You have written another good peice of information anout winter roads and isolated places. As a young teen one of my interests was watching the planes fly in and out of Kenora to supply northern communities. The main one being Red Lake. Then came the highway north from Vermillion Bay. There was talk that the air lines would fold. They didn't. There was a big growth in the tourist industry and fishing camps became a big thing. The planes continued to fly and supply these isolated places. These winter roads you describe also sprang into use just as you describe so well.

This puzzles me " (alas, resource extraction people think that the best winter is the coldest winter... sorry folks). " You do not explain this statement. From my experience, this is both right and not so right. It depends how that coldest winter comes. Snow is the big factor. As our lakes freeze, the worst thing that can happen is a lot of snow as the ice is forming. The snow weighs the ice down and water flows up along the ice and makes a lot of " slush " ice. This is not strong ice. If we get a lot of cold snow free weather and we get a strong measure of ice before the snow, then ice roads are much better. The same is true with swampy or boggy areas. Too much snow acts as an insolator and no matter how cold it gets after a heavy snow, the frost does not penetrate deep enough to support heavy vehicles. Even snowbobilers have trouble with these areas under these conditions early on. So snow before the cold isn't so good but cold before the snow is ok. Since a lot of our snow early on is lake effect snow, we tend to have less snow when the cold comes first. But those Colorado lows can also mess that event too.

How does this tie in with your comments? I realize your explanation may not tie in with what I am saying.......sincerely, Liz