk about this part of the trip over several days, starting with some stories of the people, including culture and arts and then show some photos of the landscape and overall environment with its plants and animals. Certainly, this is only a plate of tapas. For the real meal, we hope we’ll have many hours together with drinks and a large place of tapas once the road leads us home again.
While we’ve met wonderful people all along the way, we’re waving hello to just those encountered on the North Klondike Highway, in Dawson City, Yukon, and Inuvik, Northwest Territories, and all along the Dempster and Top of the World Highways (at least, highways is what the maps call these two-lane gravel roads) before we returned to “home” to the FunFinder at Caribou RV Campground in Whitehorse. To the couple from Texas who told us about the Buffy Sainte-Marie concert, thanks and we did manage to get tickets! We hoped you didn’t get stuck on the washed-out road into Alaska on the way to Chicken and Eagle. And then there is George, sole occupant of Boundary, Alaska, completely isolated now that the Top of the World road is closed to through traffic--thanks for the warm welcome, the hot coffee, and for sharing with us the Forty-Mile caribou herd!
We received the friendliest welcome at Nitainlaii Territorial Campground from Robert Alexis, who generously shared his stories about his life in the Fort McPherson region. (What a spic and span campground he keeps!) Talking about friendly--the folks up north are among the friendliest and most helpful we’ve ever encountered. There’s this long story about the girl at the ice-cream counter in Dawson who recognized us as a link in returning a lost camera to friends we had talked to at the Canada Day celebrations--from our images on that camera! What a detective she was, and so helpful, too! And we were delighted to run into Sylvia and Marge and to know that the camera had been returned, too. Heidi at NWT Information and Nicole at the Triple J in Dawson--thanks for treating us like old friends and being so helpful! Anika at the Aurora Research Institute taught us so much about the Arctic and took time to show us the Cosmic Ray/Neutron Detector and to Sister Mary Jo whose intriguing stories enriched out visit to the Igloo Church in Inuvik.
We are convinced that Parks Canada finds the most remarkable people who serve as admirable ambassadors--Marie-Claude the guide at Dredge 4 in Dawson (though her francophone pronunciation of Marion, Ohio did leave us puzzled for a little) created a historical pageant unimagined previously. Then there is Gerry at the office, who sat down and chatted for a while, busy though he was, and then recognized us later at the Arts Festival. A big shout-out to Elise in Yellowknife, marathon runner and friends with a mutual friend--small world. Her photos of us in the Artic Ocean are classic! Thanks so much, and come visit!