Tuktoyaktuk Turnaround

In bluegrass music parlance a turnaround is a short phrase at the end of a song that circles back to the root.  A pleasing analogy to this bluegrass music fan anyways for my ride up to Tuktoyaktuk and back from Inuvik.  The warnings had been clear about the deep gravel on the road and with high winds forecast I thought it most prudent to stay 2-nights in Inuvik and leave Tuk as a day trip, riding as light as possible with only the necessities.  For the first half of the 3-hour ride I was wondering what all the kerfuffle had been about with the "dangerous" road surface.  There was nothing any worse than what had already been passed over to get to this point.  At around the halfway point however the bone shattering washboard started, which was then joined in with increasingly loosening gravel and random dollops of sand just to make it interesting.  Eventually this concophony turned to bottomless chunky gravel that went on for far too long.  A half hour or so outside of Tuk the surface returned to something where the posted speed limit of 70kph was again approachable   Even so while the gravel could be unnerving at times it was manageable, I was surprised that no one had mentioned the washboard which I found far more jarring.

Upon entering town and finding my way to the end of the road I was happy for my decision to forego camping on the point.  While the wind was not as hurricanical as promised the bugs were unbelievable even in the blustery conditions.  So much so that my visit ended up far briefer than I hoped.  

An uneventful return ride a wee bit quicker than the ride up, a growing familiarity with the nuances of the loose surface was slowly being developed - but not for the washboard.  My teeth are still rattling several hours after getting back to the hotel.

When I had checked in it had been Sunday and not a lot of going on.  Upon returning to the hotel Monday after the Tuk ride some local artisans had set up vending tables - a mini market if you will - and I was able to purchase a souvenir Dempster Highway hat with the requisite date of inception (1979) as per my way.  This was fortuitous as to this point my only souvenir of the trip so far was a $0.68(CAD) North Mart shopping bag.