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Road to Stony Rapids, SK

Started by 1995hoo, September 26, 2014, 12:41:34 PM

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1995hoo

While visiting the "reading room" I found a copy of Car and Driver from October 2010 that contained John Phillips's story about driving a Ford F-150 up the long, isolated road to Stony Rapids, Saskatchewan. Google Maps route from a Tim Hortons in Prince Albert viewable here: http://goo.gl/maps/XvejA

I simply found myself curious as to whether anyone here has ever travelled this road (Oscar, of course, being the most obvious candidate). Phillips's description makes it sound comparable to the Trans-Taiga Road across central Quebec (which I've never driven either and do not plan to in any of our current cars).

Story here: http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2010-ford-f-150-svt-raptor-62-road-test
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.


Alps

I read it, and I said "Damn, this is the best story I've read in C/D since the 90s. I wonder if it was written by just about the only remaining staffer."
Then I came back here and saw "John Phillips." Of course.
That's why I stopped reading. But every time Phillips writes, I regret it just a tiny bit.

oscar

I've never driven the road to Stony Rapids.  I did visit Prince Albert, which was the starting point for the trek to Stony Rapids, but instead of continuing on SK 2 to La Ronge (where the pavement ends), I headed northwest up mostly-paved SK 55 toward Green Lake, on which I continued west to the Alberta border before meandering back south.

The 2012/13 official Saskatchewan highway map shows the route taken by the C&D drivers, as SK 905.  But much of it, north of Lake Wollaston, is shown as a winter-only gravel road.  A thick layer of snow might help with the rough stretches the C&D drivers did in the summer.

That map shows another road, SK 955, north out of Green Lake which goes almost as far north as SK 905.  Much of it is gravel, but it is not restricted to winter travel.

No, thanks, on either route.  I've driven some pretty gnarly roads in my pickup truck, but nothing nearly as bad as the road to Stony Rapids.  Green Lake, and also Creighton SK (across the border from Flin Flon MB), were good enough for me to snag Saskatchewan's northernmost county equivalent, and I'm not otherwise interested in further exploring far northern Saskatchewan.
my Hot Springs and Highways pages, with links to my roads sites:
http://www.alaskaroads.com/home.html



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