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Travellers gifted cart by Inuvik local

When travellers Clarissa Black and Leigh Swansborough met Inuvik's Olav Falsnes on the Dempster Highway, they had already experienced the kindness of Northerners – but not in the way they were about to.

Black and Swansborough started their journey June 1 on the Chilkoot Trail and then made their way to Dawson City, where they planned to pick up a cart they had ordered so that they could push their belongings all the way to Tuktoyaktuk.

Clarissa Black, left, and Leigh Swansborough make their way to the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk highway Oct. 17.
Samantha McKay/NNSL photo

But that cart didn't arrive because of an issue with customs, so the pair had to improvise.

"We talked to everyone we possibly could, we went to the free store and we even talked to the mayor, and we ended up with a three-wheel golf bag boy cart and a stroller," said Black. "Then we met Cynthia at the visitor's centre and she offered us a burley. Sometimes it felt like that cart was a little bit magical, it seemed to just keep going forward."

Then, after using the burley to push their belongings up the Dempster Highway for approximately 250 kilometers, the pair of women from Long Beach, California met Falsnes.

Black said Falsnes was driving south down the highway and stopped to say hello. She said he was concerned that the pair might have some difficulties with their cart in the mud and hills that they would encounter, and he gave them his phone number in case they ran into any issues.

The next day, they got a call from Falsnes who said he had a new cart for them.

"We just stood there in a state of shock," said Swansborough, who moved to California from Australia in recent years. "Who drives for five hours to deliver a custom-made cart that they built overnight for two people they've only met once before?"

The cart came with a promise of a pink paint job – Black's favourite colour – and an invitation to stay at Falsnes' Arctic Chalet in Inuvik when they arrived in town, which is where the Inuvik Drum caught up with the travellers Oct. 9.

Hiking for eco-therapy, visibility of female travellers

Black and Swansborough have known each other for 10 years and have gone on many hiking adventures together.

"Going on hikes is grounding for me, it's eco-therapy," said Black. "It helps me fill up my own tank so that I can give back to my national non-profit when I get home."

The non-profit, Pets for Vets, rescues dogs from shelters and trains them to assist veterans with PTSD, anxiety, depression and more.

Swansborough said they are also hiking to increase the visibility of female travellers.

"Female adventurers are visibly invisible. You don't really hear about them unless they die on a mountain, or something tragic happens," said Swansborough. "There's never been a normalization of female adventurers, and we're hoping to change that narrative. This is the first step, being so visible. We have fathers with their daughters coming up to us, mothers taking pictures of us to tell their daughters about us and men sending photos to their wives."

Traveling to Tuk

The pair left Inuvik Oct. 10 with their freshly-painted cart in tow, and arrived in Tuktoyaktuk Oct. 16.

"If we could bottle the sense of community, connectedness, kindness and caring that everybody here in the North shares for each other, I think [the world] would be a happier place," said Black. "People really care here … we have been treated as family by everyone."