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    Trans-Taiga Road (2004)

    (www.jamesbayroad.com)
    154 points jason_pomerleau | 12 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
    1. rob74 ◴[] No.44452542[source]
    > Along this road is also the farthest north point you can travel on a road in eastern Canada.

    Not to belittle the remoteness of this road, but I just find it interesting that the farthest north point you can travel on a road in eastern Canada is further south than most of Sweden (not to mention Norway or Iceland, which also have very extensive road networks). Another reminder of how important the Gulf Stream is for the climate of Europe...

    replies(5): >>44454939 #>>44454981 #>>44455045 #>>44455564 #>>44458664 #
    2. nkrisc ◴[] No.44454939[source]
    There’s that and of course the sheer lack of people who live in that vast wilderness larger than Sweden.
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    3. nucleardog ◴[] No.44454981[source]
    Might be less surprising once you hear what Canadians mean when they say "Eastern Canada".

    Canada's divided almost exactly in half with the top half (48% of the land area) being the territories (Yukon, Northwest Territory, Nunavut; collectively "Northern Canada") and the bottom half being the provinces.

    When people say "Eastern Canada", they're referring to the Eastern provinces (Ontario, Quebec, the maritimes), and have already excluded the entire Northern half of the country. The nothernmost point of Eastern Canada is barely further north than the southern tip of Finland.

    However if you look at Northern Canada, there's stuff like Alert, NU with roads and an air strip which is the northernmost continuously inhabited place in the world. It sits more than 1200km further north than the northernmost tip of Scandinavia.

    My favourite Canadian geography fact: Canada shares borders with three countries. Two of those are land borders.

    replies(2): >>44455152 #>>44457880 #
    4. gosub100 ◴[] No.44455045[source]
    I think it's also because of water. There is too much water in the northeast - central to make permanent roads.
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    5. widforss ◴[] No.44455152[source]
    the US, Denmark and France?
    replies(1): >>44457516 #
    6. southernplaces7 ◴[] No.44455305[source]
    >There’s that and of course the sheer lack of people who live in that vast wilderness larger than Sweden.

    If you're referring to just Northern Quebec, then sure, the area is maybe a bit larger than Sweden, but if you're referring to northern canada, meaning all of its territories above the provinces, then that's a whole different thing. You could fit much off central and western Europe into that region with room to spare.

    7. lastofthemojito ◴[] No.44455564[source]
    > Along this road is also the farthest north point you can travel on a road in eastern Canada.

    There's always so much room for pedantry with statements like that. If eastern Canada includes Labrador (which it generally does), the town of Nain (which is further north) has roads that people drive cars on: https://maps.app.goo.gl/b1saMzzXKDQrHZQy6

    Nain isn't connected to the rest of Canada's road network though, so it depends if one really means something like:

    "this is as far north as I can take a long road trip in eastern Canada" or "this is as far north as I can be in a car, on a road, in eastern Canada, even if it is just a 1km ride from the airport on one side of town to the hotel on the other"

    8. nucleardog ◴[] No.44457516{3}[source]
    You got it.

    After a long, protracted dispute with Denmark where we sent our respective militaries out to Hans Island to give each other gifts of Whiskey and Schnapps (known as "The Whisky War"), we finally settled on drawing a border down the middle of the island giving Canada and Greenland/Denmark a land border.

    Canada shares a maritime border with France at St Pierre and Miquelon, a few islands off the coast of Newfoundland that are a French overseas territory.

    9. sorokod ◴[] No.44457880[source]
    One of those countries has its longest land border in South America
    10. cgh ◴[] No.44458664[source]
    Re your Gulf Stream comment: Whitehorse, Yukon is roughly at the same latitude as Bergen, Norway. Bergen’s climate is temperate and similar to, say, Vancouver: rainy, a bit of snow in winter, rarely staying below freezing for long. The coldest temperature recorded is -17° back in 1987.

    Whitehorse’s average daily low in winter is close to -20°, with common drops to around -40°. When I was a kid up in that area, I remember walking to school at around -30 to -40°. We also played outside in those temps, which seems a bit mad now.

    Here’s the fun part: Whitehorse has the warmest climate in the Yukon.

    I get that there are other factors, like coastal vs inland environments, but regardless, any disruption to the Gulf Stream is bad news indeed for Europe.

    11. deadbabe ◴[] No.44461117[source]
    With climate change this will change in the coming decades perhaps. Kind of exciting, a whole new landmass that few people have ever considered exploring and know very little about.
    12. madaxe_again ◴[] No.44461398[source]
    What? You’ve never heard of a causeway? Or a bridge?