Way below zero-dark-thirty...

Few Ci, Temp -34C. Winds calm.

When I checked the weather charts a few days ago there was a little blob of 486 dam thickness air over this part of the NWT. For the non-meteorological, that means it's cold, really cold.

I step out the door. It's still dark. Now begins the daily ritual. Russ starts the Tacoma- check. I scrape the thinnest of frost layers from the windows- check. Load the cab with sat phone, food, clothes, cameras, more clothes, laptop, SPOT, journal and some more clothes- check. Driving through the neighbourhood, our headlights illuminate the doggie doors cut into the crawlspaces of some of the houses, no doubt disturbing the sleep of a pooch or two. Poking our way out of town the thermometer dips to -36C and we start our route NE to the community of Colville Lake. The community marks the end of the winter road just north of the arctic circle.

It's amazing how long it takes for the sun to 'rise' this far North. For over an hour the sun teases us with its feeble warmth as it skirts the eastern sky. Russ points out you can be the laziest photographer in the world up here as you get multiple chances to snap the 'sunrise' in the sweet light of morning. This is of course if you can stand the cold which now dips to -38C as registered on the cab thermometer. Russ flips on the Hellas and we can see the definition on the road much better. Our route takes us across rolling tundra sometimes we're climbing to 900' ASL, sometimes as low as 145' (Above Sea Level). We cross an ice bridge and skirt around several small lakes before dipping into a hollow and here we register -40C. Stopping to snap a few pictures, we both cough while breathing in the cold air. Yep, it's cold and we leave a trail of ice fog in our wake with each stop.

The route descends to a large lake and then skirts the left shore. We then deviate from the route shown on the map by driving two perfectly straight roads intersecting at a 145 degree angle. It must be easier to exploit a couple of seismic lines for road building instead of the circuitous route along the lake shore. 3.5 hrs after we woke up the dogs in FGH, we're rolling into Colville Lake where it is now a balmy -31C.
Latitude here is 67.03 degrees. 

We take a trip through town, pass the CO-OP and the new airport and then put the sun at our 12 O'clock (well 10 O'clock really) for the return trip. 

There is no sign for the hamlet of Colville Lake but the GPS tells us we've arrived!