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Ol' Sam. A Work in Progress.Ice Roads Truckers. Stories and pictures from 'Smokey and The Bandit' era. Yellowknife stories. Fishing Stories. Old Arctic HBC stories. All Stories & Photographs are copyright & may not be copied &/or reproduced without express written permission. |
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June 16 Deh Cho Bridge (@ Ft Providence NWT)Here are two links about the Bridge to replace the Ferry and Ice Crossing over the Mackenzie River at Ft Providence.
Photos and Notes: http://www.dot.gov.nt.ca/_live/pages/wpPages/dehchobridge.aspx April 18 Northern Lights.Click the link below, to take you to the Astronomy North page where you can view short videos of the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights).
March 18 Re: Tibbit - Contwoyto Ice Road 2009.From one of our Yellowknife Correspondents: Hi Nick – Saturday was cold at -35 in the morning but a sunny day. We decided that it was too cold to be out sledding and that a drive up the ice road was due. We packed up a lunch, put Geny in the backseat and headed down the road about 11:00 am. The Ingram Trail to Tibbett Lake is quite beaten down and will be bad this spring. However, it was our first time out this year and always interesting. We hit the ice road at Tibbett and immediately saw a truck heading our way! This was one of about 50 trucks we saw on our drive. We went for 120 kms on the ice road and made it about 25 kilometers past the end of Gordon Lake before we turned back. Not far into the trip, there is a check stop run by the GNWT and all non commercial traffic is required to check in and out. A safety thing as well as stats I assume. The ice road is in really good shape right now and we saw no open water or slush anywhere (course it was 30 below! After a week of -40 at night). I did not realize that there are two wide lanes on some lakes – one for empty trucks and one for loads. The lanes are a long ways apart. The speed limit on the empty side is a fast 60 km/h – on the loaded side it ranged from 10 to 25 km/h. The trucks kept coming south – some empty, some carrying loads of items from the mines. We passed 12 trucks going north – mostly fuel trucks but some were loaded with heavy bags of chemicals. The caretaker at the check stop told us that the road is expected to be open until the 19th and given the weather, I can see that it will last that long and longer. Not a single caribou around. In fact, they are apparently over by Snare Lake this year. Too bad as its always a great photo op when the boos are in the area. We did see one beautiful healthy black faced fox, who sat on a snowbank and watched us before moving onto the road. He heard Geny going crazy in the truck and took off into the brush. Also saw a few ptarmigan, but not many given all the tracks on top of the snow. And of course the curious ravens were there, flying over our truck on the lookout for treats. I took a picture of the famous “Charlie’s Hill” – featured on the last episode of IRT. It looks pretty tame from a distance but with a big load a truck could get into trouble. Took a lot of pictures of trucks and got lots of friendly waves from the drivers in return. I am pretty sure I saw the Polar Bear, TJ and Alex – at least that’s my story! We really enjoyed driving on Gordon Lake (all 24 kilometers) – the ice was a lovely blue color and quite bare. And lots of cracks – but only on the “loaded” lane. We got home at 5:00 pm – did about 300 kilometers in total and thoroughly enjoyed the ride. I am attaching some pictures with this message and will send more separately so I don’t blow your email! March 03 Ice Road. '09. Closes Early.From Coldswim Jim, our Yellowknife correspondent:
Due to the current economic climate, the Tibbitt to Contwoyto ice road will close March 15 2009.
A lot less freight and a good road this season has the mines stocked up. The Joint venture ice road is closing early to save money on road maintenance.
Hopefully, if the world economy rebounds, there will be more loads and a longer season next year.
Ed Note: This must be the earliest the road has ever closed due to non weather related circumstances. February 24 Ice Road Truckers.Ice Road Truckers, the series, finally airs on Canadian TV.
See what all the fuss was about. Beginning March 4th 2009, the Canadian History Channel will at last, begin showing the Series. The series is not current, the first season deals with the winter of '07 in Yellowknife, the second season is from the Inuvik area in the winter of '08.
If you enjoy the show, want more and decide to visit the History Channel Discussion Board, take note.... a lot of silly people will be saying stupid things, asking dumb questions and giving really moronic answers.
Cheers. Flag Counter.So, I added the Flag Counter to see where my 'viewers' are coming from. A bit late, because before I added the counter, there had been 34,800 visitors to this blog and I'll never know from whence came they. But, better late than never. February 19 Things I learned in Bush Camps and other Interesting Places.Staying in a bush camp, I learned you can pour maple syrup on anything you're eating to enhance the flavour. (Dome Petro)
The oven is the best place to cook bacon. (Dome Petro) Indoors or out, truck drivers never remove their hats to eat. (Echo Bay, Port Radium) A fight can break out during any meal, specially when you least expect it. (Echo Bay, Port Radium)
A bottle of Tobasco Sauce becomes totally invisible, but no less tasty when emptied into a big jug of Cherry KoolAid. (Rankin Inlet) Shot shell primers slipped quietly behind a pot on a hot stove-top, make a lovely bang and startle the crap out of the cook. (Cambridge Bay) Wolverine is virtually inedible (Paulatuk), as are Coots, Ravens and Seagulls. (Horn River) Raw Muktuk, (Whale Skin) isn't as tasty as it sounds. (Saniqiluak)
In low light and without glasses, a cariboo hair waving around in the breeze on your cariboo pot roast is indistuingishable from a worm. (Repulse Bay)
Bertha Ruben's fry bread (bannock), with butter and strawberry jam is probably the tastiest thing I've ever eaten. (Hornaday River) George Washington Porter's bean soup and home made bread, (while we still had flour and beans) were excellent. (Gjoa Haven) Eider Ducks lay eight eggs and that's all there is today and tomorrow for breakfast, lunch and supper. (Gjoa Haven) It takes two dozen Lemmings to make a stew. (Gjoa Haven)
Spam, scored on top, with cloves inserted, smothered in honey, baked in the oven, served with instant mashed and canned peas makes a nice Sunday dinner. (Spence Bay) It is possible to eat a whole orange, peel and all. (Dew Line, Cam 3)
Jamaican Nurses are pretty good cooks. (Spence Bay)
Northern Health (medical grade) ethyl alcohol, when mixed with Coke, is indistinguishable from Vodka. (Spence Bay)
Methyl alcohol, when mixed with home brew is immediately discernable. (Cambridge Bay/Ikaluktootiak)
If given a couple of ounces of rum a day, the alcoholic cook with the DTs lying vibrating in his sleeping bag on the floor, will eventually sober up enough to get up and start cooking. (1st Ice Road) For one guy, after a day outside at -40 deg on a small Cat building the Ice Road, four 'Hungry Man' TV Dinners, is almost enough supper. (2nd Ice Road)
To a non native, the only edible part of a harbour seal, is the liver. (Various) It is possible for two guys to eat a whole caribou hind leg at one sitting. (Paulatuk) Well aged (months) Arctic Char, dipped in slightly rancid seal oil, tastes somewhat like blue cheese. (Paulatuk) On a Sunday morning, while eating breakfast with 50 other guys and a couple of gals, it is perfectly acceptable to watch and cheer hard-core porn on satellite TV. (Lupin, Contwoyto Lake.)  . February 10 Wagner's Breakthrough.As you can see from the photo's, Donny Wagner broke through the ice on a little pot-hole just south of the then' Lockhart Lake rest camp' on Feb 10th 1986, almost 23 years ago today. He was carrying between 8 & 10 thousand imp gallons of diesel fuel in his B Train tanks. When the tanks broke through their full weight landed on the dispensing manifolds beneath the tanks and broke them, spilling his load all over the ice, surrounding snow and into the small lake. The brown stuff you see on the ice is mostly diesel fuel.
It took us, using several winch trucks, flat bed/drop down trailers and some ingenuity, most of a day to free the tanks from the ice, the tractor being lighter, of course did not break through and was easy to move out of the way. The hardest part of the operation was unhooking the tanks from each other and the tractor.....everything was torqued over, twisted and partly below the ice. The tanks were severely damaged but Donny's tractor, apart from his fuel tanks wasn't too badly hurt.
Before recovery work could begin and so that ice road traffic could continue, a short detour portage and temporary bridge made of 6x6 lumber laid on top of the ice was built. Several weeks later I was given a box of dynamite, some caps and a roll of blasting wire and tasked with blowing the lumber out of the ice ready for salvage. To say the least, my instructions were pretty sketchy but in the spirit of 'get 'er dun' I said sure
I put the powder sticks in my pickup box under a tarp, stuck the caps under the seat and headed on out. As soon as I got to the spot I could see that the plan wasn't going to work. One of two things was going to happen (a) the lumber was going to get blown to bits or (b) as the lumber bridge was the strongest part, when I set the dynamite off the blast force was just going to dissipate sideways out under the ice into the lake, or straight up and down into the air and water. I drilled some ice holes with my auger, set some experimental charges, ran out the cable, retreated to a safe distance and touched the wires to the pickup battery. Bang! I saw a couple of ice geysers shoot up over the trees, but no lumber. Okay lets go see what happened. Well what happened, was not much. As I figured the blast force went straight up and down, it had barely made my auger holes any bigger.
I was by myself without any one to help, offer suggestions or encouragement........... so thinking 'effit, I'm outa here!', I hopped back in my pickup and buggered off to Lockhart for lunch.
Two weeks later while my pickup was in the shop for a service, one of the mechanics happened to look under the diesel and gasoline soaked tarp in the back. He was very surprised to find half a case of diesel and gasoline soaked dynamite.............. upon returning from my three day patrol and futile blasting attempt, in the middle of the night, I'd gone straight home to bed. By next morning I'd forgotten about the dynamite.... my bad! Dick was really pissed off at me, I can't say I blame him for being so.
We had a rock quarry operation going on out on the Highway to Rae, one of the driller/blasters was kind enough to dispose of the bad and now unstable dynamite, down the shot holes of his next scheduled blast. January 30 Party.YELLOWKNIFE HOMECOMING.
75th BIRTHDAY - June 19th to July 4th 2009. To give you a head's up, and to decide if you want to head up to Yk this summer, the 75th Birthday, the Yk Homecoming, is a definite "go". Several groups are now on board (the Elks, Aviation, Senior Citizens, Metis, Old Town, NWT Chamber of Mines, etc). Some events already scheduled include the Midnight Golf, Solstice Festival, various concerts, and BBQs, the "Fun Girls" aka former DMSers, are hosting events at the Multiplex the day of the 27th with the huge "Hangar BBQ & Dance" that evening. The City of Yk BBQ will be on the 28th). Their website should be up and running within the next week; at which time they will also provide information regarding registration, accommodations, campsites etc. They've had local meetings with very good turn-outs, committees have been formed, and additional events are in the making. Susan is on standby to mail out complete details once they are settled as is the Ex-Yk Reunion Executive in Edmonton. AIRLINE TICKETS: Canadian North is the Airline of Choice (being northern) and will be offering discounted tickets for the two-week period and beyond. For those two weeks, the tickets will be approx $360 return with seniors and children receiving an additional 25% discount. Further info will be out to you ASAP. They are just waiting for a letter from Canadian. There are 3 airlines having super seat sales: Canada North, First Air and West Jet (who is only flying in and out of Yk from May to Oct). TO DO: In the first "Yellowknife" book, the first generation to arrive and live in Yellowknife was asked to write their stories and provide pictures - usually this meant our parents who were the "pioneer" generation. Now the committee is asking the next generation.. us.. to write a few paragraphs about living in or growing up in Yk, and to include a picture. They want all stories with picture in by May 15th, 2009.
Stories with or without pics should be sent or emailed to: Lorie Piro Box 400 Yellowknife, NT X1A 2N3 Email: lorie_piro@hotmail.com December 22 The Magic of Christmas.A long time ago, far away in a distant Galaxy when I was just a little nipper, we had a real living breathing coal fireplace in the living room of our two bed flat. My dad was away a lot so it was just me and my Mum. Right after the war, so things (including coal) were in short supply. Coal was of poor quality, the good stuff was being exported to pay off war debts. Sometimes we'd throw a bit of sugar on the fire and hold a newspaper tightly against the hearth to get a good draft and thus the fire going. Sugar is a great fire starter/enhancer.
But I digress. One Christmas. I'd be 4 or 5 at the time, I wanted to write a letter to Father Christmas but didn't have an envelope or know what address to put on it. My mother told me Christmas was a magic time, I didn't need an envelope, so just write the letter, then when the fire in the fireplace was lit, just hold the letter close to the top of the fire near the chimney and the fire draft would grab it and suck it up the chimney, by magic taking it directly to Father Christmas's house. She helped me write my wish list then demonstrated and sure enough...........zip it was gone. I believed it for a couple of years, because I'd usually get some of what I'd asked for. The best part was I got to share that bit of magic with my sibs as they slowly but surely arrived. Clever old girl wasn't she.. MERRY CHRISTMAS. December 14 Cold wet socks.A winter time phenomena with which most Yellowknife residents, old, new or even tempory are all too familiar. I was reminded of it when I came in from outside in the snow yesterday. In Northern towns, during winter, it's party and visiting season. Northerners are very hospitable and friendly people. Unlike the south, many folks just drop by for coffee or drinks, no invitation is required. Parties are a regular weekend... and at this time of year, evening event. So, formal occasion or casual drop-in party it doesn't matter, everyone is wearing heavy outside footwear. On entering someone's house, the first thing on does is remove ones parka or winter coat, the second thing one does, while still standing inside the front door by the coat cupboard, is remove ones outside winter boots. There is usually a mat on the floor inside the front door, often it is piled high with winter boots. The result is, the doormat soon becomes soaking wet from all the snow that has fallen off the boots and melted into the mat. Now the fun part, finding an un-wet bit of the mat on which to step in your stockinged/socked feet. Virtually impossible, causing one to sit/walk around for at least an hour with cold, wet sock bottoms on your feet. It seemed not to matter how long or how often you sat rubbing you socked feet vigorously on the carpdoet, the socks just won't dry. Most joy killing and uncomfortable. As the evening progresses, people come and go, every time they , a blast of -30 to -40 cold air was unleashed from the open door to roll unhindered across the floor and heighten the cold wet feet experience. I've had many an evening's revelry tempered to borderline unhappiness by such events. And of course the joy was reversed as one left.... finally you'd got your feet/socks warm and dry only to have to step on the wet mat again to put your boots on to leave. Clever hosts deployed a second mat further inside the door, for you to hop one legged onto, as you removed your boots. Smart folks took a pair of slippers of course, but not everyone remembered all the time, specially if it was a spur of the moment, drop-in kind of evening. December 09 Just funny stories.A real nice guy, one of our young drivers at Robinson's was somewhat deaf. He was also not the brightest light in the string, but he was very dedicated to his profession and almost single minded in his pursuit of it..... you know the type. One Monday morning after he had returned from a family visit to Hay River, I asked him, "So Ronny, how was your weekend?" To which he replied, "Yup, truck's runnin good." Funny, the stuff one remembers. Then there's 'Beetle Bailey'. Working for Frenchy's Transport. Hauling muck out at Giant mine one winter. Backed his tandem dump under the waste chute in 'C' Headframe. It was January, -40, so the wet muck was sticking to the inside of his gravel box. There was a big, steam, unit heater, inside the headframe to keep the area warm. As a stroke of genius, 'Beetle' raised his box under the heater to melt the frozen muck, he then, lay down across the seat and went to sleep. Shift change came along and as one of the miners was leaving he noticed 'Beetle' sleeping in his truck. Wanting to let 'Beetle' know that it was time to go home, the miner banged on the truck door. 'Beetle' totally surprised and waking from a dead sleep, sat up, started his truck, stuffed it in gear and, his box still raised, drove out through the side of the headframe, pulling about twenty feet of it down around him. One summer day, 'Beetle', hauling mine waste again. Backed his truck inside the headframe under the waste chute, got out and propped the waste chute door open with a piece of nearby lumber, jumped back in his cab and waited for the waste to start coming. Nothing came down the chute for a long time so he lay down again to have another nap. He was really asleep because when the muck started coming down the chute it didn't wake him up. He slept for a couple of hours, when he did wake up his box was full, the arse end of his truck was completely buried and the rock waste backed way up in the chute. It took him a couple of days of hand bombing to dig the truck out. 'Beetle' was a classic. October 20 High Jinks on the Ice Road and Beyond.Here's an excerpt from an MSMessenger conversation I had this morning with my old RTL co-worker and friend Ice Devil Dave Thompson. It's full of typos but I think you'll get the gist.
Nick says:
Right on Dawg. I was thinking, funny after 30 odd years you and I are talking by computer, whoda thunk it back in them days. You, me, Bishop, McSnowwriter........I guess we really were at the heart of RTL. Those guys that drive the ice road these days have no fekkin idea how easy they have it. Did you ever get to see any of season one or two of IRT from the yankee history channel? Nick says: Last winter they were up in the Mackenzie Delta. It's closer to what our ice road was like, but still a long way from difficult. Dave Thompson says: no i didnt and yes you are right we were the real start of the semi modern ice roads with John Denison of the old days and i havn't seen the programs yet, and i know and it pisses me off, when they think it is hard and that they are ruffin it ................ no fkn clue Nick says: Remember that night, some guy spun out on Squirrel Hill and went into the bush at the bottom? You backed a fully loaded highboy down the hill with #36 (I think) to pull him out and up the hill. I though you were nuts at the time, I was convinced you'd never be able to get down the hill without fekkin up. Whatever was on your trailer was a high and unstable load to boot. lol. Nick says: It was logs or lumber or something like that wasn't it? Dave Thompson says: ya i dont remember what it was but i pulled a few trucks that night I think don wagner was with us that night too wasnt he Nick says: I don't remember much except you and I. Couldn't even say who was stuck except I think a new guy. Nick says: yeah, a few other trucks, can't say if I was one of them or not. I just remember being there. Dave Thompson says: i was thinkin that night that don wagner glued donnie rtl's finger to his belly button lol but it might have been a diff night for that one Nick says: lol. Dave Thompson says: ya those were the days for sure. I guess we were part of the history of ice roads and these young shitheads think that they are hard done by with all those problems. if they only could know Nick says: Yeah. I have a recurring vision of travelling along in the dark on the portage, side hill north of Hislop, by a frozen creek, in the middle of the night all by myself not another truck or soul around for hundreds of miles. Cool as a cucumber, no worries just gettin her done. do dee do dee do. LoL. Nick says: Great fun. Dave Thompson says: ya i rememberrrr that one i rebuilt thst side hill one night after the road was built and flooded with overflow. spent all day and night to fix it and it was some hard on a side hill with not enough snow but i got her done Nick says: Yeah it was skinny in that spot. Beautiful in the daylight. Good job on the sidehill. Dave Thompson says: ya i would say we had it tough but we were up to yhe tasks that we were asked to do Dave Thompson says: well i dont know about the good job but it did work thank god lol Nick says: Yup. Well it worked. If you're interested you can order DVD's of the new IRTs off the History Channel. First and Second seasons. About $35 + S&H I think. Dave Thompson says: are they ok or a bunch of bs Nick says: The road has changed but the bitchin and whining hasn't. Dave Thompson says: ya isnt that the truth and they dont have it half as hard or the junk that we ran Nick says: They're ok if you know fekk all about it. Pictures are pretty, I think the photograper was up for an Emmy for them. A guy I know in the States taped them on VHS for me, but my blood pressure goes sky high over the bullshit so I've only watched about half of season one. I'm very glad I have them though. Watching the tapes sure brings a lot of memories back. Worth the $35 I should think. Nick says: My missus really had no idea of what it was like. Dave Thompson says: well when i have the time i will get them .I think that disk you sent me was more like the truth when it came from the horses mouth Dave Thompson says: thats too bad and then they could understand Dave Thompson says: i hope you enjoyed the rescues as i was the only one to see some of them and get them on tape and then to disk Dave Thompson says: but we had some fumn and laughes toooooo Nick says: Dave Thompson says: must have been in the back yard with his toy trucks Nick says: Yes we did. Yeah, too bad you didn't scoop all the tapes or maybe they'd been taped over. We had one of 'roll-over recovery' practice, shot in the RTL yard. Nick says: Yeah coz he's only 47. Dave Thompson says: well i dont remember him because i was with rtl for 15 years and how long were you with them as when i started you and me went to bill rhineharts place and his cat ran away lol Nick says: oh yeah! The runaway cat went over the hill and she blew and she blew. Dave Thompson says: and my truck on the way home lost tie rod at giant mine after we had put it back on a few times lol Dave Thompson says: ya that was sure funny Nick says: LOL. Remember the time Bob White, at the Jackfish pit thought he was hung up on a rock and kept backing into the truck parked behind him? Pushed the rad in coz he kept backing up further to get a run at it. Nick says: One of Dick's pride and joy Macks..........#12 maybe. White was driving an old Autocar. Dave Thompson says: ya he ran into it two or three times,lol and remember when he was by johnons lumber and he called in and said that he had run over a boat. it had come off oa car or truck topper Dave Thompson says: ya i drove that one for awhile and that was the pride of the fleet for sure and then you got no 8 Dave Thompson says: a guy should write a book Nick says: yeah I do. Boy that guy (bob) sure pulled some dumb ass stunts. I remember Dick booting his ass out the door in the old office one Time. Bob said he was sick coz Dick was gonna make him drive #26 coz Bob had broken his Autocar. Dick siad, "well if you're sick you'd better go home then.", and Boot! Out the door rubbin his ass, went Bob. Dave Thompson says: ya he was funny for sure Nick says: If you don't mind, I might see if I can copy and paste some of this conversation into my blog. Saves me writing it all again. Nick says: Just the truck bits. Dave Thompson says: and the time he ran out of fuel or broke down and he got a can of diesel fuel inside of the truck and when we got to him all you could see was his black face and white teeth Nick says: I thought that was Buddy or Mathew or Ricky R. Dave Thompson says: oh for sure you do it good laughes Dave Thompson says: no i am sure it was bobby he thought it was funny but i could be mistaken Nick says: No worries, we each remember things in our own way. The names might be different but the core thuths remain. Who was it threw away his fuel filter gaskets coz he thought the old ones were still good? Got about ten miles further across Hottah and ran the fuel pump dry coz the filer was suckin air round the old gaskets. Tried to make new gaskets out of his leather mitts. I think for sure that was Nick says: Mathew. Big frostsicles hanging down inside the cab by the time he got rescued. Nick says: Too far to walk back to find the gaskets he'd chucked in the snowbank. Dave Thompson says: yes i think you are right on that one stupid thing to do Nick says: you must be about ready for bed and my coffee cup is empty. Dave Thompson says: i remember the time i was on marian lake i think or further up the line and i plowed a dog team off my plow. thang god there was lots of snow and i was going fairly slow. they were going the same way and i didnt see them till it was too late as it was misty that night. the native fella was sleeping in the sleigh and went for a tumble and thank god he wasnt hurt because of the deep snow and the Dave Thompson says: dogs were all tangled up in there lines and no injuries. heck i thought i had killed them. Nick says: Jeez, I've a dim memory of hearing about it. Yes, lucky fekker you were going slow. Dave Thompson says: oh ya a few guys remember that one Nick says: Yeah. Sorry about getting #8. Dunno what I did to deserve it. I liked that little truck. Dave Thompson says: well bud we will have to do this again as i have enjoyed it for sure. i have to go uptown and get a few things done as i am just starting nights Dave Thompson says: well you were in line and a good driver so you did deserve it Dave Thompson says: weren wild like me Dave Thompson says: wernt Dave Thompson says: were not lol Nick says: Okay Dawg. it was fun I enjoyed it. CUL8R. Yeah but that (#8) was during one of my non smoking phases and I was such an asshole. Dave Thompson says: hey no big deal its in the past and i could be an asshole too Nick says: phone, gotta go. Dave Thompson says: take care and have a great day bud Nick says: k. Nick says: cheers.
Ice Devil Dave:
And myself; together, pumping out #15's tank one night at -55F, on a lake just south of Terra Mine NWT.
Cheers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hah! A day later and I'm still chuckling about Donny W getting Donny R to glue his finger to his own belly button. That's really funny, I'd forgotten all about it. How on earth did Donny W convince him to do it and I wonder if it was his left or right hand? If his right, that would have been problematical, shifting wise. And I wonder how he got it unglued, way out in the middle of the bush? Funny Stuff!________________________________________________________________________
October 09 Ice roads fatalities.February 23/Oct 9.08.
Truck driver deaths on the Ice Road.
I see I'm still getting blog hits from morbid sensation seeking folks, looking to see how many people and who, gets killed on the Ice Roads. So............ In the first episode of Ice Road Truckers, Wayne Gzowski of Arctic Divers was asked how many body recovery dives under the ice he had conducted, he said 39...and that was several years ago (2006). Wayne was referring to the total number of bodies he had recovered during his entire career. What he said had nothing to do with Ice Road Truckers breaking through and drowning. Once and for all, let's set the record straight. Although "Ice Road Truckers" implies the number is 39, in reality, since the Ice Road(s), west between Yellowknife and Echo Bay Mines on Great Bear Lake, and East, between Yellowknife and the Diamond Mines (Ekati, Diavik and Snap Lake etc) were constructed, from about 1973 to the present day (June 2008), there have been NO truck driver deaths directly attributed to hauling freight on those Ice (Winter) Roads.
Hugh Rowland, Original Productions/Thom Beers/History Channel are deliberately perpetuating a lie! Since 1973, there have been three, and only three, deaths associated with the construction of said Road(s). One death of a grader operator, one death of a snocat operator (who subsequently died of heart failure after being rescued), and lastly, one death of a plow truck driver (2004). Tragic accidents though they were, all three fatalities happened during the construction phase, before the Road was opened to heavy truck traffic.
Contrary to the "Ice Roads Truckers" series produced by the US History Channel, the job is neither a 'Job to Die For', nor 'A Dash for Cash'! No actual truck drivers on the Ice (Winter) Roads have died by breaking through the ice! I know this is like barking up a dead horse's ass, but I had to post it anyway. Cheers. Sam. October 08 Oh, deer. Oh dear!Funny about them Great Canadian Deer. A subspecies, distinct from Santa's lot. I think they come outa the bush at night to munch on the roadside gravel, for their crops...to help with digestion, then they get too full of rocks to move and have to lie down until morning. I've seen Highways crews sneaking up on them with shovels, to bang them on the head I suppose. I've never actually seen, the headbanging bit, but I've seen the Highway boys loading unconscious deer into their pickup trucks.
Deer can be very dangerous and aggressive if awoken or startled while having a post-prandial nap. I mean suppose some young child or unsuspecting hitch hiker came along in the gloom and tripped over one, the consequence don't bear thinking about. I think the Highway boys tranquilize the deer with shovels, load them up, haul them away while they're still dozy, then release them again up by the landfill. I think this might be a bit of a waste of taxpayers money. I mean instead of having to spend good money to police the sleeping deer problem, why don't they just charge some folks that still own guns to hunt these gravel thieving deer down...shoot them before they get near a road. I mean what's the cost to the taxpayer for all that stolen road gravel?
Mind you, I blame the Government completely for letting the deer problem get out of hand in the first place. All roads and particularly major highways should have deer/snake/gopher/coyote/child/hitch hiker-proof fences, at least ten feet (3m) high alongside. Reminds me. I must phone Highways to complain about the vandals pouring red paint all over the newly paved four lane. August 04 REAL Ice Road Truckers.July 31st 2008.
Drew...............Feds.................Icemannwt.
No 'Polar Bear' bullshit here. July 04 Blackflies and Mosquitoes.Reading a discussion board this morning,
I noticed a couple of entries mentioning biting bugs in the North. Below for your entertainment, is a response I posted.
Jordan, you didn't mention that bull-dogs (moose/horse/deer flies) actually take a chunk of flesh outa ya. The mosquitoes can get bad enough to stampede a herd of caribou. In fact they constantly do.............
If you park on the causeway at the river at Ft Providence to wait for the ferry, the downwind side of your vehicle will literally be black with Blackflies while the upwind side will be clean as a baby's whistle. Mosquitoes bites, one can get used to, almost. Blackflies are the scourge of the north. Blackflies breed, hatch and hang around running water, definitely. In Yellowknife, just when one thought it safe, bugless, I've seen blackflies re-emerge after the first snow of fall, melts. Fortunately, I'm allergic to blackfly, mosquito and other biting/stinging insect bites & stings, so I always end up with beautiful itches, lumps and swellings. Blackfly bites are the worst for me, I get golf ball size lumps. Even up to a month later, old bites will flare up and itch like a bastard all over again, certainly. "Deep Woods Off" applied /sprayed directly to the face and exposed skin is a miracle. Pre-contact, how the natives lived without bug protection chemicals is a wonderment. The early explorers, Hudson's Bay Co. men etc., deserved medals for bravery by just continuing into bug infested lands. The best they had was stuff called citronella or kerosene... neither very affective. Head nets are a true inconvenience, specially for a smoker. Outdoors, exposing ones nether regions for any purpose, but mainly to perform the bodily functions of waste elimination, procreation etc. etc., can scar ones psyche and other soft bits for life. "Deep Woods Off" burns exposed mucus membranes. It's a rock and a hard place, I tell ya. Goodness gracious, Gerry Lee Lewis was absolutely correct!  The bug repelling qualities of a campfire/smoke myth, is exactly that, a myth. People believe it, want to believe it and light fires in the forlorne hope that it's true, it'll keep the bugs away. Biting bugs are actually attracted by campfires, cigarettes, pipes and joints, obviously. Lots of people (giant blood bags) stand/sit around campfires, flapping their arms, coughing, waiting to get bitten, eyes watering. Campfires emit a localized plume of movement, carbon dioxide and infra red, all three cues, biting blood sucking insects, use to home in on their intended prey, a fact. 1963. One breezy evening after work in Taloyoak (Spence Bay) NU. I decided to walk out to Middle Lake to do a little trout fishing. I'd walked for about an hour and was approaching the lake when the wind dropped to nothing, instantly, with every step I took, a cloud of mosquitoes rose from the low scrub of the tundra and headed for my face. Oh the humanity! I'd forgotten to bring or prespray myself with bug dope.
I had a ball cap on my head, but no hood on my jacket. Immediately my head, face and neck were surrounded by a biting, buzzing cloud of blood thirsty insects, naturally. Within 5 minutes they had me running crazily across the barren lands yelling, waving my hands and arms and dodging my own fish hook which seemed to mirror my hand and arm movements and seemed determined to rip off my hat, catch in my clothing or lodge in my eye, short term insanity began to rear it's ugly head.
But wait, what's that? I smell smoke. Smoke means people in the vicinity. Two million square miles of emptiness and I'd found someone. Undoubtedly, they would have bug dope! Three of the local Inuit boys were also out fishing that night and had stopped to light a fire and brew some tea. "Hello Agliqti, want some tea?', they asked as I charged up to them. "OK, but do you have any "Off", I forgot mine." "No, we forgot ours too." was the laughing response. With only their faces exposed they were wearing the hooded outer, Grenfell cloth, covers from their winter parkas and gloves for protection. I was almost at the point of berserk.
From somewhere, someone produced a bit of extra cloth, handy. There was just enough of it to fashion a basic head covering, enough to cover my neck and ears leaving only a small piece of my face exposed. My hands were naked, one hand carried my fishing rod, in the other I carried a .22 rifle, ducks dontchano?
Forget fishing, hands in my armpits I sat around the smudge in the bugs with the boys for a little while drinking tea, then headed back to the settlement. My only itch relief on the way home was to stop at a puddle or small lake occasionally and plunge my hands into near freezing water By the time I got home that night my swollen hands and face were on fire and covered in mud, and blood from squashed mosquitoes. My hands itched for a week after.
For the next 26 years, I never again forgot my bug dope when venturing out in the 'bush'. I've always been surprised by how quickly I succumbed to virtual craziness and running that night.
 June 23 Ice Road Blues.With my apologies to the Eagles. All alone at the end of the Highway The Aurora has faded to blue I bin thinking 'bout a woman who might have Loved me and I never knew You know I've always been a dreamer (spent my life running 'round) And it's so hard to change (Can't seem to settle down) But the dreams I've seen lately Keep on turning out and burning out And turning out the same So put me on an Ice Road And show me a sign And take it to the limit one more time You can spend all your time making money You can spend all your love making time If it all fell to pieces tomorrow Would you still be mine? And when you're looking for your freedom (Nobody seems to care) And you can't find the door (Can't find it anywhere) When there's nothing to believe in Still you're coming back, you're running back You're coming back for more So put me on an Ice Road And show me a sign And take it to the limit one more time Take it to the limit Take it to the limit Take it to the limit one more time. February 27 Straight Shooter.Funny thing about shooting Olympic Trap in Regina. The traps were voice activated, say "Pull" even quietly and a target is released, BTW Olympic targets fly twice as fast as regular North American targets. So, being #1 on the line I was entitled to and requested to see, a 'free' bird, "Can I see a bird please?" I look and don't see anything, (I said the targets were fast) obviously the marker didn't hear me. Louder! "Can I see a bird please?" A voice from behind me says, "You just did." 'Shit!" says I. Remember....voice activated traps? A bird flies out in front of me, I watch it in disbelief. "Lost" says the voice behind me.
Right off the bat I've been charged with a lost bird. Oh well, perhaps I can still get 24 out of 25 targets. The shooting continues down the line thru four more shooters til it comes back to my turn again. I'm rattled by missing my first target and as my turn to shoot arrives I snap my gun closed with a bit too much exuberance (SNAP!), then watch in dismay as yet another unmolested bird flies away before I'm can even mount my gun. "Lost." Intones the voice behind me. Totally off kilter by now I think I missed a total 7 birds (targets) in that round. Oh the Humiliation.
This happened to me at The Western Canada Games, right there in front of God and a large audience. Oh well I wasn't the worst shooter on our NWT team and in the end we did get a Bronze Medal for coming tied third.
February 20 Fishin Magician.Well, a lovely day in the mountains again. Got to Osprey Lake shortly after 10, stayed til 3pm. I saw a few Trout right off the bat, then it got real slow for a while. When they came around, they'd look at my bait and keep going, I tried everything I had with me but they just weren't interested in biting it. So finally I dropped my flasher into the mud and did a bit of digging with it. Suddenly the bottom was crawling with Trout (small, medium and large), they really wanted to see what was going on. I'd dig, then lift my flasher up out of the mud cloud so they could see my bait.
Maggots, meal worms, rubber worms, plain jigs.....they still wouldn't bite. "Alright, fekk you guys, lets try this!" thinks I, slipping on my crawdad (Yabi pattern). Well, they went nuts for it and I caught two in short order. I'da caught more if the hook size had been smaller. That was around 2pm, after I caught the two the rest kinda lost interest and buggered oft, I lost interest at 3 and came home. But it sure was fun for a while watching the goings on down in the mud. I saw a couple of two to three pounders but always seemed to have Mr. Crawdad in the wrong spot when the big ones went by. I shall go again t'morra. I'm going to order some small rubber crawdads from the Fishin Hole this morning. February 13 Jake!Speaking of soot bombs. Ho-ho, don't let this happen to you. Cuties! February 06 A long and winding road.Hmmm, it'll be a real challenge building this one and very expensive. I can see moving the Winter Road off Marian Lake, but building an all weather road into these tiny settlements won't happen in my lifetime. I mean they still can't come up with the will, money or consensus to put a bridge over the Mackenzie River at Ft Providence.
New routes for Tlicho winter road considered.Last Updated: Wednesday, February 6, 2008 | 9:51 AM CTCBC NewsThe Northwest Territories government is asking people in Tlicho communities for help on picking a new route for the region's winter road. The current ice road crosses frozen lakes, rivers and ponds as it snakes its way north from Behchoko (Rae-Edzo) to the communities of Gameti (Rae Lakes), Whati (Lac La Marte) and Wekweeti (Snare Lake). Generally, it is open for two to three months every winter, and about 1,000 people rely on it for their groceries, supplies and fuel. Many of those people are concerned that climate change will affect their supply line. "People have been talking about it for a long, long time. They want to have an all-weather road," Gameti Chief Henry Gon told CBC News on Tuesday. "The weather has changed a lot and it's affecting the ice on the winter road." People in the Tlicho region have been calling for an all-season road since 2001. Over the summer, department staff conducted engineering and environmental studies to figure out what their options are. Those options were shown to residents in a government information session held in Whati on Tuesday evening. "I think what we're going to be trying to get as much as possible is a fair bit of traditional knowledge. People that live there obviously know quite a bit more about the land than we might here in Yellowknife," said Michael Conway, the department's North Slave regional superintendent. "[We're] looking at things like river crossings and creeks and high water marks and all those types of things that affect where we might put a route one day." Conway said he plans to gather information and feedback from across the Tlicho region over the next couple months, hopefully whittling down a list of possibilities to two or three workable options for the new winter road route. Moving the winter road could take three to five years, he said. January 26 Global Warming.............me arse!Thursday: Jan. 24th. '08. The thermometer on my deck this morning indicated -18°C when I got up at 06:00. Oh Man!! Driving up the Trout Creek road it got colder and colder! Just before we came out of the canyon shadow, Mark's truck said it was -26°C! (-12°F). At Link Lake, at dawn it had warmed up a bit, to only -20°C. We fished til 12:30 and only saw 3 fish all morning. Didn't even get a bite. It was/is still -8 at Link when we left and when we got back down here. F-E-K-K! Cold. Those are the coldest temps I've seen in the Okanagan, since we moved here 20 years ago. http://www.theweathernetwork.com/index.php?product=weather&placecode=cabc0282 January 21 Lac La Marte.I like Flats........... vans/boxes... not so much. Never hauled steel coils, but I have hauled, insulated and wrapped steel pipe, and galvanized culverts (small nested into large). Both were a challenge to secure and get to stay on the deck. Culverts, especially when nested, like to walk ahead or backwards, they sorta unscrew, each must be secured separately. Boxes usually involve 'inside' work by the driver. One winter I got elected to haul a box of groceries and misc school supplies into Lac La Marte, a small native settlement on a side road west, off our main winter road. Thirty years ago, La Marte resembled one of those old towns you see in Westerns. Newer buildings, some log cabin and shacks......but one 'street', houses along each side, a church and a school at one end....no other infrastructure, replace horses with dogs and you get the picture. There were three or four of us in our little convoy, I forget what the others guys were hauling. For sure one would have had a 5000 gal. tank of diesel. We arrived early on a Saturday or Sunday morning after having driven all night over a very rough, mostly portage, access road. No one was in their 'happy place'. We drove up the middle of the street and stopped, expecting someone (perhaps the settlement manager!), to come out and at the very least, say hello. Even though we could see the occasional window curtain twitch, not a soul appeared, not even the local Catholic priest. None of us had been there before, no one knew what building to deliver our loads to or even where to ask. We waited for a polite length of time to give folks time to get dressed and used to our presence, but still no one appeared. After an hour, in exasperation a couple of us laid on our air-horns, still no one came out to greet us, it was like a ghost town,. Ok......... what the hell are we going to do with these loads? How the heck will we get these loads off the trailers? Even if I knew where to take them, how am I going to unload a van full of groceries by myself? By now it was obvious that the locals were deliberately ignoring us and hiding in their homes coz they didn't want to work helping us unload 'their' supplies. Now I was seriously pissed-off. What to do? Well I knew what I was going to do...... my load was palletized. Getting out, grabbing several lengths of chain and walking to the back of my van I opened the doors. I looped one chain end through a pallet and got the driver behind me to pull up close enough to hook the other end of the chain onto his bumper hook. Getting back in my rig I pulled ahead a bit til the guy behind blew his horn, and in my mirrors I could see boxes come flying sideways behind my rig. We repeated this process up the street till my van was empty. Every time a pallet of goods came out, it hit the ground hard and spilled its contents all over the place, boxes of groceries, school tables and chairs from one end of the street to the other. What a mess, it was going to take quite some time and amount of hand 'bombing' to clean it up. We were mad and didn't care, we certainly weren't going to be the ones to do it. I think what made us the maddest was the rudeness. "That'll teach 'em to hide in their house and ignore us." Somehow during the operation, by over-extending it, I'd managed to pull the tendon off the last joint of the little finger of my right hand, it was swollen, throbbing, I couldn't bend it and of course, kept banging it on everything. It still doesn't straighten properly. I can't remember what the other guys were hauling or how they got their loads off , but I'm sure it wasn't a pretty operation. I think their loads must have been 'simple' ones. Whatever, by common consent as soon as I was unloaded, I jack-knifed my rig around in the street and got the hell outa there. I was expecting to get flack later, about how we unloaded my truck and what a mess we made, but curiously never a cross word was ever said. Banana Tankers. Now there's a thing! January 18 Why I wasn't here at 'work' yesterday.Me and the Boys went fishing.
Quarter to eight as usual, we met at the A&W, John and I parked our trucks and piled in with Mark in his 4x4. A quick show of hands vote, and we headed up the backroad from Summerland to Princeton, destination Link Lake. Actually a destination vote wasn't really necessary, we'd been impressed by the size of the lunkers we saw last time we were at Link and all wanted to go back for another crack at them.
Having been ploughed and sanded within the last week, for a nice change, the road was in pretty good shape. 25K up and just before we got to the Trout Creek Ranch, John spotted a moose lying down in its bed close off the road. It was quite close to where we'd seen two of them on our last trip. We stopped and I took his photo, once again he wouldn't stick around to sign autographs. Just on the other side of the Ranch we saw another one, he stood til we stopped, then as I took photos, he began to amble away. He jumped over the fence, catching one hind leg on the top strand. He stood for a minute looking at us, then shaking it, got his leg off the wire and wandered away up the hill. Off we went again til just at the third bridge there was one more moose, for a total of three sightings that morning. That one saw us coming and all we saw of him was his arse end heading into the willows. No Picture.
We got to Link, unloaded our gear and walked down the hill to the lake. There was a lot more snow than a week ago. Perhaps a foot more. Walking along about a hundred feet out I could feel water below the snow under my feet. No worries, just hard walking through the overflow. The weight of the fresh snow on the ice, pushes it down forcing water up through any recently drilled fishing holes, of which there were several. It just doesn't get cold enough here for the temp under the snow to get low enough to re-freeze overflow.
Walking along we came across a recently drilled hole, it must have had a gusher because the snow and ice surrounding it were covered in 'scuds' (small fresh water shrimp). Hmmm, that didn't look good for our fishing. If there are that many scud around, there is no shortage of food for the fish to feeding on. John quickly drilled a hole close to the gusher, but hit lake bed right away so we kept walking.
We kept walking til we got out of the overflow and to the same location we were last time. Three holes were quickly drilled and we set up our 'blinds'. Perfect, we had four to six feet of water depth under about two feet of ice, a nice flat bottom with a low carpet of dormant weeds. Quite quickly we started seeing fish swim lazily by. Lazy is the word and no real big ones this time. They'd cruise by and if our hook was exactly at their nose level in front of them they might take a look at it or have a sniff. They definitely weren't too interested in feeding. Sometimes they'd mouth the bait, have a lick and immediately spit it out. They were not excited by what we were offering. Eventually, Mark found something that worked for about half an hour, catching three in that space of time, John managed to entice a keeper and I caught one little of that went back down the hole as soon as I got him off the hook. We fished til noon, seeing small schools swim by, then right when the solunar tables/calendar predicted a minor feed, they all disappeared. After that, except for a couple of 'minners', we didn't see a dang thing before we left to come home at two thirty.
Oh well, we had fun, no one got skunked and it turned into a beautiful day up there. The afternoon temp soared to a balmy +4°C and the sun shone for half the time. Bare handed all day, in my 'blind' it was warm enough, I took off my jacket. Due to a temperature inversion it was warmer on top of the mountains than it was down in the Okanagan Valley. Coming back down we could quite clearly see all the woodstove smoke and smog trapped under the warm air layer.
Next week the calendar/tables say, about four days of good fishing, so we'll be going up again for at least one of those days. I want to catch one of those six pounders we saw! |
Thanks for visiting!
Deanwrote:
Hello from South Dakota USA. I found your link over at the IRT forum on the HC. Very nice pictures and the blog has some great stories as well, thanks for putting your time in to it. I have done alot of fishing up in Northern Manitoba, one of these years I would like to fish over by Yellow Knife. Thanks again for the entertaining web site, I plan to come back and dig deeper yet.
Dean
2 days ago
Kennethwrote:
hi Nick glad to see your still blogging .Hope your doing well ,now back to reading more stories from your blog lol
Mar. 2
Gaby Realwrote:
Thought you would be interested to know the Scot comedian Billy Connolly is on telly at the moment, seeking the north west passage. This week he goes to Baffin and Gjoa Haven.
SisC.
Feb. 24
No namewrote:
I like your site.
I am harry from holland and i watch ice trucking on the tv.
I really wonna try that and so i contacted nuna logistic to asked them how a dutch guy can come between those drivers.
they couldn't help me, but give me a list with phone numbers from ice truck company's.
It's difficult to find the mailadresses but i am traying on.
I hope it's posibel to drive in 2009 and in canada for a dutch guy.
many greetings from holland and harry
Nov. 24
Thomas Ralph G.wrote:
I would like to get on page here and just say.. What a wonderful set of photos of the artic country this is. Me being of Contwoyto lake
history from 1967 to 1973.. i have some photos i have shared on flickr and elsewhere.. The Cat trail was only a small ways out of yellowknife . Everything came in by air. I knew Jack and Bessie Kaolouk well, and also Henery and May Algona. and of course the kids
bobby, james and Alice. When the inuit packed up , they traveled to copermine by skido and dogs, took them 14teen days.. i arived to see them there by plane.. little alice came over to me and handed me a cup of hot tea.. so artic.. great part of my life, like the adventure of my life really..
Nov. 22
No namewrote:
Dropped in to check you out Sam. Looks to make for some interesting reading.
Oct. 27
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, and some service on the truck. Still basically in its infancy RTL didn't even have a proper wash rack. On Sunday after the truck had been serviced I decided to take it down town and use one of the commercial wash racks there. 
Oh wow, I was strutting around like a rooster. So, proud as Punch I got ol' # 16 all shiny and looking like new again. She was a beaut!
Mortified and pretending I'd meant to do that
.................. I had to wash the whole top side of the truck again. Those little diesel soot particles are a bugger! They stick where they land and, if you touch them with a rag they just smear. 
It was past supper time and another four bucks, before I got the truck cleaned up again. My groupies for some reason, had lost interest and were long gone. 
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