The Arctic Circle, Wednesday, 26 February, 2014
Mar 4th, 2014 by rallyadmin
Last night, after we walked back from our dinner trip to the diner, we headed for our rooms. It had been a very long day and today was going to be even longer.
My room was alone on one side of the hotel from the outer rooms. (This fine establishment only has single rooms – no double – for the everyday low price of $250. As the woman at registration said, “You’re in the North now.”) I went to bed but the others met a couple of Canadians who had rooms in their wing of the hotel.
They were technicians who were servicing some remote cell towers by helicopter. After they heard about our plans to spread some of Joe’s ashes on the Arctic Circle (we’d previously spread some at the Athabasca River crossing on our first ice road to Fort Chipewyan), they volunteered to take Paul Oskamp with them in the helicopter so that he could spread some of the ashes on the top or Bare Mountain overlooking the MacKenzie Rive at Tulita. A great and very generous offer that Paul just couldn’t refuse.
We awoke and emptied out some gear from the truck to make room for Bill and then headed off to the local repair shop to have the hitch mount on my truck removed. And the shop didn’t open til 8:00. While we were waiting for the shop to open we could hear the helicopter carrying Paul and Joe’s ashes take off from the airport across the road.
We’re at the shop at 8 for fuel and repairs (hopefully) only to find that the shop can’t get to my truck for 2 weeks!! Bummer. Well, the mount is not right but it’s not loose and we’re certainly not going to try to remove it in the hotel parking lot at -31°F.
Just as I start to move the truck out of the way of some new fuel customers, Colin comes out and tells me that their 8 o’clock appointment has canceled and they can look at the truck now. The door to one of the work bays opens, I drive in and a mechanic starts trying to figure out what’s wrong with the mount.
He thinks that the mount is bent though that’s hard to believe. In any event, I tell him to remove it and we’ll carry it in the back of the truck. I certainly don’t want the mount to fail on the road and end up driving over it. That would be very bad and probably very dangerous.
The mechanic removes the 6 mounting bolts that secure the mount to the truck’s frame rails. The mount doesn’t move at all. Apparently, it’s now wedged in the frame rails. He tries jacking up the mount to free it but he just succeeds in liftibng the front of the truck. Another mechanic comes over to help and they jack the mount up again while the second mechanic tries to free the mount with a very big pry bar.
After a couple of false starts, they pry the mount loose and it falls from the truck to the floor of the shop with a huge thud. Looking at the mount we can clearly see where the horizontals of the mount points are bent about 20 degrees. And it looks like the reason that they bent was because the side rails of both mounts were not welded to the bottom mount. Obviously a manufacturing flaw.
They put the mount in the back of the truck. We tie it down with a couple of ratchets and run the security cable though it for good measure. Pay the bill and we’re on out way to the Arctic Circle. Down the smooth local road and a left onto the winter road to Fort Good Hope and then the Circle.
And back to bouncing along at 50 kph. At least it’s not badly rutted. Probably not much haul traffic to Fort Good Hope. But the roads soon improves as much as a winter road can improve and we start making better progress.
The road to Fort Good Hope is truly beautiful. Alternately, hills and flat lands, it’s the essence of the Canadian Arctic. We’re far enough north so that we’re beyond the region of the natural gas wells (hence, no haul trucking and the attendant ruts.) The sky is clear and though the sun is very low on the horizon, the sky is a brilliant blue and the ultra white snow on the mountains just glistens. The warm truck cab belies the ridiculous cold outside.
While we’re driving along, someone asks if we’ll know the Arctic Circle when we get there. “Do you think there’s a marker?” “Considering this road isn’t used in the summer, probably not.” The year round roads like the Dalton Highway (along the Alaska pipeline) and the Dempster (off the Klondike highway up to Inuvik), both have markers. This road, not likely.
“Anyone know the latitude of the Arctic Circle?” Of course not and, since we don’t have cell coverage, our usual reference, Google, isn’t available. We’re stopping in Fort Good Hope. We’ll ask there.
A side note: when John and I drove through Ecuador last year, on the Ruta Panamericana, the equator wasn’t marked at the equator. It was marked in a town a few kms north of the equator. We wanted a picture of the GPS screen that showed latitude 0.0000°. We ended up driving back and forth across the equator trying to get the shot which we got – eventually.
We ask the woman at the local grocery. She doesn’t know. Been here for 4 years but has never been up the road. We ask one of the native people where the RCMP office is. He points, we drive and find the office. For some reason, nobody jumps out to talk to the RCMP. I go in.
There are three youngish RCMP officers in the office, a woman and 2 men. “Can we help you?” “Yes, we’re driving to the Arctic Circle to spread the ashes of a dear friend and we’d like to know if there’s a marker for the Arctic circle. If not a marker, what’s the exact latitude?” “Wait a minute. Back up. What are you doing?” I figure I made a mistake by mentioning the ashes. I probably created a crisis. The Canadian government probably requires a permit, with attendant public hearings, for such things. After all, we’re not a coal company destroying the oil sands down in Fort MacMurray.
“We’re doing drive to the Arctic Circle. We do this every few years.” The RCMPs aren’t interested in the ashes. They are, however, interested in the drive. “That’s amazing. You’re just driving here for the fun of it?” “Yeah, you could put it that way.”
Now they’re keen to help. Noi, there’s no marker. Nobody ever goes there. No marker needed. And one of them looks up the latitude for the Arctic Circle on Google (where else?) which is 66°33.44′ for all of your inquiring minds out there. I thank them and back to the car.
The Circle is still another 80 kms or so. The road is good. It should be – almost no one goes up here. We keep watching the GPS.
We’re heading northeast so the latitude changes slowly. But we as we start getting closer to the correct latitude, John pulls ove and I take the lead. Driving slowly, I’m determined to not repeat the equator fiasco. Creeping along, the GPS latitude rolls over to 66°33.441′. We’re here.
Obi-wan