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September 24 Ice Road Truckers...on THC.Self promises are easily broken. I'd promised myself I would post here no more about THC Ice Road Truckers......then just now in the shower (where I do my best thinking), I thought, "Hmmm, one more won't hurt." Reminds me of the time I was crossing Hottah Lake one night, this fresh, wet, one inch crack opened up in front of me. Too late to stop and back up, couldn't turn around. I promised myself, if I got safely to the other side, I'd be a good little citizen and I'd go to church every Sunday.
Wait a minute.........Whoa Nellie. I've been re-reading the posts on 'friendswithoutborders' and some on the HC Board. I am not a member of that particular can of worms......... but there are some things on it that need addressing.
The Ice Road Truckers show is what it is, no more no less. The show is about half a dozen guys doing a tedious, boring and often stressful job. It's about how they go about getting through it and how they interact with each other. There are what, another 700 or so drivers who don't get featured on the show? Some will come back and do it next year, some won't. You have to do it at least once to appreciate what it's all about. Except in a few dire cases, at the end of 'it', all is forgiven and most folks can look back and laugh. If you haven't done it, really you're in no position to judge anyone who has. As I say, mostly the job is boring. Don't believe me? Check my blog. I wracked my brain to come up with exciting stories to tell, so far I've posted less than a dozen Ice Road stories which, peeps might find mildly stimulating or slightly amusing. The majority of Ice Road Truckers just get in their truck, pick up a load, drive it to the mine and return to Yellowknife repeating the process 'til break-up.........nothing happens.
Most drivers get along with their boss and everyone else, some don't. So what? It's like every other workplace, except colder and more dreary. The HC was trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. It would have been better, if they'd stuck to a two hour documentary instead of trying to make another "Deadliest Catch". Everyday ordinary, events have had their actual significance blown way out of proportion to their real world importance. In one respect the show is highly accurate. It's a twelve hour grind, much like a drive up the Ice Road to the mine. Except, it's been highly edited and tweaked, with a whole bunch of bull-ship thrown in for shock effect.............hmmm, excatly! :-) Driving the Ice Road gives you hours and hours of nothing to do except think. I thought lots! About how bad my truck was (it wasn't). About, how poorly I was paid (I wasn't). About what a mean guy my boss was to make me do this (he wasn't, he paid me and I volunteered). About,...why did I get stuck with this crappy shifting load? (I was either trusted or it was the luck of the draw). About, did I have enough fuel on board? About, was the road open all the way? About would I get blown in..coming home? About, where were the plows. About, that -40 breeze blowing on my right foot coz the rubber boot around the shifter is busted. About, who's coming behind me..can I trust them? About, have those cracks I saw/heard about on my last trip healed? Etc, etc. It's pretty easy to work yourself into a frenzy over nothing when you're scared or bored to death. I read where one driver had caught a bunch of flak from posters becasuse he got out of his seat and let go the wheel to get his coffee cup. Crap! At the speeds they now drive, you could get out, have a whiz then run after your rig and get back in.  The real interesting and exciting bit is the construction of the road. That's when the scary, dangerous stuff happens. One example: Picture yourself at the end of a sixty five mile lake, virtually a blank canvas... all white, no trees, no rocks, no critters, no body, for miles.... nothing ahead of you except two Bombardier tracks. You're sitting in a grader or a Cat. You have to plow a road across it, trusting that the guys in the Bombardier or Headbanger checked the ice thickness enough, in the right places. If you drop through, will anyone miss you in the next four hours? If you break it and can't fix it, do you have enough fuel to keep you warm sitting out here in the open 'til help arrives? Sheesh, I remember old guys telling me, if your Cat breaks through the ice, you don't even have time to stand up before you're sitting on the bottom of the lake! I saw it happen to a guy on a D-6 Cat. Fortunately he was only in 5 feet of water. Another guy, operating a grader, went stright to the bottom in 200 feet of water, his shirt sleeve got caught in the door release. End of story. As far as the Ice Road goes, probably the majority of peeps in Yellowknife are barely aware that it is going on. The majority of folks there, just go about their daily business without giving it a second thought. One notable exception is the folks that live along the Ingraham Trail, they have to deal with the dangerous truck traffic on a narrow, twisty road, twice a day during their commute. Negative response from Yellowknifers posted on this and other boards are a justified reaction, by Yellowknifers, to some of the foolish crap being said by a silly minority. The Ice Road to the diamond mines is a Private Road! Many permits obtained, licenses applied for, hoops have been jumped through, and approvals sought from First Nations... by NUNA, to get it constructed. Million have been spent on the construction. Of course NUNA has the right to say who does or doesn't have vehicular access to it.
Will HC make another season? Who cares, personally I think once was enough, the story has been told. |
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