I remeber working on a drilling job roughly due north of Yellowknife somewhere round the Arctic Circle back in 1999... We arrived on site by Twin Otter with skis, and used snowmobiles and a Bell Jet Ranger (heavy lift model) to access the drill site and move the drill, slinging it in 1000lb max loads... Its an interesting experience to have a helicopter hovering above you, suspending the the transmission of your drill rig as you thread in the bolts that attached the transmission to the motor with your bare hand in frigid temperatures made even colder by the wash from the rotor blades... The motor and transmission were too heavy to be lifted together, so every time we moved the drill, we had separate the motor and transmission, and we would literally have the helicopter sling the transmission into place and then hover with it there as we got the bolts in... We are talking tolerances in millimteres... One helluva a pilot.
Anyhoo, we were drilling on a frozen lake in anyhwere from 20 to 90ft of water, which initself is no small feat, chasing a kimberlite dyke underneath the lake, when one day I look up and across the lake to see a tractor trailer rolling by at speed as if we were drilling next the Trans Canada Highway... Needless to say I was astounded, and I walked a couple of hundred metres over to where I had seen this 'ghost' semi roll by, and much to my amazement, there was a snowbank, and then... a road.
I could not beleive it... I thought we were in the middle of freakin' nowhere, and we were, and there is a road!... This was hundreds of kilometres north of Yellowknife and well into the Arctic, and yes I was freezing my ass off - every miserable day.
The point is, in the winter in northern Canada, pick a spot on map, anywhere, and you can put a road there if you so are inclined. All you need is the equipment and enough cash to operate it... Just make sure you are not on your new road in the middle of some lake in a 40 tonne loaded semi during the spring break-up... Or you may well go down with your ship... errrr... rig.
Regards,
B.
