To Fort McMurray, Friday, 21 February, 2014
Feb 25th, 2014 by rallyadmin
It’s cold and dark but everyone is up and ready to go by 7:00. Check out and on the road. Back towards Edmonton.
Actually, we drive back towards Edmonton nearly to Hinton. It’s not quite 500 miles to Ft. McMurray but you can’t get there from here. Back down the throughway and turn north just before Hinton. Keep heading north and east, working the grid work that is the prairie land of Alberta.
The roads keep getting smaller but there’s no traffic. Finally, we get to a turn off for a forest road and get a taste of the country we’ve come to visit. The road is snowy and twists through forests and fields. But it ends too soon and we’re back on pavement still headed northeast on a busy 2 lane highway.
Ft. McMurray is the heart of the the Alberta Oil Sands region and the road north is the main haul road from Edmonton. The traffic is primarily semis headed north bringing supplies and equipment north to the refineries and sand pits and semis headed south returning product and used equipment south.
Along side the 2 lane road we’re following massive construcion on the side of the road. A new 4 lane divided highway is being built. The sheer amount of equipment thrown at this project is mind-boggling. And it’s the middle of the Canadian winter. As the sun goes down, the work lights come on. Obviously, road construction is a 24 hour project.
Suddenly, the 2 lane highway gives way to a brand new section of 4 lane. The speed jumps up and we start closing in on Ft. McMurray. And then, just as suddenly the 4 lane road ends and we’re dumped back to the old 2 lane road. Now that the sun is down, driving with the trucks in the dark is really miserable.
We finally arrive in Ft. McMurray and, fortunately, the hotel is on the south side of town. WE stop and check in. There’s a restaurant attached to the hotel and we meet up. Everyone looks a little tired but very happy. On the road again.
Colin has a friend, Jeremy, that works in Ft. McMurray as a construction supervisor and he’s planning on joining us for dinner. Just as we’re ordering our dinners, he arrives. Intros all around. He’s a very interesting guy and he’s as curious about us as we are about him.
Soon enough, we’re talking about trips that we’ve done and I mention the Rickshaw Run and that I’m looking for people who might be interested in doing it in 2015. The Rickshaw Run is a 10, 2,500 mile tuk-tuk rally in northern India. For those of you who don’t know what a tuk-tuk is, it’s a 3 wheeled, motorcycle derivative with an open platform on the back that can carry 4 adults (or more when necessary in India, which seems to be most of the time.) They’re ubiquitous in India. Before long Jeremy’s signed on for the 2015 version.
Jeremy has to get back to his construcion site and we have to get some sleep for tomorrow. Tomorrow is the drive to and beyond Ft. Chipewyan, our first real ice-road. The fun starts tomorrow.
Obi-wan
One Response to “To Fort McMurray, Friday, 21 February, 2014”
Ice road rallying is hard to beat! Have fun everyone…!