Ice Road Opens to Rescue Northwest Angle Resorts From COVID Border Crossing Restrictions

NW ANGLE, MN (trfnews.i234.me) An ice road has opened across Lake of the Woods in order to get fishermen to Northwest Angle resorts. COVID restrictions have closed crossing the usual drive through Canada to the Angle.
before this monday anglers and other travelers could only access lake of the woods county’s northwest angle by driving through canada a trip of about 40 miles before re-entering the united states or by staked snowmobile trail across lake of the woods with the canadian u.s border closed since mid-march of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic that first option of travel has been unavailable on monday january 19th all that changed when the northwest angle guest ice road opened in a limited capacity for northwest angle resort guests with reservations as of tuesday only single axle non-enclosed snowmobile trailers were allowed on the road organizers say some preparation needs to be completed before the road opens for all traffic the groomed road begins at spring steel resort in war road and makes its way north on the lake on the u.s side up to the border cut trail a road through a forest which uh connects to one of the main roads at the angle this is a monumental task and it’s amazing to see the northwest angle area pulled together to save their ice fishing season explain joe henry executive director lake of the woods tourism this project is absolutely necessary to save some resorts who have had little to no revenue since march small business owners bringing to the table their entrepreneurial spirit can do attitudes attitudes and decades of wisdom to make this happen the northwest angle is special and this community and teamwork is at its finest while resorts on the south end of lake of the woods are seeing the usual or possibly higher amount of angles northwest angle resorts have taken a particularly hard financial hit during the pandemic and subsequent border closure it’s uh now hope the new ice road will change that while organizers had hoped the ice road would open january 14th mild weather pushed that opening to monday the 19th forecasted below zero temperatures should help ice conditions tremendously all of the resorts on the angle are involved in the ice road project and point to north services sunset lodge on oak island and springsdale resort will share the workload for plowing and maintaining the road the northwest angle edge riders a group that grooms and maintains snowmobile trails on the angle is also a partner and other resorts will chip in as needed use of the road will require a valid pass which will cost around 145 dollars for a round trip from the mainland to oak and flag island organizers will use the online ticketing platform eventbrite to sell road passes to purchase a pass visit eventbrite.com fees will help cover the costs of plowing maintenance safety checks and bridges etc the northwest angle guest ice road will be open during select hours contingent on weather and ice conditions organizers stress that speed limit on the road is 25 miles per hour for the latest uh information on uh conditions and other details go to the northwest angle guest ice road 2020 facebook page i’m Neil Berg reporting for pageonepublications.com