The Wabigoon Lake Ice Road Committee says public assistance is always welcomed in order to keep the popular road open.
Officials are encouraging users to help them maintain the road with a donation.
Contributions are voluntary and confidential and help with shorter travel to town and burning less gas.
A local study determined that driving the ice road compared to the land road would save $3.08 per return trip and about $308 dollars in gas per vehicle each winter.
It also saves roughly 40 hours of driving time per vehicle each year.
The distance from the central mailbox location to the Dryden Post Office is 16 kilometres and the ice road distance is 6.4 kilometres.
If anyone wishes to contribute to the Ice Road, you can contact the Committee by emailing them at wabigoonlakeiceroad@gmail.com
The road is now open.
This is the second latest opening since the Committee started tracking numbers.
Five years ago the road didn’t open until January 2.
The earliest was November 29 in 2014.
Officials say this has been a different year with the mild weather causing slow growth of ice even with little snow accumulation.
The road isn’t opened unless there is 12 inches of ice straight across.
Ice tracking in 2020: (measurements taken every 100 yards)
-November 28: 5 inches
-December 19: 7-11 inches across the ice road
-December 27: 11-13 inches
History of Wabigoon Lake Ice Road openings:
-2006: December 4
-2007: December 14
-2008: December 5
-2009: December 17
-2010: December 24
-2011: December 8
-2012: December 10
-2013: December 15
-2014: November 29
-2015: January 2
-2016: December 19
-2017: December 17
-2018: December 2
-2019: December 13
-2020: December 28
