I just stood there looking cute and when something moved, I'd shoot.

 

 

Speaking of soot bombs. Ho-ho, don't let this happen to you.

One spring we were re-surfacing the gravel on the highway between Ft Rae/Edzo. Four or five tractors with belly dumps. There was an eighty five mile drive between Yellowknife and the gravel pit we were to haul from. We used the old Ft Byers as our staging and parking area. To save fuel and time Dick R had rented a house for us in Edzo, about sixty five miles from Yk. The house was completely unfurnished, we slept on foamies on the floor and ate standing up. We were working 72 hour weeks, Sunday was our day off. Actually 72 hour driving weeks, after we'd finishied hauling each day, we'd spend a couple of hours each evening fixing tires by hand, (that's why I hate 'Bud' wheels). The trucks were getting paid by the ton/miles, Dick, very generously I thought, was paying us 50% of what the truck made.

I was very proud of the truck I was driving, it was a one year old, 1975, long frame Kenworth with a great big honkin' 350 Cummins. New to the company it had the biggest power in the fleet. I was tickled pink when Dick came and said he wanted me to drive it.

Edzo was/is a bedroom community for Ft Rae, (any northerners reading this will find that very funny). There is/was absolutely nothing to do in Edzo, at that time it didn't even have a corner store or gas station. I think, it has a golf course now. The road contract was from the government, they didn't work Sundays, so neither did we. Sundays were very boring, nothing to do except fix more tires and tinker with the truck.

The July long weekend rolled around and the job was shut down from Saturday night til Tuesday morning. Wow, two days off! We had water trucks working with us to keep the gravel workable and the dust down, our trucks were getting very dirty. I decided to go to town (Yk) for some much needed R&R , 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.

A quarter went a long way in a wash rack in those days, but it still cost me three or four bucks and a couple of hours to get all the mud off and get that old KW sparkling again like new. The wash rack had a roof over it but was open at each end. I even had an audience, some of the local 'truck groupies' came and watched.

Cuties! 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!

They say, 'pride go-eth before a fall'..... Finished (not), forgetting I'd left the 'jake brake' in the on position when I shut her off, I hopped in the cab and started her up ! As soon as I took my foot off the pedal the 'jake' barked (all three banks), startling my groupies into giggles, and instantly filling the inside of the wash rack with diesel smoke and a huge cloud of tiny, black soot particles! My wash job was ruined, those little black soot particles of course stuck like glue to every part of the truck that was still wet! 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.

Oh the Humanity!

From CJCD Radio in Yellowknife. Feb 8th. '08.

Deh Cho Bridge Still Under Fire. Kam Lake MLA Dave Ramsay is perhaps the most consistent critic of the Deh Cho Bridge process, specifically the cost and the perceived lack of consultation. Now, Hay River South MLA Jane Groenewegen is jumping on the bandwagon. She's wondering why there's been very little information provided to members of the Legislature and even went so far as to consider tabling a motion to kill future legislation on the project altogether. "This project is calling for $2,000,000 a year, at least indexed, over 35 years, plus $750,000 per year in administration to collect the tolls. Can we put a motion in the House to kill the legislation today? You said we could've done it in the last Government to remove the legislation from the books. What about a vote now?" Premier Floyd Roland says that simply can't happen. "The facts of the 16th Assembly making a motion to get rid of that Act would place us in a higher liability or risk mode because agreements are out there, concession agreements are in place, they're meeting their targets, and the liability would go beyond our loan guarantee of $9,000,000." Groenewegen now says she doesn't support the bridge whatsoever

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

It’s a small world and a long time ago, Hello,

When people say it’s a small world they’re not kidding.  Let me explain.

A while back I was browsing the day’s news on the Internet and ran across a story on Yellowlnife.  This was particularly interesting to me because many years ago, during the summer of 1967, I traveled from Minneapolis, MN to YK with my uncle.  Our ultimate destination was Arctic Star Lodge where we planned to do a bit of fishing.   After grabbing some lunch and taking a few pictures in town we boarded a de Havilland Twin Otter for a short flight to the lodge.  I’ll never forget that flight because at the time I pretty much ate, breathed and slept airplanes and flying (I was 18 years old).  This was my first flight in a sea plane and the fact that it was Twin Otter made it even more exciting.  I remember sitting in the plane as people were coming aboard when I noticed a fellow who looked like he hadn’t shaven in a few days, wearing old blue jeans and a rather tattered shirt come on board.  Most of the people on the plane were obviously business types, in spite of the fact that they tried to dress like outdoorsmen, so this guy stood out.  He was the real deal.  He kept coming in to the plane and then going back out again.  This went on for quite a while and I thought maybe he was a mechanic, or a baggage handler.   In any case I was anxious for the adventure to begin and to get into the air.  The only thing that was missing was the pilot.  A few more minutes passed and the gentleman returned once again.  This time however, the door closed behind him as he continued up to the cockpit, took the left seat and began the start sequence on the two Pratt & Whitney’s!  He didn’t look like any commercial pilot I’d ever seen!  This was going to be fun!

We arrived at the camp without incident, got situated and then went to the main lodge where my uncle met and talked with the other guests.  My uncle (and my father who was seriously ill at the time) were both small investors in the lodge and had made several trips to the area in the past and knew several of the repeat guests.  I can’t remember any more, it’s been so long ago, but I think they became aware of the lodge and Bud Williams from a common friend who was a sports writer out of Minneapolis. 

I remember that first night there was some problem with the power generators and Bud came by to see if my uncle could give them a hand in fixing it.   My uncle, Sam H. along with my father Louis, owned an electronics business in Minneapolis.  I guess Bud thought that his electronics knowledge might be of value.  I don’t remember what the out come was, but I know we had power, so they must have gotten it fixed.

The next day we headed out on the lake with our guide with great expectations.  Unfortunately, the fish had other ideas.  We had some luck, enough for lunch, but not much else.  In any case it was great fun.  After we got back, uncle Sam and I did some hiking and looked around some old mining camps.

That afternoon, and here is where the world gets very small, my uncle decided that we might have better luck elsewhere.  Elsewhere turned out to be Thelon.  In your blog, for July 23, 2005 you wrote the following:

 “One summer, during one week of slow fishing around the lodge, I was lucky enough, to be guiding a couple of well healed guests. This wasn't always the case, we had a lot of guests who had blown their annual vacation budget on a basic trip to Arctic Star. Anyway, that week my guys became a bit bored by the slow local fishing and decided to try a fly out trip. Fly outs, cost extra and were expensive and we didn't get one often. I was excited by the idea, my guests chosen destination was the Thelon River. “

Well, I suspect that we were the two “well healed guest” you wrote about!  I’m not too sure about the “well healed” part, but we certainly were guests J  I remember that trip well.  For one thing I got to fly in another sea plane and the fact that it was a single engine made it even better!  I also remember that the pilot had trouble breaking the surface tension of the calm water and after several attempts at take off, decided there was some problem that needed correcting.  I seem to recall that Sam told me there was some issue with the quality of the fuel, even though, looking back, I doubt that was the cause.   Most likely if it was a fuel issue, it was that we were carrying too much, but in any case we ultimately got under way. 

I remember flying to Thelon thinking that if anything went wrong with the Beaver, we were in serious trouble.  All I could see looking out the window was rock and water and not much in the way of emergency landing sites.  When we landed and got out of the plane, I remember the white sand beach that separated the lake and the river.  I also remember the mosquitoes;  I don’t remember any fish, just the damn mosquitoes!  Tired of not catching anything except mosquito bites, I wondered along the beach by myself and was struck by the pristine beauty.  I also remember that lone caribou walking the beach and was amazed that he didn’t seem frightened.  Even though I recall being by myself, reading your story makes me wonder if you and I might have been together at the time.

I also remember that the pilot took off and left us there for a while.  If I recall correctly, he had gone off to photograph some abandoned Eskimo villages.  I kept thinking to myself, that if something happened to him and he didn’t return, we were in serious trouble!  Thelon was so remote that it made me both excited and at times apprehensive.  I remember feeling relieved I heard the sound of the returning aircraft in the distance.  I don’t remember too much about the return flight, but I do remember having the time of my life. 

That was 40 years ago and to this day I’ve never experienced a better vacation.  I often wondered what ever happened to the lodge (I guess it burned under somewhat suspicious circumstances)  and the people that I met there.  Finding your blog was like finding a time machine.  It’s really strange when you think of the millions of blogs on the Internet, that I would run across yours.  It truly is a small world!

 After he retired, Sam spent many of his vacations at Tropic Star and the area surrounding it.  He is now 94 years old and still lives in Minneapolis.  I am recently retired after working for 35 years in communications engineering and live in Chicago.  Oh, by the way, I did eventually get a pilots license including an endorsement for hot air balloons – I still love to fly!

Keep up the blog it’s great reading.

 

Take care,

 

Joel.

Morton Grove, IL