When I lived in Yellowknife, I guess I had been there about a year maybe a little more. This would be about maybe 15 or 16 years ago now.(where does the time go?) Anyways I got a chance to move in to this really nice big log cabin about 8 miles outside of yellowknife, right on the yellowknife river. It was awesome. Back then even 2 or 3 miles outside of town and you were in the bush.
It was a cool place to live and I really felt like I was doing the farley mowat thing(I would take that theme to it's limits)but walking into town absolutley sucked(I once walked in to town and back 3 times in one day..at -30)but I loved it.
One of the things that I had to do was fill the water tank from the river, we had an 1100 gallon tank in the basement and we would run this great big long firehose from the tank to the river and put a pump on it and fill the tank. The house was maybe 40 yards from the river.
In the summer you would put he pump on the end of the dock, in winter you'd drill a hole in the ice.
Usually this was a two man operation, you'd need a guy at the tank in the house to yell out the window and tell you when to shut off the pump.(or you'd flood the basement)
I timed it a few times and then could pretty much do it on my own. The only trick was getting that firehose rolled up and back inside before it froze.
One day I had just finished drilling a new hole and decided to go for a walk up the river before
I filled the tank. So I started walking up the river, the ice was about 21/2 feet thick. i walked maybe thirty yards up from where I had drilled my hole and my dog stopped and started barking. I walked about ten feet more, told the dog to come, she wouldn't.
I took one more step...Bam! right through the ice! my arms caught on the ice and the current of the river started pulling me sideways under the ice. My brain never processed information so fast in my entire life. " I'm dead" I thought. "this is what kills people up here" I remember thinking. The water was so cold-I panicked, I went completely bats**t. The riverbank was only about 8 or 10 feet away and the water was about 10 feet deep. I'm splashing and gasping, the dog was on the bank barking. I got my belly up on the ice and pushed forward I grabbed some willows and pulled myself up over the bank and lay down. I instantly felt relief and then terror as I realized that even on the bank I was screwed. I was soaked, It was about -30. I honestly thought I was going to die before I got back to the cabin.
I got up and started walking my teeth were chattering and every breath came with an involuntary uunnnhhh! every breath uuunnnhhh, uuunnnhhh step after step along the bank back toward the house. My boots crunching on the snow. crunch, crunch uuunnh crunch crunch uuunnh. My footsteps and breathing giving me a rythm to focus on. crunch crunch uuuunnnh.
Finally I made it to the short hill up to the cabin. My clothes were already almost frozen stiff, I could still move my legs but it was getting harder to do.
When I got back to the house I had another problem-there was no one else home. And I couldn't open the door my hands were useless. The door had been booted in previously and repaired hastily. So I figured I could maybe bash my way in.
BANG! nothing. I swear I had tears in my eyes(I thought I was done for) But I tried again and crack! the doorframe cracked, one more time and I was in.
It took me awhile to get out of my frozen clothes, but I was okay.
2 comments:
WOW - glad you are still around to write about it. So, are we still going to see some family pics too????
I once fell through the ice on our pool, was pretty traumatic too, I thought I ripped the liner and that Gary would beat me. There was no fear of hypothermia but you know, the fear was there.
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