From one of our Yellowknife Correspondents:

Hi Nick – Saturday was cold at -35 in the morning but a sunny day.  We decided that it was too cold to be out sledding and that a drive up the ice road was due.  We packed up a lunch, put Geny in the backseat and headed down the road about 11:00 am.  The Ingram Trail to Tibbett Lake is quite beaten down and will be bad this spring.  However, it was our first time out this year and always interesting.  We hit the ice road at Tibbett and immediately saw a truck heading our way!  This was one of about 50 trucks we saw on our drive.  We went for 120 kms on the ice road and made it about 25 kilometers past the end of Gordon Lake before we turned back.

 Not far into the trip, there is a check stop run by the GNWT and all non commercial traffic is required to check in and out.  A safety thing as well as stats I assume.  The ice road is in really good shape right now and we saw no open water or slush anywhere (course it was 30 below! After a week of -40 at night).  I did not realize that there are two wide lanes on some lakes – one for empty trucks and one for loads.  The lanes are a long ways apart.  The speed limit on the empty side is a fast 60 km/h – on the loaded side it ranged from 10 to 25 km/h. 

 The trucks kept coming south – some empty, some carrying loads of items from the mines.  We passed 12 trucks going north – mostly fuel trucks but some were loaded with heavy bags of chemicals.  The caretaker at the check stop told us that the road is expected to be open until the 19^th and given the weather, I can see that it will last that long and longer.

 Not a single caribou around.  In fact, they are apparently over by Snare Lake this year.  Too bad as its always a great photo op when the boos are in the area.  We did see one beautiful healthy black faced fox, who sat on a snowbank and watched us before moving onto the road.  He heard Geny going crazy in the truck and took off into the brush.  Also saw a few ptarmigan, but not many given all the tracks on top of the snow.  And of course the curious ravens were there, flying over our truck on the lookout for treats. 

 I took a picture of the famous “Charlie’s Hill” – featured on the last episode of IRT.  It looks pretty tame from a distance but with a big load a truck could get into trouble.  Took a lot of pictures of trucks and got lots of friendly waves from the drivers in return.  I am pretty sure I saw the Polar Bear, TJ and Alex – at least that’s my story!

 We really enjoyed driving on Gordon Lake (all 24 kilometers) – the ice was a lovely blue color and quite bare.  And lots of cracks – but only on the “loaded” lane.   

 We got home at 5:00 pm – did about 300 kilometers in total and thoroughly enjoyed the ride.  I am attaching some pictures with this message and will send more separately so I don’t blow your email!