Grumpy Old Ganz

Ice Road Adventure...Behind the Scenes

It seems with any vacation, day trip, or simple outing, most people like to make a logistical plan and a contingency plan to ensure a more enjoyable and memorable adventure.

When we were planning our excursion to the Ice Road several weeks back, it took less than 10 text messages and an hour-long fight with the internet to set things in motion. We had our Ice Road Pass, destination, and return time scheduled in a short period of time.

At zero dark thirty, the wake-up and departure started off rough on the morning of our road trip. My human alarm clock didn’t go off when it was supposed to, putting me behind on my needed coffee!

I rushed out the door with only one thing on my mind...coffee! An unwanted cheerful “good morning” from a fellow traveler was met with an unprintable response.

We drove through two towns before our first stop. I was very thankful I was able to get coffee! It carried me through until the next stop, which was two towns and numerous miles away.

My traveling companions were needing to stop for more than just coffee. I started to see a pattern. At the next stop, I suggested that maybe they should pick up some diapers and we would get there faster!

This continued until we hit the “void”...an hour and a half of nothingness, just rough and bumpy road conditions. This, of course, allowed for more comments about diapers as the two of them continued to suffer!

Exiting the “void” we reached Warroad, stopped for gas and directions to the Ice Road.

We soon found ourselves at a boat landing with a sign marked “NWA” and an arrrow…seeing one set of tracks to follow...we debated if this was the actual road?

Proceeding onto the goat-like path we quickly concluded this was not the right road.

After about a mile or more the “Ice Road” appeared.

We passed snowplow after snowplow and saw the devastation the wind caused to signs along the way and the Ice Road. We reached the “cut back” which was marked by cement pylons and separated Canada from the United States.

One section of the road took us just feet into Canada, and suddenly text messages saying “welcome to Canada” appeared!

We finally made it to Flag Island but fell short of the actual lighthouse.

We returned to Angle Inlet and stopped for lunch.

The manager, bartender, and cook surrounded us and started sharing about life on the “Angle”.

They told us about the K-6th grade school, how the others had to pass in and out of Canada to attend school in Warroad, the three-hour trip to Winnipeg to shop at Costco, and much more. It was very interesting to learn about their life “up north”.

The 14-hour day trip provided “first-evers” for the three of us and we had a good time. We are already tossing around the idea of taking another road trip in the future.