After unusually warm weather brought a halt to vehicle traffic on the Kuskokwim River between Bethel and lower river communities in late January, the official Kuskokwim Ice Road has once again been established on the lower river.
According to Kuskokwim Ice Road crew leader Mark Leary, the outlook was not rosy when crews headed back out on the river last week with their plow truck, ice radar, and grader to mark and reestablish the route from the tundra villages up to Akiak.
"We had that long stretch of warm weather topped off by that 60 mile an hour south wind Jan. 23, immediately followed by heavy, heavy snowfall. That's the worst possible thing for the ice road," Leary said.
But Leary says that assessing river conditions is a lifelong learning process.
"Past experiences has taught us that that water won't go away, that it's hiding everywhere under the snow, and it makes it almost impossible to establish a safe road," Leary said. "But the river is always teaching us. There's no water."
Leary said that plowing the ice road up the Johnson River to the tundra villages of Kasigluk and Nunapitchuk allowed freight trucks to deliver bypass mail that had been backed up due to flights being canceled for several days. He said that it also allowed a critically ill person to reach Bethel.
"They needed to medevac, so we made a point of going straight to [Nunapitchuk]. We plowed a road right to the vehicle that they were going to put the patient in, and they brought him to Bethel to get treated," Leary said.
Leary said that the crew also provided plowed access to the Yuvvaq ice fishing area near the mouth of the Johnson River. On Feb. 6, the crew was busy plowing the final piece of the road to the nearby village of Atmautluak.
"Our guys are, they're so happy to get back out on the river. They're like sailors that stay in port too long. They get restless, you know?" Leary said.
Upriver from Bethel, the official ice road is established to Akiachak, Kwethluk, and Akiak. But the area between Akiak and Tuluksak remains closed to vehicle travel. A massive hole in front of Akiak that has been an issue all winter long continues to stand in the way of upriver vehicle travel.
Headed further upriver, Leary said that official routes are not yet established along the roughly 80-mile stretch of river between Tuluksak and Aniak, and that ice road crew members will begin focusing their efforts there sometime next week.
"Because we're not able to pass Akiak with our Bethel-based equipment, we're going to send our Aniak grader down to Tuluksak, turn around and go back up," Leary said. "In the ice road there’ll be a disconnect between Akiak and Tuluksak a while yet."
Leary said that it has been a joy to find a window to reestablish the lower portion of the official ice road, something he says makes life a little easier and more affordable for people in communities along the river.
"We're so happy to be back out on the river and so rewarding to see all the traffic and the benefit it brings," Leary said. "Every time we open the road, we're adding hundreds and hundreds of more potential people to the road. You know, there's like 2,000 people that live back in the Johnson River. And they have, you know, 10,000 relatives in the lower river. So you see lots of traffic."
In addition to attempting to plow and mark the upper portion of the ice road from Tuluksak to Aniak, Leary said that his crew will be closely monitoring the lower river and focusing on cutting and marking snowmachine crossings to ensure safe passage for loads of firewood and other cargo.
But more balmy weather, with temperatures as high as 40 degrees Fahrenheit, is right around the corner. As always, the Kuskokwim Ice Road crew will have their work cut out for them.
