Ice Road All Stars 2019 (1 Viewer)

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Dec 21, 2005
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Location
Kamloops BC
The 2019 Ice road trip from Fort McMurray to Yellowknife NWT will take place from Thursday Jan 17

and return evening of the Tuesday Jan 22nd 2019. Convoy leaves the North side of Fort Mac at 9 AM sharp. No stragglers and no late comers as we have some serious miles to cover each day and won’t be waiting for you. I hate to sound like your dad on a family vacation, but seriously...

Show up fed and watered with groceries as there are no services for the entire first day. We will fuel up one hr north of Fort McMurray at the last possible chance for fuel before leaving the pavement



Day 1 (Thursday) will see us to Fort Smith NWT. Trail side lunch, I will have firewood, you bring your own smokies/pizza/samichez etc. Ft Smith has one restaurant and one gas station. Diesel available at the cardlock


Day 2 (Friday) travel to Yellowknife. Another trailside lunch mid day, You supply your own groceries


Day 3 (Saturday) possible tour of Buffalo airways (pending availability) general touristy stuff. Aim for Pilots monument at high noon. Shopping at Weaver and Devore (In operation since 1937) Dinner at the greatest restaurant in the world “Bullocks Bistro” specialize in Arctic Char, Musk ox and other regional dishes


Day 4 Sunday. More touristy stuff in Yellowknife. Looking into a short jaunt up the ice roads the truckers use on the TV show on Discovery network. Depending on enthusiasm of attendees, probably hit Bullocks for supper again. Also open to other suggestions from confirmed attendees


Day 5 (Monday) Travel back to Fort Smith, trail lunch again, (bring your doggy bag from Bullocks!)


Day 6 (Tuesday) Travel the remainder of the way back to Fort McMurray. Some folks have driven as far as Edmonton on this day, but that's a long ride. We usually roll into ft mac shortly after supper time


Wednesday- travel back to your home town


Your requirements….

A Toyota 4WD vehicle in GOOD repair. There are few services along the way, parts stores are rare and extremely expensive and poorly stocked. Don’t bring a vehicle with known problems. The extreme weather will find any weak links and halt any forward progress real quick. Synthetic fluids, block heater, healthy battery, significant tread on your tires, and no fluid or oil leaks are favorable. It has been my experience that air and oil leaks get much worse when exposed to some extreme cold


Additional lighting is an extremely good idea and borderline mandatory. I had a very close call a few years back, narrowly missing a Buffalo. My auxiliary lighting is what saved my life (and my passengers life) without a doubt. Besides, with only 5 or so hours of daylight, you will love having extra lighting


One Gerry can of fuel for most vehicles has proven sufficient in the past. (diesels included) If your vehicle is particularly hard on fuel, and you have the room, bring 2


The usual supply of personal tools, spare parts, booster cables, Wiener sticks, spare tire (full size) extra fluids oil, coolant etc


Warm clothes. No exceptions. I will personally guarantee the temperatures will be in the -40C area with out a doubt. Don’t try to dress fashionable, you will get laughed at. Dress warm, like everyone else in Yellowknife


Camera. Soooooo much cool stuff to see on this trip from spectacular bridges, to Monuments, unique wildlife, Northern lights, Artwork, stuck or flipped over trucks etc


recommend 2 drivers per vehicle. You will spend A LOT of time behind the wheel and its nice to have someone help keep you awake or take over for a bit, even if its only half an hour


Bring a great attitude and a friendly disposition. You will be travelling with the same 8 or 10 people for a week. Lets all get along


All hotel rooms have been booked already and based on double occupancy. This is a very couples friendly trip, and is not like a typical 4 wheeling off road adventure. Your wife/girlfriend/life partner will enjoy this better than wheeling. No scary steep hills or off camber trails, Its more like a really slow, long road trip on a s***ty road with some nice stretches. I am bringing a gal from Tuscon Arizona to ride with me and have the culture shock of her lifetime!! I guarantee you will feel more Canadian after this trip. Not sure kids would be a good idea since we will spend as much as 10 hrs a day on the road and evenings in pubs and bars.


Radio communication is important and you will require a VHF radio. Hand helds are fine, but you will need and external antenna . I don't care if you have a HAM licence or not, but CB's and FRS are useless as we will be travelling far apart for reasons


Due to the nature of the trip, the high miles required to cover each day, and the limited hotel rooms available in certain places I will have to limit this trip to the first 5 vehicles that sign up. 4 vehicles would be ideal. If you sign up, I expect you to be serious about this and commit fully


Costs involved are as follows (based on my last trip) and subject to change without notice and are in no way a guarantee….

Ft smith Hotel $170 each night (x2 once on the way there, and once on the way back)

Yellowknife Hotel $354 for 3 consecutive nights

Each travel day will use approx one tank of fuel (plus a bit) x4… Gas prices are significantly higher in remote northern communities

Groceries and restaurants are a little more expensive than what you are used to down south, but its reasonable

Same goes for alcohol and of course, depends how much you drink


This is a Toyota only event due to reliability issues of other brands and also because there may be an article submitted to a Toyota-only magazine and they dislike pictures with Jeeps, chevys and dodges, but mostly they hate jeeps! This is not a commercially guided tour of the north. I’m just a dude that has done it before a few times and knows the way and I’m letting you follow me. I’m not cooking your food, I’m not doing your laundry, I’m not cleaning up your mess and I’m not fixing your junk (but I will help when I can)


if you have any questions you can post them up here, or e-mail me direct for privacy at sucker4pigtails@gmail.com


hope to see a good turn out, but will limit the trip to 5 vehicles due to miles needed to cover in a day, hotel availability, and restaurant capacities.. Bryan
 
That looks like a lot of fun. Is the winter road a direct line essentially from Ft Smith to Yellowknife
along the east side, or do you go around to the west side of the lake?
Curious, also what gear oil weight do you run in your trans/case and diffs?
 
the road at that point goes around the west side of the lake. The most of the "Iceroad" portion of the trip is Fort McMurray, through Fort Chip and on to Fort Smith. I run 75 W 140 gear oil on my diffs and T-case. And I do this trip every other year, so the next one will be January of 2021
 
Thanks, I can't make this trip but have been tempted to make that drive by myself.
I love the winter road trips. So the western route around the lake is on land then?
I've installed Evans coolant into the truck, but have since learned
that it gels at temps -30 and below so it buggers up the webasto. I've got to decide whether
I am going back to regular coolant before I drive my 60 up there.
I always figure no sense reinventing, I'll use whatever oil that someone who is there uses.
Thanks for that.
So there is no intent to camp out on this trip? That might be a bit intense.
 
yes, the western route is hiway, but in some places its worse than the ice-road, lol... We thought about camping the first year, but of course all the campgrounds are gated, and closed, and have not been plowed all winter. Ive seen the temps get as low as -42. Thats just too much for me. I'm hardcore, not mental. The evenings in hotels are a good chance to catch up with the rest of the crew, and swap stories and have a few drinks. It's a good break from having the same passenger to talk to for 10 hrs
 
Tara and I are in. We will be bringing her 2013 4runner. Now I just have to figure out some aux lighting and a roof basket to hold a couple fuel cans.
 
Glad to Hear Kevin. You and Tara will be a perfect addition to the trip. There are Licence plate brakets that can accomidate light bars and ditch light brackets that bolt to your hood hinges if you don't want to butcher your wifes rig. And maybe a trailer hitch swingout fuel can carrier could be fabbed up in time for the trip?
 
Yeah, I need to have a closer look at what is under the front for brackets. I have that 40" light bar from Cruisin' the woods I should remove from the box.
 
I have 3 confirmed trucks going on this trip so far. I will close out the invite at Christmas. If you are on the fence, get in touch with me soon
 

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