1 of 14
Robert Vennick
Island Hopping on Ice
2 of 14
Robert Vennick
3 of 14
Robert Vennick
4 of 14
Robert Vennick
5 of 14
Robert Vennick
6 of 14
Robert Vennick
7 of 14
Robert Vennick
8 of 14
Robert Vennick
9 of 14
Robert Vennick
10 of 14
Robert Vennick
11 of 14
Robert Vennick
12 of 14
Robert Vennick
13 of 14
Robert Vennick
14 of 14
Robert Vennick
By Robert Vennick
The Ultimate Ice Roads Adventure began for a group of six adventurous Europeans last February in their quest to conquer the Northwestern Canadian wilderness by using the ice-roads open during the cold winter season.
Beginning at the Hyatt Regency in Calgary, the group would travel over 6,000 kilometres across Alberta, the North West Territories and British Columbia. The travel organization, weCANada, organized the trip and had three vehicles ready, a Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland, a Jeep Grand Cherokee and a Toyota FJ. The last two vehicles provided by the Innisfail Truck Ranch and equipped with studded Hakkapeliitta 7 SUV by Nokian, courtesy Kal Tire - Innisfail.
The trip started with a warm-up run to the Red Deer River canyon town of Drumheller and a visit to the Royal Tyrrell Museum. After marveling at southern Alberta’s prehistoric roots and peering at the life-sized dinosaur skeletons on display, it was time to continue north on the Dinosaur Trail which, offered magnificent views of the badlands.
The next few of days provided stops at Elk Island National Park, just west of Alberta’s capital city of Edmonton, and further stops along the Victoria Trail as the group was entertained by tales of Alberta’s history including the First Nations peoples, European fur traders, the rise of the Métis and the Ukrainian settlements that brought Christianity to the region.
Reaching Fort McMurray, they toured the Oil Sands Discovery Centre and were in awe of the enormous machinery involved in this type of oil extraction – where tires measure twice the height of the average person.
It was a trip of ‘first times’ which including snowmobiling around Gregoire Lake at Gregoire Lake Provincial Park. Stu Ross of Aurora Tours took them to his cabin in Anzac, just east of the lake, after a very interesting lecture and slide show about the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights; they stepped outside to see this natural phenomenon live. The next two days included a city tour, tubing, swimming, cross country skiing and a nature walk hosted by Johan Louw of Alta-Can tours.
Then came the day to begin the actual ice drive. To reach the small First Nations town of Fort Chipewyan, they had to steer their rigs across the delta of the Athabasca River, over large muskeg areas bordering this mighty river. Just before town there is a wide ice-bridge crossing Athabasca Lake. Due to the warm weather it had taken much longer than normal and the lake had just frozen over. But now the ice thickness was sufficient, holding weights of up to 60,000 kg – easily more than enough for their rigs. It was an exciting drive from the hills of the Athabasca Sand Dunes across the ice of the delta, ending in the very small town of Fort Chipewyan. Upon their arrival, they were welcomed and offered lunch by Robert Grandjam, of the Cree First Nation.
The following day dawned, cold, windy and snowing – the perfect setting for watching the mornings’ dog sled races.
The rest of the day was spent crossing the frozen muskeg and creeks of Wood Buffalo National Park, the largest National Park in Canada. It is just a little bigger than Switzerland. Parks Canada sent Helena Katz to accompany us on this “Park Crossing”. The road was very narrow, filled with sharp curves and steep hillsides covered in ice and sometimes deep snow. Although the drive was challenging the landscape was quiet and peaceful. Perhaps this was the reason for First Nations people naming the river cutting through this landscape, the “Peace River”.
The day ended in Fort Smith where the group was welcomed by staff from Parks Canada, who opened up the Visitor Centre, and then later by the director of the Fort Smith Museum, who guided them on a private tour.
One of the geological highlights of the area are “Karst”. They appear as very large sinkholes; hundreds of metres wide and sometimes up to sixty metres deep. Underground streams “eat” away softer layers of earth (composed of gypsum and salt), creating a cave below harder layers of rock. When the ceiling becomes too thin, it collapses creating a large hole. Standing at the edge of one of these enormous sinkholes just north of Fort Smith, the group was completely enamored by this natural phenomenon.
From here the group traveled through Bison Sanctuary and traversed the large Mackenzie River ice bridge at Fort Providence. Work on a traditional bridge is currently in progress and when it’s done, it will put an end to the tradition of the current ice bridge.
Rounding the immense Great Slave Lake the group arrived at the capitol of the North West Territories, Yellowknife. Robert Vennick, the weCANada tour guide, led the group over the beautiful ice road, which connects Yellowknife to the First Nations village of Dettah. A summer time trip would take at least half an hour, but using the ice bridge, you can get there in less than ten minutes. The ice is thick and blown bare by the icy polar winds. It is deep blue and driving on it feels like driving on a mirror. The Nokian Tires stuck to the ice like race slicks on a dry tarmac surface. On their return from Dettah, they stopped at the Snow King Ice Castle. Although construction would continue for another two weeks, the outside looked virtually complete. The castle will house more than 1000 people and several bands will play to celebrate the arrival of spring halfway through March.
The group then traveled to the Yellowknife Regional Airport to meet with the people of Buffalo Airways. This company is famous for the Discovery Channel show, Ice Pilots of the North West Territories. They met all the actors from the show, including the boss, Joe McBryan, and were offered a full tour of the facilities.
The road to the small First Nations town of Gameti is the longest continuous stretch of ice road and the namesake of the trip, Island Hopping on Ice. The weight limit for this 225 km stretch is down to 10000kg – still far in excess of what the group requires. The country is a vast, flat plateau of lakes and islands. One moment the group is navigating across a tiny island and in the next moment they are driving offshore crossing one of the many lakes. This process was repeated all day long and required the utmost concentration from of the drivers.
Later that evening in Gameti, the group found they had the hotel entirely to themselves - even the staff left. They enjoyed one of the most spectacular displays of the Aurora Borealis of the trip so far.
Taking a different route back, they traveled to Zama City, an oil community in Alberta, and visited the beautiful, now completely frozen, Twin Falls, close to Hay River. It is beyond imagination that such large mass of fast moving water can be fully frozen and come to a stand still. Dozens of pictures later, they continued on their adventure. Only back home, do they see that the makers of the BBC Series Frozen Planet, airing on Discovery Channel, filmed at the very same location.
After spending the night at Rainbow Lake, just past Zama City, it was time to traverse the final stretch of ice road. The group would cross the seemingly endless expanse of oil fields following a small map and the Ice Road Rules provided by the Husky Oil Group and end the day in Fort Nelson.
They started out by putting waypoints in their GPS systems, in case they had to turn around and find their way back. Fortunately it proved to be an unnecessary precaution, as no mistakes were made. On this stretch, the group had three different encounters with one of the most beautiful predators in this part of the world, the Lynx.
The last part of the route was the most difficult – and not because of ice. This gravelly section of road experiences heavy equipment traffic from the oil rigs. By the end of the day there were as many “stars” in the windshields as there were in the night sky. Even one of the Jeep’s grills broke completely when it was hit by one of the “meteors” coming from a passing oil truck.
The next 450 km they would travel the famous Alaska Highway, from Fort Nelson to Dawson Creek. During World War II, it was the attack on Pearl Harbour, which initiated the construction of the Alaska Highway. On March 8, 1942, tons of road-building equipment was sent by train to Dawson Creek, also called “Mile 0", along with thousands of military personnel and civilian workers. One crew started at the northern end point of Delta Junction, Alaska working south to meet the workers that started at Mile ‘0.’ One thousand seven hundred miles of roadwork was completed on October 28 1942, just seven months later. The Alaska Highway House, the museum in the city centre of Dawson Creek, is situated right across the “Mile 0" Post and is dedicated to the construction of the Alaska Highway; it’s history and the people behind it.
Long stretches of driving still lay ahead of the group and most of it off the beaten path. They followed the Forestry Trunk Road from Grande Prairie to Hinton - a wide and winding gravel road composed of beautiful hillsides (and lots of exciting corners). A blanket of fresh snow made this stretch another magical one.
The Ice Fields Parkway runs from Jasper through Lake Louise and on to Banff. Almost 30 cm of fresh snow fell transforming the area into a winter wonderland, testing the limits of the Nokian tires. The group enjoyed the sight of the frozen Athabasca Falls, Sunwapta Falls and ice climbers tackling The Weeping Falls. One of the highlights was a descent into the deep Maligne Canyon close to Jasper, where the water seeping from the rock, creates the most beautiful, deep blue, frozen cathedrals of stalagmites and stalactites.
Before returning to Calgary, they drove the beautiful Spray Lakes Road, right into the Rocky Mountains. Leaving from Canmore, this road took the group up to the Delta Lodge in Kananaskis Village and the group visited the Canmore Nordic Centre.
From here the steep and winding road is no longer paved. You drive very close to the water of the Upper Lakes, making your way over the dam ending Spray Lakes. The completely frozen lakes offer sights of blowing snow in which dog sled teams pass, and in which ice fishermen try their luck while their tents are almost blown off the ice.
The group returned to Calgary and made a trip to the Gasoline Alley Museum at Heritage Park Historical Village; a self-described hands-on, interactive museum that features an impressive collection of one-of-a-kind vintage vehicles and oil and gas related artifacts.
After driving more than 6000 kilometres in three weeks, the adventure came to an end right were it started, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Calgary. The cars so kindly provided by Innisfail Truck Ranch performed extremely well and the Kal Tire Innisfail sponsored Hakkapeliitta 7 SUV tires by Nokian kept everyone safe - preventing any claims to the insurance sponsors McGillivray Insurance & Financial Services, a Co-operators agent in Innisfail.
weCANada invites you to experience this well organized and adventurous trip in 2013. The next departure will be February 9, 2013. For more information, please visit www.wecanada.com or call Robert Vennick at (403) 505-6095.
They would like to thank all of their sponsors, Travel Alberta, Fort McMurray Tourism, the hotels, Parks Canada and all the different outfitters that provided so many wonderful excursions.