Fixer:
Now ya'all teasin' me ain't ya! Ya mean ya ain't neva heaird of no spur road befo?
Why it's simple. A seemingly endless and forlorn narrow ribbon of frozen solid undulating, boulder strewn hinterland, crossing a nearly empty, frozen winter desert wasteland defined by no more than a pair of low narrow parallel snow banks blasted by howling winds that obliterate any previous tracks, with the only comfort being a pair of dim red lights barely visible in the snowdust ahead and your only hope being that there is supposed to be a warm spot somewhere ahead at the end. This track is inhabited only by multiple wheeled metal behemoths snorting gouts of black choking smoke and stirring micro blizzards in their wake. Riding tall in the saddle of these bucking oversize subarctic Gilas are grizzled weather beaten Northmen clad only in ball hats and ... (this is for Margie and Abby) skin tight black leather coveralls, brandishing long heavy whips tipped with spark plugs, their necks glowing dull red in the eternal dark of the aurora lit arctic night, the twinkle of distant pulsars (or is it diamonds) reflecting from their leathers. Whips cracking with reports that echo with the sharp stattacco sounds of the ice buckling beneath. Listen closely and you will hear a curious whirring, cutting rasp that accompanies these midnight madmen as they wrestle their wild steeds through the inky black. It is the sound of the long, large titanium "SPURS" they have strapped to their tall, pointy toed boots which they use to dig into the ice and keep the heavily laden brahma like beasts of burden from careening off the barely visible track and into the previous winters bulk sample pits.
This describes the ice roads going north. But it also describes any so called road across Saskatchewan, ask Gord, he knows.
The road north of Yellowknife ends 45 miles from town. From there on it is winter ice road only and at this point there is only one road. The Lupin ice road has been developed over the years into a 20 metre wide highway except at some of the tougher portages with steep grades. This road goes NNE down MacKay Lake, past Snap lake to the east, and on to the diamond and gold fields to the north. The track to Snap "spurs" off to the east and there you have it. Maybe next year our fearless riders of the night will have their spurs studded with "snapdiamonds".
L8er
Regards,
TAZspurious |
