So, on my last night in Fort McMurray on Thursday, I decided I would try and see the Northern Lights! Based on polar activity predictions, the tips on best viewing times suggested I try anytime after midnight, into the wee hours of the morning. On that note, on Thursday night after class I went to bed early, set my alarm for 11.30 pm, and set out from my hotel at midnight.

My plan was to drive north past the oil fields as far as the road would go, and then continue further on the “winter road,” which is basically an ice road that only exists during the winter. During the summer it becomes a marshy swamp dotted with rivers and lakes, so the only time vehicular traffic goes north is in the winter. There is more info on the winter road here and here.

However, Fort McMurray is the last town on Highway 63. The next “hamlet” is Fort Chipewyan, about 200 miles north, and only accessible by road in the winter on the above-mentioned ice road.

In fact, immediately after the bridge that brings you out of Fort McMurray headed north, you encounter this sign:

Of course, to me, that is an invitation! So, here goes…

About an hour after leaving Fort McMurray, I finally ran out of pavement, and the road became an icy stretch into the middle of nowhere. It was exhilarating to drive my Nissan Pathfinder SUV on roads that looked like this:

Nah, pictures don’t do it justice… here’s a video: (it may take a while to load, but eventually the play button should become enabled. click on the play button to start it playing…)

[local /wp-content/uploads/2008/01/vid00021.AVI nolink]

So, clearly, someone maintains the road occasionally, but it had the consistency of packed snow and ice with bumpy ground underneath. Patches of ice and snowdrifts would bump by underneath, and as I drove further and further north into darkness, I kept a tight grip on the steering wheel as the vehicle kept wanting to slide in different directions whenever it hit those snow patches. I also kept a wary eye out on the horizon for moose! At speeds of 60-80 mph on ice, it was a constant adrenaline rush!

About an hour and a half of driving like this, I suddenly came upon a narrow bridge over the wonderfully named Firebag River:

I wondered how the big trucks made it past this narrow bridge on their way north! It turns out the road curved sharply away just before the bridge, so I did some exploring. And, sure enough, the road actually BYPASSES the bridge to cross OVER the frozen river! Check this out:

That’s my Nissan Pathfinder, ON the Firebag River… In the background you can dimly see the bridge over which I crossed.

Again, a video is better… This one is a longer file and will take a while to load. It will continue loading while you read the rest of the post, so check back in a bit and click on the play button once you see it enabled:

[local /wp-content/uploads/2008/01/VID00022.AVI nolink]

Almost two hours into the ice road, and a good three hours since I left town, I was struck by the fact that I was completely alone, out in the middle of nowhere, without a single sign of human buildings anywhere to be seen. The scenery was beautiful, with the boreal forest flashing by in the night and the white landscape luminous in the cloud-shrouded moonlight. I reveled in being out in the middle of nature all by myself, and let my thoughts drift to reflections on existence, God, and prayer.

Until, that is, I saw headlights way off in the distance! Eventually the lights drew closer and resolved into a pickup truck, containing three burly looking guys. The truck slowed to a stop next to my vehicle - the road was not wide enough for both of us to pass at speed, so I had slowed and stopped off to the side to let them pass. It was 2.30 am, and I think the guys were curious. Or, perhaps this was a regular mode of social interaction at 2.30 am on the winter road between vehicles that rarely venture on the road.

The driver of the truck rolled his window down. I did the same. We looked at each other. The vehicles idled, the forest loomed silently, the road stretched on into nothingness beyond.

“What’s happening?” boomed the truck driver. The other guys in the truck just stared silently at me.

“Not a whole lot!” I yelled back.

“What?” came the response.

“Not a whole lot!”

“Oh. Where you headed?”

“Uhhh… just up the road here… to… ah…” and at this point my brain hit a freeze. I hadn’t thought of how to explain what I was doing, out and about, a tourist in a rental SUV, in the middle of the night on an ice road in the middle of nowhere. I stammered and waved vaguely ahead and was about to mumble something when -

“To Fort Chip?”

“Yeah!”

Silence… they continued looking at me with stone-faced expressions. I was pulling my best nonchalant just-an-oil-man-out-for-a-drive look.

Eventually I said, “Well, take care!” and drove off. Behind me the pickup truck stayed parked, with brake lights on, and remained parked until I passed over a ridge a mile later and lost sight of them.

Weird!

Anyway, an hour later I eventually ended up about 120 miles north of Fort McMurray, around about here: map

At that point, it was about 3.30 am, and the sky was still hazy with clouds. No Northern Lights, no clear skies, not much sleep, and about 5 degrees F, and about 120 miles away from the hotel, with a plane to catch at noon. I wussed out, and turned around, and headed back, enjoying another 2 hours of ice-road driving before getting back on tame pavement… I eventually got back to the hotel around 6 am, took a short nap, packed, checked out, and then visited the Oil Sands Discovery Center on my way to the airport.

So, no Northern Lights, but good times!