Advice from Uncle CB: Grid Roads

"CB" (jrcb) 02/13/2020 at 13:36 • Filed to: Advice from Uncle CB, Embiggen Days

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The Canadian prairies: renowned for being able to watch your dog run away for three days, a place where elevation changes are a myth, and one of the few spots where the ocean is just a legend parents use to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . However, there is one other thing that the prairies are known for: painfully straight stretches of road, with gravel roads being known as grids here in Saskatchewan. Alberta calls them Range Roads I think, and think they’re better than us for it, but they’re also worse at seceding than Quebec so what do they know?

What are grid roads?

A map of land parcel ownership from the RM of Chesterfield

Grid roads are exactly as they sound: roads in a grid formation that cross all of southern Saskatchewan, basically. Sure, there are a few jigs and jags in places, but because land was allotted in square land parcels, it for the most part is divided by roads that outline the parcels of land. So, if you look between each east-west lot (four and five, for example) and every one or two lots north-south, there should be a grid road between.

These roads are the responsibility of the rural municipalities they fall in, and as such quality goes from “passable” to “developing nation in the middle of a civil war”. Is it an all season road? If it’s not one of the main grids, probably not! When will it get plowed after a snowstorm? Who knows! Will there be gravel, dirt, or rocks the size of your fist in the middle of the road? More than likely!

Seriously, though, rocks will get kicked onto your vehicle by other vehicles. The width of the roads vary, going from basically three lanes wide to barely wider than your vehicle. Some of the roads might not be traveled for days at a time, and others may have been claimed as farm land, or reclaimed by nature. You never know what you’re going to get.

There’s also washboard, which basically a series of bumps in the roadway. It can cause you to lose traction and control, so it’s best to take the grids at no more than the maximum speed of 80 km/h. Yes, most of these roads do not have a signed speed limit, but every grid road in Saskatchewan abides by that maximum speed, or lower.

The grids sound terrible. Any advice for driving them?

I’ve got a few tidbits of advice. I know, shocking, advice in an advice column. What else were you expecting?

Avoid them if you can

The 756 is a grid road. Highways 5 and 35 are both paved.

Google Maps always suggests that I take a grid road to get home to save fifteen minutes when on my way from Saskatoon. Thing is, I know the washboard on that roads will be bad, I know that at night it’l be hours before another vehicle passes me, and cell service can be spotty. I’d rather take the paved highway, which takes longer, but I have cell service the whole way, I stop in a town, and there is the occasional vehicle that passes by. Fifteen minutes is worth keeping myself a little safer.

If you’re going to drive the grid, take it easy if you don’t know it

I was cruising the grids one night for work when I came across one I didn’t know. So, I took it slow, kept my head up, and was careful. If I drove it like I did the other grids I know like the back of my hand, I never would have been able to stop in time for the abrupt snowbank in front of me.

Another thing that can interfere with grids in the winter are the plows. You may think that you have more shoulder to pull over than you do because it looks flat and plowed, only to find out that it’s actually the ditch.

Never trust your GPS on the grids for shortcuts, just stick to the main grids

The road on the left allegedly exists. The road on the right is washed out and been reclaimed as farm land/a pond. Will Google still send you down this path? Yes.

This ties into a previous point. You may follow Google maps or our work’s proprietary map system, which will say “yes, this is a road you can go down”. Thing is, grids might not be all weather roads. So in the winter, everything might be hunky dory until you realize that the road ended a few hundred metres back and you’re on farmland, with no turning back. Or you drive through a snowdrift three feet deep. Congratulations, now you’re thoroughly sewered. Stick to the numbered grids, and you should be okay.

No half sends, only full sends

This may seem counter-intuitive to what I just said, but when you find yourself in a pickle on the grids, you can’t half ass getting out of there. A few examples:

- As mentioned before with the snowbank in the middle of the road, I ended up driving almost a kilometre and a half backwards. No “I’m just going to pull a three point turn” lazy way out, because I knew the grid was too narrow for that.

- I was making my way to assist a colleague when I thought I’d follow the maps. In the middle of the night. That didn’t pan out when car tracks turned to ATV tracks and road turned into snowy field. So I put my truck from 2WD into 4Hi and slammed the gas, and kept it cruising at 80 km/h through some of the worst “road” I’ve ever driven. No damage when I broke through the snowbank on the other side, at least!

- I was pulling over for an oncoming semi-truck in a snow storm when I misjudged the road and the back end ended up falling into the ditch. One again, 4Hi, pedal to the metal, and I drove that thing sideways along the ditch until I hit an approach and was able to climb back up it

In conclusion, the grids can be a nasty place to get stuck. I’ve seen more than enough rollovers and stuck vehicles on -40 nights to know that not taking them safely can be life or death. Drive smart, drive safe, and for the love of the gods, just avoid the damn grids.

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > CB 02/13/2020 at 13:51

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That’s all well and good, but you just made me want to drive the grids.

dtg11 - is probably on an adventure with Clifford > CB 02/13/2020 at 13:54

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Those look fun

slipperysallylikespenguins > CB 02/13/2020 at 13:59

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I really miss the grid roads around MN. It was such an easy way to find your way around when your 16 and its 3AM. Just follow the grids until you start to recognize road numbers.

fintail > CB 02/13/2020 at 14:40

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Reminds me of Iowa, but even less developed.

Being from one of the elitist coastal states, I get uncomfortable even on a nice unpaved road.

Pickup_man > CB 02/13/2020 at 15:41

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Counterpoint, grids roads are one of the few glimmers of driving joy in an otherwise straight and flat road area. Somewhere very sparsely populated like your area might not be the best to explore in the middle of winter, but most places around here ( SE South Dakota) have good cell service and there’s usually a house  somewhere within a mile or two.

Driving the gravel grids is one of my little joys in life, in fact I’m picking up a dirtbike this weekend specifically for that purpose.

CB > Pickup_man 02/13/2020 at 16:27

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Oh man, don’t get me wrong, I love the grids, especially on nights when you can see the northern lights. But for people who have no idea how to drive them, it’s easy to make mistakes, hence the article.

CB > fintail 02/13/2020 at 16:27

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But the grids can be a real hoot at times!

fintail > CB 02/13/2020 at 16:42

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No doubt in the right car.  Neither of my cars fit in that category.  I think I’d end up in a G-Wagen of some type if I lived there.

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > CB 02/13/2020 at 16:56

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That’s a pretty mad road system! We have plenty of dirt roads down but very few of them are arrow straight or at regular intervals. They are however... equally entertaining. And similar rules apply.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > CB 02/13/2020 at 17:29

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Sounds like good advice.  And it sounds like if you only have something like a Honda Fit, you have to be EXTRA careful.

CB > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 02/13/2020 at 17:29

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I saw a rolled over Fit on the grids once. It’ll keep you safe, at least!

TheRealBicycleBuck > CB 02/13/2020 at 18:23

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Grid roads are a direct result of the Public Land Surveying System. A Point of Beginning is selected at the intersection of a Meridian (line of longitude) and a Baseline (line of latitude). The area is broken into 3 6 square mile areas identified by a “township” and “range” number. Each township is a 6-mile by six-mile area which is subdivided into one-mile squares called sections.

One of the challenges of the grid system is the convergence of lines of longitude. As the surveyors moved north, the lines of longitude get closer together, so if you have two surveyors start six miles apart (the width of a township/range block) and survey a line directly geographic north, they will be closer together when they reach the northern boundary of the block than they were when they started.

This led to “standard” or “falling” corners and “closing” corners. If you start at the origin and survey east, marking 1-mile and 6-mile corners as you go, those are standard corners. A closing corner is created when you survey north from one of those corners. The closing corners are significantly closer to the reference meridian than the standard corners. It’s hard to imagine, but it’s easy to see. Corners marked red are closing corners; marked aqua are standard corners.

Because of this, all measurement errors are pushed to the north & west (if the reference meridian is to the west). So, if you purchased the NW section (section number 6), you will be buying a smaller section than any of the others in the township block.

The map above is from rural Oklahoma. T he grid made navigation ridiculously easy. The downsides were clear : there were many more roads than were really necessary, so many of those roads were poorly maintained; and the roads completely ignored topography.

This was also a boon to a young driver living in rural Oklahoma. There were plenty of places where a straight road met a steep hill, creating a ramp where a reckless kid could catch air with judicious application of the throttle on approach. There were also lots of gravel and even dirt roads where we could hone our skills on slippery surfaces. Just imagine a narrow washboarded gravel road on a steep hill and a nearly complete lack of patrol cars to keep people’s speed in check. Yeah, we were more than a little crazy. :)

Urambo Tauro > CB 02/13/2020 at 19:26

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If there’s one thing I like about g rids, it’ s how intuitive they are f or navigation . If y ou miss a turn, or find a closed road, or get stuck behind a slow tractor, there’s always another way. You don’t need GPS to make your own detour.

CB > Urambo Tauro 02/13/2020 at 19:38

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However, if it’s not going to go as planned, it’s really  going to not go as planned.

shop-teacher > CB 02/13/2020 at 21:54

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To summarize: try not to send it, but if you must send it, then you best send it in full.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > CB 02/13/2020 at 23:58

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Now I want to explore vacant C anada prar ie.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > CB 11/12/2020 at 12:14

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I still hope to eventually make it out that way, rent an F150 and cruise the grids for a day.

CB > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 11/12/2020 at 12:16

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I’d recommend summer over winter!

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > CB 11/12/2020 at 12:18

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oh for sure.  I don’t intend on coming there during the winter. Especially this winter!

Chariotoflove > CB 11/12/2020 at 13:35

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So, shot on location in Saskatchewan?

Stef Schrader > CB 11/13/2020 at 07:43

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Fascinating stuff. I’ve never heard of these, but I now have the weird urge to go exploring in Canada.

AestheticsInMotion > CB 11/15/2020 at 23:28

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It took me until oppo's final hours, but I finally found out what the grids are. Thanks internet friend. 

CB > AestheticsInMotion 11/15/2020 at 23:38

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No problem buddy!