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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 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.

At zero dark thirty, the wake-up and departure started off rough. My human alarm clock didnā€™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 ā€œgood morningā€ 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 ā€œvoidā€...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 ā€œvoidā€ we reached Warroad, stopped for gas, and directions to the Ice Road.

We soon found ourselves at a boat landing with a sign marked ā€œNWAā€ and an arrowā€¦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 ā€œIce Roadā€ 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 ā€œcut backā€ 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 ā€œwelcome to Canadaā€ 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 ā€œAngleā€.

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 ā€œup north."

The 14-hour day trip provided ā€œfirst-eversā€ 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.




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