I had another 'icy' good time today. Literally. Amy offerred to take me home after work today...via a different route. So I took her up on it, and we ventured into town by way of the Mackenzie. Yep, we drove the Ice road into town! It was certainly the highlight of my day. When we hopped into her truck the temperature gauge on the dash was at -39. Brrr.
The sign that you see as you drive onto the ice road reads "Winter Ice Road Maximum weight 36000kg". This made me feel quite safe in Amy's pick up truck as I'm sure it doesn't weigh quite that much! I can't believe it can hold that much weight! Amy was saying that the really heavy 18 wheelers that drive on the road (one of which was a couple hundred meters in front of us) have to drive slowish, because when the wieght crosses the ice, it actually creates an under-ice wave, that can potentially cause the ice to break further down the river.
Anyway, so I naturally made Amy stop to take a bunch of photos, a bunch of me, of the frozen in barges, and of Inuvik from afar. Amy was telling me how in the summer all sorts of supplies, including fuel is brought in to Inuvik, Tuktoyaktuk and Aklavik via barge down the Mackenzie. The sun was setting, and it was a gorgeous drive. While I was out of the car, standing on the frozen Mackenzie River I also took a bunch of pictures of the cracks in the ice...hahaha not really reassuring as you stand there. You can sort of see a crack in the picture I've posted above. Overall, it was quite neat to see and drive on the Ice road. The particular road I was on leads all the way to Tuk, the only road access to that town, and its seasonal. I'll be riding on it all the way to Tuk in March!
I must say something about the cars/trucks here. I'm sure I have told you how all vehicles have to be plugged in, and that you have to let it idle for 10 minutes if you actually want it to drive. But the exhaust coming from cars and buildings just hangs so low in the air. It doesn't rise or disperse. I'm not sure quite why, but I'm sure it has to do with the sub-zero temperatures.
Amy and I heard that the 'fruit man' is back in town from someone at work, so we stopped there as well. Like I have mentioned before, this guy comes up every few weeks or so with an 18 wheeler full of fresh fruits and veggies, and tons of other things too. It's like a refrigerator in the truck because of the temperatures, but I ended up getting a bunch of fresh produce for quite reasonable prices! When we asked him how long he'd be here for, he said, "until Monday, unless it gets cold" and Amy was like..."this isn't cold??" At -39, this guy is a seasoned travelling Northerner.
So I'm in my appartment right now, it could definitly be warmer in here, but I'm sipping on some Fine Inuit Herbal Tea that I picked up from one of the shops here a while back. It's really yummy, cloudberry flavour. So taht will keep me warm. You should have a warm cuppa something right now too. Go ahead...get warm.
1 comment:
Hey, I can think of a couple reason why the exhaust doesn't disperse or at least stays low to the ground. Exhaust is usually warm to hot air and when it leaves it's little pipe it will diffuse into the air rapidly and upwards. Rapidly because it has a lot of energy (hence why it's hot) and upwards because hot air rises. I bet it's soo cold there that the exhaust cools down so fast that it doesn't have a lot of energy AND and it not warm enough to rise. I may be worng but at least it is some explanation.
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