Shift Rotation and the trip home

Do you know what an ice road is? It is a road made of ice.  Now there are two kinds of ice road.  There is the kind that is actually a river that has had the snow plowed off of it and then a hole is augured through the ice and the path cut by the plows is flooded to give a somewhat smooth, road like surface and then scarified to give better traction.  A road of this type is the only road that currently exists between Inuvk NWT and Tuktoyaktuk NWT. In the summer there isn't a road and all travel must be done by air or boat.  It takes about two hours or more depending on the weather to get from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk on the ice road. That is 2 very grueling hours for a body. It is a constant pounding over cracks and bumps.  This is what it looks like.

That crack you see is actually a crack in the windshield not the ice road. The second type of ice road is over land and water is pumped into tanker trucks from lakes are sprayed over packed snow layer after layer until it is strong enough to carry the traffic.  Both these types of roads are very interesting and practical but very slippery.All driving is very calculated no sudden moves is the key.

 

It is a good feeling to have worked for three weeks 7 days a week 12 hours a day and to be headed home for a solid week off and a big pay check. But the 2 hour ice road ride and 2 days on an airplane take a little of the joy out of it. So when you get to Inuvik life looks a little like normal.  You have your neighborhood dogs roaming the streets.

Looking like wolves. But hey you have to remember where you are.  This is not exactly Chihuahua country.

 

So once you get to the airport in Inuvik you get your ticket you wait for the eternally late aircraft to arrive. My first trip up here so I have to get used to the systems here.  No high security here I noticed no strip search, no scanning of luggage.