New To The Board

[Smokin Joe]

Don't laugh too hard. Were I any younger I might just take you up on that... And I might still on a double-dog dare. I worked a while on building an iceboat... which would be the semi-sane way of doing that... Never really got it finished before I needed to part it back out for the aluminum struts, so I didn't kill myself with it... yet. 

I have thought about that for Lake Sakakawea, too, but then, I have seen the pressure ridges that form on the lake, and the thought of slamming into one of those at 80+ and endo-ing down to Newtown just doesn't appeal...

[Cyber Liberty]

I have thought about that for Lake Sakakawea, too, but then, I have seen the pressure ridges that form on the lake, and the thought of slamming into one of those at 80+ and endo-ing down to Newtown just doesn't appeal...

Sounds like an episode of Ice Road Truckers!

[Smokin Joe]

Sounds like an episode of Ice Road Truckers!

I have only driven out on the lake a short distance in a very cold year. I worked on an oil rig on the south side of the lake back in the 90s, however, and the hands and service/supply personnel routinely drove a couple of miles across the lake rather than make the entire 140 mile round trip by land, cutting their mileage and time on the road after working 12 hour shifts in half. The route was mapped out, marked with pin flags, and holes drilled in the ice to check thickness. One drill bit salesman drove a 1 ton across the lake to location, with a load of drill bits in the back (figure at least a ton besides the weight of the truck).

[PeteS in CA]

The Ice Pilots series occasionally showed Buffalo Airways using frozen lake landing strips to make cargo deliveries with their DC-3s, C-46s, and Electras (NWT and Nunavut in Canada).

[Smokin Joe]

The Ice Pilots series occasionally showed Buffalo Airways using frozen lake landing strips to make cargo deliveries with their DC-3s, C-46s, and Electras (NWT and Nunavut in Canada).

In serious winter (subzero temps) Ice houses appear all over for fishing, with half a dozen trucks parked around some of the larger ones.

Me, well, let's just say I have a phobia about being submerged below the ice in freezing water, in a vehicle to boot. I know it is fairly safe, and that the rare ones who do go through the ice do so because they were driving on it in warmer weather as a rule.

[roamer_1]

I have only driven out on the lake a short distance in a very cold year. I worked on an oil rig on the south side of the lake back in the 90s, however, and the hands and service/supply personnel routinely drove a couple of miles across the lake rather than make the entire 140 mile round trip by land, cutting their mileage and time on the road after working 12 hour shifts in half. The route was mapped out, marked with pin flags, and holes drilled in the ice to check thickness. One drill bit salesman drove a 1 ton across the lake to location, with a load of drill bits in the back (figure at least a ton besides the weight of the truck).

It's fairly common to drive on the lakes here... If not with a truck, certainly with a snow machine. They used to lay track on Whitefish Lake in the winter, because it so shortened the route to the forests that winter is when they made their profits... But then there is said to be a whole train laying at the bottom somewhere... So it is not a fair defense of the idea.