Kotzebue students from Rod Eakin's Hunting, Trapping and Survival class use an auger to test the ice depth along the area that could become an ice road from Kotzebue to Noorvik. - Photo Provided / for Alaska Newspapers

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Students dig deep, testing for ice road

January 27th 2:35 pm | Michelle Woods Print this article   Email this article   Create a Shortlink for this article

The ice road from Kotzebue to Noorvik is a welcome addition to the landscape in the winter months when many folks can find themselves feeling the onset of cabin fever. If funding and conditions allow, the ice road offers an affordable, comfortable, and quick escape from town. Families with small children and elders, for whom travel by snow machine may be difficult, can travel in style on the ice road! For many people the ice road is more than a Sunday drive, it is a weekend trip to visit relatives they would not otherwise see, all while enjoying a landscape usually reserved for those hearty enough to make the trek by snow machine.

Before these trips can be taken, the ice road needs to be 'built'. Doing that starts with collecting data on the thickness of the ice that the road will be built upon. Equipped with an auger, SPOT GPS, and a fleet of snow machines and basket sleds, Kotzebue High School teacher Rod Eakin's Hunting/Trapping/Survival class recently embarked on an afternoon trip to follow the route of the previous year's ice road. Their mission was to drill holes and record the location and ice thickness. That information would be used to inform the decision as to whether a road could be built again this year.

The 60 mile trip took the 12 students and adult mentors out of Kotzebue along the established trail to Lockhart Point, from there we turned east to follow the previous year's ice road path. Using a combination of GPS and local knowledge, we then began our turn to the south to meet the staked trail at the Riley Channel of the Kobuk River.

"I learned how to check the auger's blade," said student Phillip Gregg after discovering their equipment needed extra attention.

"The trip was exciting and the weather was beautiful," said Tristan Ferguson.

Whether or not the data that the students gathered will allow an ice road to be cut or not is yet to be seen. While it may be disappointing if a road is not built, these students can still feel a sense of accomplishment knowing that they helped to inform the decision and take part in the work that a large-scale project takes. If a road is built, these students will also be able to feel proud knowing that they helped to connect the people of the Northwest Arctic.

 

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