The 2018 winter road is in the books. During the week of February 7-14th, Dad, Ryan, Ed and myself completed two round trips to Sandy Lake from Red Lake ON. Utilizing three 4x4 trucks and one trailer, we managed to transport approximately 10,000+ pds of materials and goods. A new boat, three brand new Yamaha 4 stroke motors along with pressure treated lumber were just a few of the items we delivered. Since the winter road only extends to Sandy Lake, all the materials await springtime for the final haul to our camps. All in all, Dad and I tacked on about 3000 miles of driving during the week.Our first round trip to Sandy Lake was completed without incident. A smooth ten hour trip up, a day of unloading and storing materials in Sandy was followed by an uneventful trip back to Red Lake. However, upon our departure for the second trip, Ed's truck blew a power steering line...at 5am...in -40C. Fortunately, we were just outside Red Lake and not in the middle of the wilderness. We limped Ed's truck to a friends place and loaded as much as we could in the other two vehicles. Also, that same morning, Ryan came down with the flu and quarantined himself in the Super 8 motel. Fortunately, we had three drivers available for two vehicles. On our way northbound, we immediately noticed the road was getting severely chewed up by the numerous fuel and freighter semis. Another 10 hr drive was followed by a quick unload of goods in Sandy and we were back on our way southbound. We encountered 18 semi transports our final trip back to Red Lake; that is incredibly heavy traffic for a seasonal road. All in all, it was another interesting journey into the wilderness.
Only a couple more months till open water!
-Nathan
www.bighookcamps.com
