To Norman Wells, Tuesday, 25 February, 2014
Mar 4th, 2014 by rallyadmin
Damn, it’s cold. The early morning temps have been in the -20°F to -30°F range. Fortunately, the truck has an engine block heater, an oil pan heater and a transfer case heater. Every night after we shutdown for the night, we go through the ritual of plugging in the three heater plugs to an extension cord and then plugging the extension cord into a socket on the motel wall. All motels have these plugs and at night all the cars are lined up in the parking areas with their umbilicals connected, looking like so many alien craft getting their refueling.
The truck starts easily (better than when at home and the heaters aren’t being used.) The bummer is than I have to go out and start the truck. I finally appreciate remote start for cars and trucks.
The other bummer is that until we actually start moving, the truck doesn’t generate very much heat. When we do start moving, the truck cab is still very cold and the steering wheel is like holding a frozen steel ring. I’ll be driving without my parka on but with heavy outdoor gloves on and still my fingers freeze. On the days when we have enough of time, we start the truck and let it idle for 20 minutes or so. That helps the cab temperature but not the steering wheel.
We start back out of Fort Simpson and about a km back down the road, we take a right for Wrigley. The road to Wrigley is the same flat, smooth and empty road that we’ve been driving for a couple of days. Almost no traffic at all, only an occasional pickup. It’s too cold to do anything so what few people live here are staying indoors.
We stop in Wrigley to get fuel. We’d fueled in Fort Simpson but that was 100 miles back and John’s truck and Bryan’s Subie will need fuel before we get to Norman Wells. We don’t want to have top stop and fuel from the jerry cans in these frigid temps.
But the pumps are locked and there’s no one about. We ask a local if we can get fuel and he directs us to someone that we can’t find. Back at the locked pumps we find a sign that had blown over. “Fuel available Saturday 11 to 1”. Back in the car and trucks.
Back on the main road, we take a left on to the Tulita Norman Wells Winter Road. Just to inspire confidence, there are a series of signs warning us that the speed limit is 50 kph (32 mph). There’s no fuel til Norman Wells. No services of any kind. The road is very rough. There’s heavy truck traffic. Trucks need to chain up. Winter storms can be deadly. Truck weights are limited to 64,000 kg!! (That’s 140,800 pounds for those of you that are metric challenged.)
True to the sign’s warning, the road is very rough. Not so much rough as severely rutted. And the first couple of kms are on a side hill. There’s no road here after the spring thaw so no one will be trying to drive the side hill in the summer but this is ridiculous. It’s 333 kms to Norman Wells and at 50 kph, it’s going to be 6½ hours to Norman Wells and that’s if we can maintain 50 kph which doesn’t look too likely. This is going to be a long day.
Luckily, the side hill driving stops in just a couple of kms and the road becomes hilly and very rutted. The ruts are created by the haul trucks and the spacing if the ruts is determined by the track of the truck wheels. Our trucks fit the trucks, kind of, but Bryan’s Subie has a narrower track and his car is driving in one rut on one side and the raised ice outside the rut on the other side. Not good.
Bryan and Bill are bouncing around at the end of our little convoy. John’s leading and I’m second. Suddenly, as we’re driving down the very rutted hill to a creek crossing (appropriately named Overflow Creek), Bill calls on the radio, “We’ve spun out.” “We’re sliding backward down the hill.” “We’ve stopped.” “We’re turning around.” “3 point turn.” “5 point turn.” “7 point turn.” “We’re moving again.”
We go a short ways and find a wide spot for us to stop and check out Bryan’s car. They arrive in a minute and we immediately see that the lower rail of his light bar is badly bent. They stop and we all check under the hood, the suspension, under the car for leaking fluids. Everything, save the light bar seems to be fine. After a few minutes of explaining what happened, we start on again.
The road continues to Tulita, rutted and very bumpy. It’s 200 kms to Tulita and it looks like we’ll be lucky to make it to Norman Wells by dark. There’s a strong temptation to try to drive faster but the road quickly discourages that. We continue the slog.
At Tulita, we drop down to the surface of the MacKenzie River and drive the Tuitlita Bypass (really, no kidding.) The smooth surface of the river ice gives us a rest from the pounding of the Winter Road but it also makes the road seem even worse. Sadly, after a few kms, we leave the river and head back to the Winter Road.
We’re only up the road a couple of kms when Bryan calls on the radio that he has a tire down. He’s stopping and we turn around to park behind him with our warning flasers on to protect him. John comes back to do the same in front of the Subie. We all get out to change the tire.
Or rather begin the Chinese fire drill. Empty back of the Subie to find the jack. Dig out the on-board spare (as opposed to the second spare on the roof.) Take the scissor jack and try to find a place to jack up the car. Apparently, no one knows where the jack points are on a Subaru Legacy wagon.
We try a likely spot in front of the rear wheel and a piece of plastic trim starts to fracture. Not there. Someone has the presence of mind to get the owner’s manual. Yes, we’re in the right place. We try jacking on the rear bumper hitch and nearly drop the car. Finally, Colin takes charge and, using a couple of pieces of wood, gets the car up so that we can change tire.
It’s a bright sunny day and there’s not much wind but it’s still very cold, way below zero. By the time the Subie is ready to go, we’re all pretty cold. Back to the truck and ready to get moving again.
Then we see the hitch mount on the F350. The hitch is bent down about 15 to 20 degrees, as though it had hit something or loosened. We try to move it but it’s still rigid. We must have hit something. But neither Colin or I can remember hitting anything. We check the bottom of the hitch mount and there’s no sign of a hit and everything is tight. Very Strange. We’ll have to check in better in Norman Wells.
The last 100 kms to Norman Wells isn’t as hills as the road up to Tulita but it’s still rutted and very bumpy. We finally get to Norman Wells just as the sun is reaching the horizon. Off the Winter Road and onto local paved roads. The smoothness of the local road is bliss after the punishment of the Winter Road.
We find the hotel, check in, unload the vehicles and do the plug in ritual. Then Bryan notices that his left front tire has a huge blister on the sidewall. There goes his second spare. This is getting serious.
Jack the car up again. Change the second tire. Bryan tries to get some tire goop into the tire with the blister but that doesn’t work so now the Subie is on 4 good tires but has no spares. This is getting serious.
Tomorrow we were to check out of our hotel, go to the Arctic Circle, turn around and head back down the Winter Road and eventually arrive in Deline. We head down to a diner for dinner and during the discussion about Bryan’s car, we decide to leave Bryan’s car for tomorrow’s trip to the Arctic Circle. We’ll cancel our Deline reservations, take gear out of the two trucks to make room for Bryan and Bill, visit the Arctic Circle and then return to Norman Wells for the night.
That sounds like a plan. What could possibly go wrong?
Obi-wan