Transportation

The Ice Road - I can now say I commuted to work on an ice road!

The ice road didn't close until May 23rd - everyone who's been up on the slope for a while said that was the longest they'd ever seen it go. Towards the end they were keeping 1/2 of it covered up with snow in order to prolong it's life. I heard a rumor that for every day they were able to keep it open it saved the company somethinkg like $250,000...

This photo was taken from the camp looking back towards shore. The buildings in the distance are part of the "Dew line." The Distant Early Warning line for defense of the US.

Once the ice road was closed this was our new commuter vehicle to work. I catch the bus at 0430 for a short ride to the boat ramp - depending on the wind it's about a 10 minute ride out to the island. At 1730 (530pm) I catch the hovercraft for the ride back to shore.

The back of the hovercraft - it's a pretty comfortable ride.

The cockpit of the hovercraft - the captain steers with pedals that are on the ground.

People, equipment, waste and water are all hauled back and forth.
(no running fresh water or anywhere for sewer to go on the island at this point)

The alternate/evacuation vehicle. This fancy piece of equipment is called an ARCTOS - it can hold 54 people. Scott was trained on how to drive it and his comment was it was a combination of driving the jeep and the RV with a trailer on it (the two vehicles are actually connected).
If you ask him about it you will get an hour long dissertation on all the cool things it can do...so be prepared. :)

The cockpit of the arctos.

I think I took this picture at around 11pm...

I thought I'd include this in transportation even though it won't happen until there is open water. ENI bought a new barge this year in order to take freight out to the island. It was new so it had to be certified by the Coast Guard. They didn't want to wait until open water season and be delayed so they dug out a large hole (I couldn't seem to get a picture of the huge chunks of ice they had to move) and then filled it with water. I'm thinking it is one of the most expensive ponds in the US...