Winter 2008

March 17-27, 2016 NWT Visit with Steve: (81 Photos)

81. A couple months ago Kailee (My younger Brother's fiancé) called and asked if I would be interested in coming up to the Territories on a surprise visit for Steve's birthday. Of course I obliged, plans were made and Kailee sent me the tickets a couple weeks later.

80. My plane was set to depart St. John's International early Friday morning and in true NL fashion a major snow storm hit St. John's Thursday night which canceled my flight. A quick call to Air Canada had me rebooked on a flight to Halifax Thursday evening and I made it to Toronto early Friday morning in plenty of time to make the rest of my connecting flights to Yellowknife, NWT.

79. My next 5 hour stopover was Edmonton International, which is a beautiful airport with lots shops, restaurants and comfy couches which are great when you have time to kill. I had an awesome supper at Boston Pizza which consisted of Wings & Jambalaya.

78. My welcome party greeted me at the airport in Yellowknife. Steve and Kailee came to town early and picked up supplies and grub for the week. I have to say, it was damn cold in YK! Getting off the plane in YK means exiting and walking outside to the terminal in -20 degree weather. It was awesome to be thrown back in the bowls of winter as spring arrived early this year on the East Coast. We hopped in Steve's Tacoma and hit the highway to Steve & Kailee's home in Behchoko, which was about an hour and a half drive away.

77. Still on NL time, I woke up early Saturday morning to a beautiful clear calm day little did I know but this great weather would be the continuing trend all week! Although quite cold, (-20 to -30 most days) there was no wind at all so the cold didn't feel quite as cold.

76. There are many ice roads heading north during the winter months in NWT carrying supplies to remote communities. Also many communities in the NWT make Ice (side) Roads to creating short cuts between communities which greatly reduce travel times.

75. Saturday afternoon Steve, Kailee and I headed back to Yellowknife for the 10 cent tour, hit up a couple local outdoorsman shops and checked out the Ice Castle that would be the centerpiece for the upcoming Long John Jamboree.

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73. Some of the ice and snow sculptures were absolutely crazy, and the whole thing is built on frozen Great Slave Lake!

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71. Although its hard to see, the ice here is almost perfectly clear and about 4-6 feet thick!

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68. In the middle of the castle there is a wicked two lane slide made of polished ice. It was wickedly fast.

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66. Later that evening we had an awesome meal at the Black Knight in Yellowknife and stuck around for East Coast Night.

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64. I was super stoked to meet Mikey McBryant from Buffalo air at the club!

63. Sunday arrived after an awesome home cooked breakfast Steve and I headed out to his shed for some Area51 project time.

62. First on the list was resurrecting his '85 Big Red from storage and taking it for a rip. This bike is awesome, a real barn find it's legit in immaculate shape.

61. Next we started looking at his '85 Odyssey FL350. Steve had an issue last fall where the machine would run out of gas and stall, he figured it was a faulty fuel pump. It turned out that a dry rotted impulse line from the engine that drives the pump was the culprit.

60. We installed a new piece of hose and had the beast up and running in no time! We did find a worn out rear axle u-joint and the throttle cable had seized up solid so we couldn't take if for a run.

59. The Odyssey is in fantastic shape, with everything there and working! It will eventually be the subject of a full restoration project, but for now it makes an awesome occasional use trail cruiser.

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57. Monday morning Steve an I made a quick repair to Kailee's SUV by removing the rest of the damaged under body skid plate that had broken sometime over the winter and was flapping in the wind. Plastic parts like these are super brittle in the arctic cold!