Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 12/00) - It was one of those unusual adventures the North offers up for those bold enough to try.

Corey Borolien and Keith Hartery wanted to bike a stretch of road that's never been biked before - the ice road from Hay River to Yellowknife.

The 200-kilometre ice road spans Great Slave Lake. It is plowed and maintained by RTL Robinson Enterprises Ltd. The road is built only during years when the transport company brings special loads north. The ribbon of ice cuts 130 kilometres off the trip and reduces the danger of moving wide loads on Highway 3.

In an interview Sunday, Hartery said the trip, attempted late last month, was a great illustration of the type of adventure we have at our doorsteps here in the North.

Borolien anticipated the most obvious question. "Some people think 'Why would you do that?' or 'You're crazy,' but they don't understand where we're coming from," he said. "This isn't about risks and thrills it's about the challenge and the adventure of doing something that hasn't been done before."

Borolien and Hartery are avid cyclists, winter and summer. Last winter Borolien, who works for the Yellowknife Fire Department, completed a 100-mile stretch of the trail used in the Iditarod dog race.

Hartery, a worker with the territorial government, had fewer miles under his belt but, like Borolien, was in good shape and fully capable of biking the road.

A good sign

RTL trucks hauling the tanks have snow plows on the front to punch through drifts that can build up in a matter of hours when the wind starts to blow on the lake.

So as they flew out of Yellowknife for Hay River, it gave Borolien and Hartery some comfort to look down and see a convoy of five trucks heading toward Yellowknife. It guaranteed that as long as the weather held out for the next two days, they would have ice to ride on instead of snow to push their bikes through.

Borolien said even the wind wasn't a big threat at that point.

"Because of the warm weather we were having, all the snow was so wet that even if a wind came up we knew it wouldn't drift," said the Yellowknife triathlete. "The only thing that could get us into trouble would be a new snowfall."

The cyclists spoke of their plans to the flight crew, who offered to keep an eye out for them during the regular flights between Hay River and Yellowknife.

Road in transition

Borolien and Hartery had paid close attention to weather forecasts before leaving. There was a 30 per cent chance of light rain or snow for the two days they planned to be on the lake.

In perfect conditions riding on an ice road requires only slightly more energy than pedalling on pavement. But perfect conditions are rare.

A light rain fell the morning of March 27. It stopped by 7:30 a.m., when Borolien and Hartery pedalled out of Hay River and onto the ice of Great Slave Lake.

The two were aiming to maintain an average speed of 10 kilometres per hour. They started at half that.

"For the first hour or hour and a half we were riding really slow because the road was really slippery and we were falling all the time," said Borolien.

As they pressed on the road firmed up. By the time they stopped for lunch at a pressure ridge with open water, Hartery and Borolien had covered 53 kilometres. At that pace they would easily be in Yellowknife the next day, as planned.

"Our confidence was at an all-time high," said Hartery.

Surrounded by the seemingly endless expanse of ice, the two treated themselves to some of a dozen moose burritos Borolien had prepared for the trip.

That was as easy as the biking got.

Seven kilometres further, they started encountering snow drifts.

"They were fairly hard-packed and we could power through them without too much effort," wrote Borolien in an account of the trip posted on his Web site. "As we kept moving north, they became more frequent and deeper and we had to dismount and walk occasionally."

The drifting got worse each kilometre they advanced.

Thinking back to the departure from Hay River, Borolien said, "What we didn't realize then was that 60 kilometres north on the lake the rain was falling as snow."

By the time they reached the 70-kilometre mark, the two were walking and pushing their bikes more often than riding.

Their average speed dropped to 4-5 kilometres per hour. Borolien and Hartery pushed their bikes on until 9:30 p.m. They were about halfway to Yellowknife by the time they set up camp.

The two were lulled to sleep by a wind that had picked up to 50 kilometres per hour.

Like a slushy, only longer

Conditions deteriorated further the next day as the sun blazed down out of a clear sky and the temperature climbed to 10 C.

As the day progressed the snow became sticky, clumping on the wheels of the bicycles. Beneath the insulating surface layer there was slush.

"If you can picture a foot of snow, and the base of it is six or eight inches of slush, you're having a world of problems walking in it, never mind biking in it," said Jack Kruger, staff sergeant of the Hay River RCMP detachment.

Hartery and Borolien continued, hopeful of reaching beyond the area of the snowfall.

Their hopes lifted when the drifts started to dwindle in size and frequency. Eventually, they were riding again. But after seven or eight kilometres they were walking and pushing again. The brief respite was caused by a large island that had acted as a wind shadow, preventing drifting.

Big decision

The drifts got bigger, up to a metre deep. Borolien had a cell phone and they discussed attempting to get within range of the city, but decided it would be too risky given their dwindling food supply.

"We were really bummed out about having to stop Tuesday night. We were feeling good and could have kept going, but we had to make a decision," said Borolien.

"We had 6,000 calories left between us. Sitting in a tent, that would last a day and a half. If we pushed on we'd be through it by the next morning."

After their second night camping on the ice, the two took a walk and confirmed their decision to stay put. Friends in town had agreed to drive or snowmobile up the road to pick them up if they had not returned by 7 a.m. Wednesday morning.

Both emphasized they were in no trouble. "We were out there and accepted the situation," said Hartery. "Physically, we were in great shape."

A Buffalo Airways DC-3 flew over their tent at about 10 a.m. Thinking back to their conversation with the flight crew, the cyclists lit a flare.

But the plane was not a regular Buffalo flight.

"It was reported to us they were overdue for their return to Yellowknife," said Kruger, who was co-ordinating a search for the two cyclists. "It was called into the Yellowknife detachment. They contacted me.

"As in most cases on the lake, due to the immensity of it, I'll put an aircraft up. I got a Buffalo Airways plane out of Yellowknife and it flew a grid pattern on the road, flying over it and west of it and east of it.

"On the third pass they found the tent and an SOS written in the snow, 36-39 nautical miles south of Yellowknife."

Meanwhile the people who were driving out to pick them up were turned back by snow drifts. There were delays lining up snowmobiles and it wasn't until noon that they started out again.

Shortly after, a helicopter was on its way to retrieve Borolien and Hartery.

"We weren't happy about the fact that we had to be picked up in a helicopter," said Borolien. "We were fully expecting to be picked up by snowmobile. That's the only thing we ever considered."

The two were returned to Yellowknife, suffering only from minor sunburn on their faces.

Borolien said the road is now unfinished business.

"I would have liked somebody to come out and bring us more food and fuel so we could keep going, finish the trip," said Borolien.