Important quotes of the day:
'I need to stop and let some air out of my tirrrreeesss' said John Cockell on the CB after a short time driving on something close to a washboard…
'Take the left at the big teepee' said the hotel clerk in Radisson , Baie James.
'They smell bad but they kinda taste like Buffalo wings…they are horrible, try some…' said Mike Ladden commenting on his new snack food…
Not so cold today; the group did some serious shopping for native art after breakfast, and then we all set a photo shoot at the 'Los Angeles 6000 KM' sign. Our first recovery of the day: John Cockell's 110 station wagon which was being used as a background photo prop.
The 100 KM trip to the Cree community of Chisasibi was uneventful until we decided to take a by-pass of the community to an overlook of James Bay. This by-pass was just being cleared by the works crews, so we passed the grader, proceeding apace until the drifts we were encountering steadily grew in size. Suddenly, Jim Leach and Mike Ladden, in the 110 lead truck, smacked into a big drift plowing through until they were finally stopped by the volume of snow. Right behind them, Pete Wood also got stuck, avoiding a serious rear-end collision with the 110 in his Disco II.
Recovery was then the order of the day as Land Rover Magazine North American editor, Steve Hoare first snatched Pete Wood out of his snowy dilemma, then smoothly winched Pete out of the big drift!
The grader caught up with us at this point, cleared away the immediate snow obstacle and allowed us to continue on…but not much further. Ted and Mary, having assumed the lead, continued smashing through drifts, even though they were getting bigger and bigger, until one drift proved much too big. Mary's Disco I hit the drift like an explosion, launched the Discovery into the air, it then crashing to the ground with interior contents and roof cargo banging and shifting. It was not over! Jim and Mike following closely behind narrowly missing the now still Discovery, pulled off to the side and smack into a snow bank.
And if this wasn't enough, Steve Hoare and co-driver Kim Groenendyk barely managed a stop on the icy surface avoiding the stopped Disco. But from behind came John Cockell sliding on the ice into Steve's Disco II, bending the rear step and tire mount. Whew!
Pete Wood proudly avoided this chain near-disaster, executed a three-point turn and promptly slid off the road at a rather acute angle…more recovery! All and all, a great day.
The damage report: 2 missing license plates, a rear step, a tire mount and some authentic plastic Land Rover attachments.