It was all awash of grey. I could only see the periodic wispy red glow of the taillight ahead of me letting me know we were still on the road. The snowdrifts piling up on either side of the road reminded us that we may have stayed up north for too long. What once offered us brisk, clear winter air now burdened us by encapsulating us in what one could perceive as riding in a freshly shaken snow globe.
Two days before we had ridden the same road at the start of our journey. With the sun shining down on us as we made our way north on our mission to deliver over 454 kilograms of dog and cat food to a couple of rural northern villages that desperately needed it.
I still remember the day I met Mike Haberoth — he’s a good friend of mine now — but truthfully, when we first spoke at the Edmonton Motorcycle Show I thought he was seriously crazy for wanting to ride the ice roads north of Fort McMurray, Alta., in the middle of winter.
However, after completing my first ice road trip with the Ride North Moto crew in February, 2021, I couldn’t wait to do it again. At that time, we had only been able to do a day trip just outside of Fort Chipewyan, Alta., and couldn’t complete the intended trip up to the NWT. This was due to Covid; we decided collectively it wouldn’t be right adding additional stress to the remote communities during the pandemic.
We decided to do another ride in January, 2023, with friends new and old; riding we would have Mike Haberoth, Glen Miller, Brandon MacNeil and myself. And in support vehicles, we would have Billy Beauchesne, Blake Sovdi, Greg Samborski, David Stirling and Kevin Power. We would be riding a mix of bikes; I would be on my KTM 790 ADV
