We were fortunate to befriend a local named David Lucas, aka "animal", who invited us into his home for a traditional meal of muktuk--beluga whale--and dried whitefish. As it turned out, his daughter, a recent high school grad in Tuk, had run out of gas in the family dune-buggy the night before, somewhere out of "town". We joined David in a search for the machine and, after locating it on some flats near the airport, filled it with 2 gallons of gas ($22 at the local gas pump). To our surprise and delight, he tossed me the key and told us, "It's two hours 'til your skid arrives. Go have fun."
David snuck us in to the community ice cellar, which was dug over 50 years ago...
We descended 30 feet through layered mud and permafrost into Tuk's natural freezer.
...The last of one family's caribou stash.
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