https://www.nationalobserver.com/
Seen from above, the road could be mistaken for a river or stream. Curving through boreal forest, its palette exists on a spectrum: some parts are white with snow; others dim with muted yellow or glistening blue. When the sun hits, it ceases to hold colour at all and is instead reflective, sending light from above right back to where it came.
The road is an overlapping Venn diagram of synthetic and natural: built from water, manipulated by machine, and at the mercy of weather patterns and temperatures — made increasingly erratic by climate change — even though some humans are utterly dependent upon it.
It’s part of a temporary network of winter roads connecting the James Bay coast to the rest of the country to the south. They’re built up each year once temperatures dip low enough, for long enough – transforming the waters running through rivers, streams and muskeg (a Cree word, meaning grassy bog) into static roadway that remains for as long as temperatures allow.
For the rest of this article: https://www.nationalobserver.com/2025/04/05/news/ice-roads-community-lifeline