Trek to Moose Factory - Febuary 2000

Day 5

Our original plan was to drive to Attawapiskat today, but we found out that I could only load vehicles on the rail car tonight before 6:00pm, not tomorrow. Since I had to be back to work on Wednesday, I could not miss the train. We decided to drive to Fort Albany instead, because of the shorter distance. We did not get off to a good start, the rover did not start this morning, I forgot to plug in the block heater and it was sitting 1 ½ days in the cold. I eventually drained the battery trying to start it. I was able to get it going with the spare battery. I hope this is not a sign of what is ahead..

We found our way through Moosonee to the winter road. It was much better maintained than I had imagined. We were able to travel 80-90 km/hr most of the time. We met up with a few locals about 1-½ hours along the road. They had been out snowmobiling and could not get their vehicle started. They had been flagging vehicles down all day, but nobody seems to carry booster cables! Lucky for them, I had a set. We gave them a boost and continued on our way. We met a few transports further up, they don’t give you much room…we hit the ditch a few times, but managed to keep the rover out of the snow banks. The trees gradually got smaller as we proceeded north.

When the road crossed rivers, there were large drops, which were hard to see because of the blazing sun. We got airborne a few times in these sections. All of our gear in the back was taking a beating. We finally made it to Fort Albany. We spent 15 minutes searching for a sign to take a photo to prove that we were here; found a church sign that would do.

Stopped at the only gas station to take a picture of the pump ($1.00/L). I don’t think the attendant was impressed, as we drove off just after he made his way to the pump from the warmth of his store. Good thing we brought enough fuel. On the way back, I tried to take the turn at the forks a bit too fast. We spun around a few times before we headed for the snow bank. We finally stopped about 4 feet from the snow bank. Good thing no one was travelling the other way. This seemed like a good time to stretch and take some photos.

As we headed home, the road continuously got more and more icy as the sun was setting. We slid around corners, trying to back before 6:00. We finally arrived back in Moosonee at 5:30pm. What a relief…half an hour to spare. The guy loading the vehicles said he would not be ready for us until 6:00 as he was still unloading the train. We decided to run a few errands and return. We came back at 5:55 and were ready to load the rover. Mike said he wanted to go to the grocery store before it closed at 6:00. I wasn’t about to argue with the person that was going to be loading my vehicle.

At least we knew he would be returning as his left his truck running. We waited 20 minutes in the frigid cold of the evening. At 6:30, we finally got the Rover loaded and I could relax. We headed to a local restaurant for a good meal after a day of driving.