More about the Mayerthorpe trip
There’s a bit more about last night’s drive that I want to tell you about, but it doesn’t belong in the main article.
I was watching the weather forecast all day yesterday, and when I made the decision to go, it wasn’t very good, calling for wind and 2-4 cm of snow overnight. About 2/3 of the route was on a divided section of Highway 16, which was easy on the way east.
The secondary roads, in this case Highway 751, were not quite as easy, but still okay, though I knew that night driving them would be a challenge, as there were deer and moose warning signs posted at intervals.
These were the souvenirs I brought home – a pair for me and a pair each for Steve and Rachel.
By the time I left Mayerthorpe, conditions were really quite bad, with fairly heavy snow and wind reducing visibility to 100 feet or so at times. Luckily I drove out of the worst of the storm in about 20 minutes. At 8:15 I got stopped by this train, and it must have been at least 2 miles long. Even with it going by at about 80 kmh, the wait seemed like forever – I started nto worry that if Cathy looked at my Spot GPS tracker Web site she’d think that I was in a ditch.
It’s highly possible that I shouldn’t have been on the secondary roads I was on. That route is seen below, but Google Maps’ suggestion is to continue east on Highway 16 and then straight north on 22.
Just when I was starting to think that I was home free, about half an hour from Hinton, the snow started again, and got quite heavy at times. Luckily, traffic on the highway was very light, because with this powdery snow, trucks reduce visibility to absolute zero.
Some of you might have wondered why I made such an effort to get to the memorial. As well as having a couple of cops in the family, I used to serve as an RCMP Auxiliary Constable in Whitehorse – that’s me at the far right in this photo from the summer of 1995. Although I’ve mentioned that a couple of times over the years, I don’t think I’ve ever posted this photo.
So, what’s ahead, you might ask. By the looks of the forecast right now, not much until I start the drive back home on the 11th or 12th. I’m glad that I got most of the exploring I had in mind done early.
So, I’ll probably be quiet for a few days while I dig into some paperwork. ttyl 🙂
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