Ol' Sam. A Work in Progress.: Adventure Truckin'

Ice Road Blues.

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:59:07 GMT

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.

Truck driver deaths on the Ice Road.

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:59:06 GMT

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 contributed to hauling freight on those Ice (Winter) Roads.

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 plow truck driver, and one death of a snocat operator (who subsequently died of heart failure after being rescued). 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) Road 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.

Jake!

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 19:48:35 GMT

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!

See what I mean?

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:46:15 GMT

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

A long and winding road.

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:24:58 GMT

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 CT

CBC News

The 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.

N.W.T. Transportation Department officials say they first want to move the existing winter road route onto solid ground, making the ice-road season a month or two longer each year until an all-weather road can be built.

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.

Lac La Marte.

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:49:19 GMT

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. They 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, I forget exactly how many, in our little convoy or 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. It was like a ghost town, still no one came out to greet us.

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. Lazy bunch of bastards! 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 overextending 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!

Passed away.

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:57:01 GMT

Sorry to say. This morning I received word that Paul Clark, my old friend and co-worker at RTL, passed away on Jan 3rd '08. Tuff as they come and a good friend, I'm sure Paul will be missed by all who knew him.

My condolences to his family.

Oil Patch Follies.

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 21:17:26 GMT

I'm posting some truck photos from the Oil Patch. I received them as an attachment to an e-mail. Where they originated or who took them I don't know. I certainly would give credit if I knew who took them. If they are yours and you object to my posting them please inform me and I will give credit or remove them as you wish.

Stuck! How about these for stuck?

Phone calls.

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 20:10:07 GMT

A Hard bunch of Guys. Credit must be given.

Here's an incomplete list of guys that worked with me, in the early to late '70s on RTL's Winter Road to Echo Bay mine on Great Bear Lake NWT. I may have forgotten some (I'm sorry if you are among them) Please feel free to refresh my memory.

- Five Warren Brothers: Billy (Bishop), Gerry, Johnny, Joe & Jimmy.

- Dave Thompson.

- Brian (McSnowWriter) McLeod.

- Mat King.

- John Soldat.

- Peter Paul.

- Buddy Mercredi.

- Ronny Coward.

- Paul Clark.

- Alex Debogorski.

- Sandy McPhee.

- Ronny McNab.

- Herb Bechdolt.

- Marty Bechdolt.

- John Denison

- John Jr. Denison

- Richard Denison.

- Stan Buck. (O/O).

- Denis Berg. (O/O)

- Bobby Fry. (O/O)

- Wayne Thompson. (O/O)

- Tim 'Newt' McNeil.

- Leroy and his brother Jimmy Mercerau

- Gord Weatherby & his younger brother.(first name escapes me)

- Marvin Robinson.

- Ricky Robinson.

- Lance Chamberlin.

- Daren Cranna.

- John Magrum. (Cook)

- Dave Lorenzen.

- Gerry Boudoin.

- Hugh & Phoebe Arden.

- Jimmy Arden.

- Louie Mackenzie.

- Larry Cooper.

- Ralph French.

- Ken Stubbs.

- Gerry French.

- Bob White.

Not all of the above participated every winter. Some no more than one year.

In the past week a couple of these guys have phoned me, Billy Bishop and Dave Thompson. Bishop disputes my location of Bishops Bath and Dave phoned to say hello and recall old stories. Some of Dave's stories include:

An abortive attempt to push the winter road up through the Dease Arm of GBL and on to Coppermine.

Getting his teeth knocked out by a flying load binder, then getting fired in the airport by Dick himself for leaving his machine and coming home on the plane. (Dick, at the time, not having understood the circumstances of Dave's return, later apologized and re-hired him).

Falling through the ice on a D-6 Cat while crossing Marian Lake. The blade hung up on the ice in front of him, but his seat was under water before he could even stand up. Then he had to crawl out of the water and walk a hundred yards soaking wet in -35 temps coz the (famous) guy that was following him in the Beaver, was too scared to drive any closer. How it took an hour to thaw before he could peel his soaked and frozen snow-suit off.

Getting stuck up to the truck seats, in the overflow water on Marian Lake. His (famous) passenger had to crawl back along underneath the flatbed trailer they were pulling with the bunkhouse on top,, so he could get inside and light a fire in the heater.

Breaking down and being stranded for four days at the north end of Hottah Lake. Sitting there reading and re-reading the same newspaper for four days, running out of food (Garlic sausage and Coke), - then being so close to running out of fuel, his truck quit as soon as its front wheels hit the front of the drop-down hi-boy that had been sent back with Herb to rescue him. That was on the last trip of the season, Dave was last truck on the ice that year. Nobody missed him for three days, then finally RTL took the plane out looking for him.

Seeing the flames and smoke in the sky from our burning bunkhouse. Then jumping on the Cat to push the burning shack off its sled so we could save our fuel supply.

Getting a new driving axel installed under the front of his 6x6 plow truck. Unfortunately the guys that installed it, put it on upside down so the front wheels turned one way (in reverse) while the back drivers spun the other (forward). Not discovering this amusing concept till he drove as far as he could into a snowbank, and engaging the front axel to test it and getting well and truely stuck as his wheels spun in oposite directions.

How he got his nickmname. (W-a C-s)

About the time: Bob White was traveling by himself, his fuel froze up, clogged the filters and his engine quit. He sat there for a long time waiting for someone else to come along. By the time they finally did, Bob had gotten so cold he was burning diesel fuel in an open can inside the cab to try and stay warm. His face was black, his hands were black, everything on him was black and the inside of the truck cab looked like a soot bomb had gone off in it.

And that's just a brief recounting of some of the stuff we reminisced about. We had a great laugh.

Perhaps one day, Dave will send me some of his pictures.

All the guys I listed above, have their own and similar stories to tell.

Map details of our Winter Road to GreatBear Lake. NWT.CA

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:32:41 GMT

Well, "Holy Crapman Batweasel"!! Bish tells me I had his 'Bath' in the wrong spot. After 30+ years, sometimes memories get a little fuzzy on the exact locations of incidents and of our routes. I wondered at the time I marked it, however he's the dude that got his feet wet and crapped in his pants, so he should remember where it happened (Second little pot-hole, north of Hottah, he says). However, during hours of discussion with my friend Brian, he and I have come to the general agreement that Bishop's memory is worse than ours. "Bishop's Bath" indeed did occur on the second puddle, but on the trail/portage into Terra Mine, not just north of Hottah Lake, as Bish believes.

So, yet again I've redone my maps, Bishop's Bath' is now pinned closer to the actual event. I also pinned the spot where Ricky Robinson dropped his tanker through on Conjurer Bay, he was following right behind me when.....down she went. Got his feet wet too, and really crapped his pants! .............

Lead truck in a four unit convoy, in the pitch dark I'd just come down off Yen onto Conjurer Bay. Ricky, Bishop and Buddy were following behind. The radio was silent, chatter between us had stopped miles back. I was traveling along minding my own business and thinking about getting through the Narrows up ahead and arriving at Echo Bay for supper and a sleep.

It was a very cold night, in the minus forty range. All of a suden, this 'squawk' comes over the radio! Picking up my mike I asked 'what was that, did someone say something?' 'Squawk squawk!', came the reply. One of the guys behind me says, ' I think it was Ricky and he just broke through the ice.' 'Shit!', thinks I, flipping on my back-up lights, stopping and looking in my mirrors for head lights.

All I could see was a cloud of steam, my back-up lights reflecting off it. Scared shitless, Rick, in a panic to get out of his truck, turned his headlights off and shut off his radio. No wonder I couldn't see his lights and he wouldn't answer.

I thanked my lucky stars for my good fortune in not being the one to sink! I must have been pretty brave, because I turned my rig around and started heading back towards the big white cloud of steam now reflecting in my headlights. I didn't get far before here comes Ricky in his jeans, sneakers and tee-shirt, in an ever spreding puddle of water, hot-footing it towards me. He looked pretty cold and quite upset. All his winter gears including boots and parka were still inside his truck cab. He'd been in such a hurry to get out, he'd left everything behind and wasn't about to go back in for any of it.

Stopping my truck, opening my drivers door, pushing my survival gear up against the passenger's side door and bending myself around the shifters I slid a cheek onto the passenger's seat, and told him to get in the driver's side.

Wrong thing to say I guess. He was totally freaked out, "No effing way I'm getting in that truck!", he says.

"Why not?" says I.

"No effing way I'm driving that effing truck!" he says. He was so freaked out he was vibrating and could hardly speak.

"I don't want you to drive it, I'm just offering you a warm place to sit till we get on the radio to Yellowknife and figure out what to do."

Silly bugger. He stared at me blankly for a few seconds until he finally came to his sences and got in the driver's side.

On the radio-phone, via the repeater at Terra, we contacted Dick in Yellowknife. Dick told us to forget about the truck, take Ricky in one of the two remaining units on the other side, (behind the hole) and drive him into Terra Mine. Terra was closer than Echo Bay. They couldn't get by Rick's truck in the dark anyway. Ricky would wait at Terra while they unloaded an unscheduled fuel delivery then take him back to Yellowknife.

Meanwhile, I'm on the Echo Bay (wrong side) of the hole. Not about to try to get back passed Ricky's truck and around the hole, ..... I am to continue to Echo Bay by myself, which I did without incident. By the time I got unloaded and spent the night at Echo Bay, next morning someone had come down from Terra and plowed a wide detour around Rick's unit. Going home I couldn't see Rick's truck through the ice fog and never did see his 'breakthrough' in the daylight. I was not involved in the recovery.

I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think Ricky ever made another trip that winter. Can't say I blame him.

It's a bunkhouse, Joan.

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 14:59:43 GMT

Reading SnowWriter's story about opening up the Ice Road got me thinking about our sleep shack/caboose accommodation again. Yeah, the one that burned up, on Yen Lake.

Ha. The original caboose was built for some unknown purpose way back in time when cat-trains still roamed the Earth, men were men and Huskies were nervous. In those days, fibreglass insulation was not invented, thermodynamics not well understood and most folks just made do. The walls were thin, rough two" x four" studs laid flat, with an aluminum skin and plywood interior, for insulation some kind of rock-wool, zone-lite or even newspaper was sandwiched between the studs, no vapour barrier, breezy. The floor contained no insulation at all. Kept the bugs out in summer, kept the cold in, in winter.

Rumour had it that the terminal fire was caused by Dave T, who left some of his clothes to dry, too close to our, as SnowWriter euphemistically calls it, furnace.

Editors note.11/15/07.

Dave says: "The story about the Shack burning down wasn't my fault, as all the clothes I had, were always in my duffel bag under my sleeping bag. Hell, I lost a $500.00 brand new 5 star sleeping bag and all my new tools, about $300.00.The only thing I ever warmed up were my felts and I was wearing them, lol." So the cause of the fire will remain a mystery.

To call that thing a furnace is generous indeed. More like a diesel fired space heater in my books. Hooked up to a 250 gallon tank on the front of the caboose, at night the heater burbled along merrily, keeping the shack more or less comfortable. More or less because being left over from decades before it wasn't very well insulated. At floor level the heater kept the temperatures well below freezing, at top bunk level the temperature was in the 90°F region, almost impossible to sleep in. If you were like me, lucky to get one of the bottom bunks, you'd wake up in the morning with your sleeping bag frozen to the outside wall. Top bunk, you'd kick off all your blankets and clothes and sleep in your Jockeys, then wake up with a headache from heat stroke.

Our shack had four bunks. Also included was a propane fired cook stove and propane lights. We had a larger crew than there were bunks for, half of the guys had to sleep outside in their equipment, Bombardier, Beaver, truck etc. During the day when our 'camp' was being moved the heater was turned off. The flame always got blown out by the wind anyway, causing the heater to flood. As well there was the fire danger, we didn't want the heater to tip over accidentally on a rough portage and burn the place down. So, every evening John would relight the heater and fire up the gas oven to start reheating the frozen TV Dinners for our main meal of the day. John was famous for his TV Dinners. But boy, after two weeks of eating three or four every night, we were sick of them. By the time the place warmed up, supper was ready.

About two weeks out, Dick Robinson in his pickup, made a supply run from town. He brought milk and other staples we'd run out of or were low on. Dick also brought a case of T-bone steaks......Oh Man. We were happy to see him! Dick cooked and we feasted on steaks smothered in garlic powder, with baked beans and oven baked potatoes that night. Thanks Dick! You've no idea how that act boosted the morale of the crew. A food mutiny was averted.

An almost permanent fixture inside the caboose was the ten gallon keg of antifreeze. Most people don't realize, at minus forty, straight antifreeze with no water added, freezes solid......hard as a rock. Most of our equipment had been well used before we got it, rode hard and put away wet. The units blessed with heaters usually had leaky ones. We used quite a bit of antifreeze. I have a vivid memory of people with screwdrivers chipping chunks of antifreeze out of the top of that barrel, trying to get enough chunks to add water to. That was only for the first few days until we got smart enough to keep it in the shack and pour boiling water in the bung-hole as the chipped level went down. Because the floor of the caboose was so cold and the little space heater got turned off during the work day, it still took forever for the antifreeze to return to a liquid state .

Actually the 'caboose' was a step up from what we had the year before. Previously as a cook shack and sleeping quarters, we'd had an old 1940's vintage, single axel, 35 foot van. It, had virtually no insulation and was very uncomfortable. I could be wrong but, contrary to what my buddy says, if I remember correctly, when our 'new' caboose burned down I'd already been pullled off the construction crew and was back in my truck hauling the first loads to the mines. I do remember coming up over the top of the Conjurer Bay hill onto Yen Lake and being very surprised by the sight of the burned out caboose. Few people shed any tears over the loss. Next year our accommodations consisted of a lovely new Atco Bunkhouse. Mounted on a hi-boy, it had sleeping room for six (Hughie A. and his wife took up two spaces), a washroom with toilet and shower, and a proper kitchen and eating area.

The pictures below are:

Before and after the caboose fire.

Our new bunkhouse.

A Coleman space heater.

Ice Road Truckers...on THC.

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 20:03:24 GMT

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.

Finally, if you'd like to see what the Ice Road looks like in the fall, go and check out the image folders.

Reprint.

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:14:50 GMT

Just in case you haven't had the time or patience to look back in my archives. Here's a reprint of something I wrote almost exactly two years ago August 30, '05.

August 30

Born on a mountain etc. Revised 02/09/05

Any idea how narrow a two lane highway actually is? Try landing a small plane on one, you'll get the picture.

The old Mackenzie Highway, all 325 miles of it, from the Alberta/NWT Border to Yellowknife was gravel surfaced, narrow and straight in places for twenty plus miles at a time.

Heading South, about a hundred miles from Yellowknife, at the top of the old Mosquito Creek Hill, with a gentle downgrade of about five miles, was just such a straight stretch. From the ground it looked perfect for a runway.

In the other direction heading North towards Yellowknife, once one crested the top, Mosquito Creek Hill, a ten percent grade fell away in two benches and dropped sharply several hundred feet in about a mile, to the bridge crossing the creek below. The edge of the Precambrian Shield, it was the only hill of any significance, from the Alberta/NWT Border to Yellowknife, and it was a Dussey! In winter it could be icy and slippery, many and varied are the trucks that spun out and went down it, backwards. The highway is all paved now. Pity, took all the surprise and fun out of it. Mosquito Creek Hill is gone, bypassed.

One summer (1976), we were resurfacing the gravel of about seventy miles of the highway from Mosquito Creek to Yellowknife. Our contract ended at Boundary Creek. Our gravel pit was about a mile from the top of and on the south side of Mosquito Creek Hill. We were getting paid by the ton/mile. My wage was fifty percent of what the truck made. The incentive was there to haul as much gravel per load, as fast as we could.

There were no load restrictions on the highways in those days. Most of the time I'd cross the weigh scale in the pit at around one hundred and fifteen thousand pounds, gross weight. Occasionally I'd be able to get my GVW up to one hundred and twenty thousand. At those weights, engaging the clutch was always an adventure. 350 hp and 120,00 pounds would torque the cab and frame over about 10 degrees to the right.

Easing the truck off the scale and out onto the highway, I'd stay in second gear as I approached the top of Mosquito Creek Hill. Starting down, gathering speed as I went, I'd start picking up half gears on the auxiliary. I had twenty gears to choose from, five on the main and four on the auxiliary. Shifting them, going down that hill required skill, sometimes using both hands simultaneously and perfect timing. A truly spectacular wreck would have been the result of missing a gear and was tantamount to suicide, you wouldn't be able to pick up missed gears fast enough, and no way your truck brakes could stop you.

Seven shifts later and halfway down onto the flat spot in the middle, I'd be in fourth and second. At the top of the last downgrade I'd slide over in fourth/over and just let her roll, picking up one full gear into fifth/over for the last charge. Terminal velocity on ol'# 16 was 75 mph, that's all she was geared for. I'd reach top speed just before the bottom of the hill, then in a rush, roar and a cloud of flying dust and gravel. Everything in perfect sync, the Jake barking at maximum capacity, engine revs maxed, transmissions howling, me and that old Kenworth, all 60 tons of us, would practically fly over the bridge and across Mosquito Creek.

Yahoo!! What a ride!! It would have been great to watch it from the bottom. Glorious thrill, better'n a roller coaster, and I got to do it three to ten times a day. Across the bridge, on the other side there was a gentle upgrade for roughly a mile, a nice stretch to slow down and bring everything back under control for the fifty mile cruise to where we were dumping. Still, coming down the hill, one gathered almost enough energy to coast the ten miles all the way to Edzo. Going back up to reload, the process was repeated in reverse order.

To get back to the point, it was a narrow highway. In the spring before we started hauling we had to send out a crew, me included, to open the pit and set up the scale. A trip of a hundred plus miles, rather than drive back and forth, the company flew us in and out in their recently purchased Cessna 180.

That's where the narrowness of the road comes in. There was no runway, we used the a straight strecth of the highway at the top of the hill as an airstrip. Landing and taking off were truly one of life's great adventures. The road of course was crowned and only hard, right in the middle. The Cessna's wingtips extended over either side of the road hanging out over the ditches. Those landings and take-offs took nerves of steel, from pilot and passengers alike. Once, taking off uphill towards town, nearing the crest of Mosquito Creek Hill, we barely got airborne before a loaded semi truck came over the top, heading straight for us. It was touch and go. I don't know who got the biggest fright, us or that truck driver.

What a hot and dusty summer that was. I don't think it rained from late May till early September. I remember getting the day off on July 1st and water-skiing for the first time at Long Lake. I remember fixing at least two, flat truck-tires, every night. Flats caused by nails driven into the centre line of the road by the survey crews. The road grader would pull them out as it worked the gravel, and those nails invariably ended up stuck in our truck tires.

I remember scaring the living crap out of any tourist who dared share the highway with us. Blasting by them at 75mph, I'm sure we busted more than one windshield and many headlights. We knew every inch of that highway and didn't slow down for anyone or thing. Full bore, all summer.

I remember the crappy house we stayed in, in Edzo. No beds, we slept on foamies on the floor. It was the summer after I'd quit smoking, so from the constant daily pressure of getting the job done and keeping up, my mouth was full of canker sores the whole time. I was extremely cranky. Sometimes my mouth and throat would be so painful, it was difficult to swallow or talk.

I remember seeing distant fluffy clouds on the horizon north of us and praying it would rain so we could get a day off. One day, a rock, stuck in my truck tire, flew out of the treads at about a million miles an hour and came through my back window. It shattered the glass, missed my head by a millimetre and, right in front of me took a chip out of the windshield inside the cab. It made such a bang and racket, I thought someone had shot at me. I almost had a brown-out.

No A/C. It was so hot in the trucks everyone ordered shorts from The Bay in Yellowknife. Mine were the right size but came with an Argyle pattern. Possibly I'm the only long haired truck driver to ever wear sandals and Argyle shorts while hauling gravel in the NWT. Damn hippy. I didn't care.

The gravel we hauled was wet and muddy, by the time we got to our dumping location, it had compacted and settled. We had to get out and pound on the dump gates with sledge hammers to get that muck to start dumping, quickly jumping back in the truck to get it rolling before we got hung up on our load. I got so good I could turn that truck and trailer around in it's own length, in one go, in the middle of the highway.

It wasn't called Mosquito Creek for nothing. I had a canvas drinking-water bag, I hung it on my truck mirror so evaporation would keep it cool. One day I made the mistake of stopping at the creek to refill it. I got eaten alive! In about thirty seconds my back was black with mosquitoes. Never tried that again, besides the water tasted awful and was so hard, you could practically walk on it. In winter it got even harder.

The flag girls were nice though, 18-19 and University students, lovely. Made each trip worthwhile.

Here's me, before my shorts arrived, sitting on the bumper of my K-Wobbler in the gravel pit with Bobby Fry. And, one of my truck by itself with a light load.

John Denison.

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:07:33 GMT

Articles on John Denison

January 10, 2001: Ice Road Engineer Dies - John Denison helped engineer the NWT's first ice road, -Yellowknifer

John Denison began building an ice road leading to a Great Bear Lake silver mine in the late 1950s. The road was aptly nicknamed the Denison Ice Road and in 1998 he received the Order of Canada for his involvement and ingenuity in building winter roads.

Denison died on the evening of Jan. 6 in Kelowna, B.C. He was 84.

Working with Byers Transport, a company that pioneered the building of ice roads in the North, Denison and his road crew worked through the darkest, coldest days of winter building the 520-km road from Yellowknife and beyond the Arctic Circle to Great Bear Lake.

The former RCMP officer first moved to Yellowknife in 1946 to work at the local detachment.

He left the Mounties a year later after conducting a long search on the Barren Lands for a missing trapper.

"During that search he froze his fingers, his feet and face and decided that it was just too much, being a Mountie in the North," said Denison's widow, Hannah, from her Kelowna home.

The couple left Yellowknife later that year, bound for Edmonton where they married.

Only a few years passed before Denison, in search of work, returned to the North, putting his background in mechanics to use in the Northern transportation industry.

Once the ice road work was complete - he also worked on a road to Tundra Mine and Discovery Mine - Denison returned to Kelowna, where his wife and four children were living.

He stayed in the Okanagan until his death last weekend.

A book, Denison's Ice Road, was written by Edith Iglauer detailing his adventures while at work.

Dawson Creek: Northern Trucker Named to Order of Canada, Vancouver Sun, August 18, 1998

A former Dawson Creek resident has been named to the Order of Canada for his work in helping to open up the Far North in the 1960s.

John Denison, 82, was instrumental in building a winter truck route north of Yellowknife that followed the frozen but fragile lakes up to Coppermine on the eastern shore of Great Bear Lake. "I felt a little embarrassed about it but I'm not anymore," he said from his home in Kelowna where he is now retired.

Denison's exploits were the subject of a CBC television documentary and a book, Denison's Ice Road, written by New Yorker magazine writer Edith Iglauer. Both came out in the 1970s.

Known as "Big John," Denison first started trucking in 1947 when he and his brother, Harry, bought an old army truck and covered a route from Peace River, Alta. to Hay River, N.W.T. In 1952, he moved to Dawson Creek where he spent nine years working on the Alaska Highway.

American, History Channel. "Ice Roads Truckers".

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 18:48:08 GMT

Sheesh! This morning I went to the (American) History Channel and took a look at the discussion boards re: "Ice Roads Truckers".

For those who don't know, the original idea for an ice road suitable for the use of heavy trucks was John Denison's. Eventually, he was awarded The Order of Canada for his efforts. Back in the '60's, he and his intrepid Byers Transport crew, Dick Robinson among them, punched an Ice Road, NNW through the bush from Yellowknife to Echo Bay Mines on Great Bear Lake, a distance of approximately 300 miles (500K). They basically followed pre-existing and ancient, Native trade routes. John Denison also opened a second Ice Road, East from Yellowknife, to service a couple of gold mines up around Mackay Lake. (Tundra and Salmita) One year, he even made an abortive attempt to push the Ice Road as far North as Coppermine NU (now Kugluktuk), on the Arctic Coast. Interestingly, an all weather road, South from Bathurst Inlet to the Diamnod fields is now being considered. This astounding construction achievment, if ever completed, would also include a deep water port on the Arctic Coast.

In the late 60's, difficulty finding suitable and rugged enough equipment and a downturn in the mining industry made Byers Transport abandon the Ice Road to GBL. In 1972 a re-supply demand and a rise in silver prices again made the Ice Road feasible. Robinson's Trucking answered the call and the Ice Road to Echo Bay and Great Bear Lake was re-opened.

I know, I was part of the crew that re-opened it in '73. When the Ice Road construction was completed, I spent the rest of the winter hauling fuel and supplies to Echo Bay with silver concentrate as a back-haul. I continued constructing and driving that Ice Road, on and off, until the late '80's. In 1987 my last job on the Ice Road was patrolling it with a one ton pick-up and a Radar gun.

In the early '80's Echo Bay Mines discovered gold near Contwoyto Lake NNE of Yellowknife and opened a mine there by the name of Lupin. Echo Bay mine at Port Radium, on Great Bear Lake, ran out of ore, the mine shut down and was abandoned, so - for half its length, was the Ice Road to GBL. This half-length Ice Road, still supplies several small Native communities along its route.

Robinson's Trucking then turned its eyes East and reopened Denison's old Ice Road to Mackay Lake extending it to the North end of Contwoyto Lake and Lupin, an extra distance through the Barren Lands of about a hundred and fifty miles.

Tuff? I'll show you tuff! Unexpected blizzards and very unpredictable weather made this Ice Road almost impossible to operate and maintain from the South end. Convoys and individual truck would get snow bound in blizzard conditions and white-outs for days. It quickly became obvious that to keep this Road open required help from both ends. Consequently, Echo Bay Mines got into the Ice Road construction business. Echo Bay would start construction from the North end first and later as soon as ice conditions permitted, Robinson's would begin from the South. Unlike our original Ice Road which only had a single 'camp' at Malfait Lake, this new road had two rest camps, one at Lockhart and one at DeGras.

Gradually over the years, Echo Bay took over construction and maintenance of the entire Ice Road, leaving Robinson's Trucking to concentrate on the supply hauling and construction of lesser Ice Roads in the Yellowknife area.

Echo Bay's Lupin Mine, eventually ran out of high grade ore and was mothballed. I believe it occasionally opens up again as the price of gold fluctuates and makes it economical to do so.

Then the Diamond Boom hit the North. These new mines (Diavik, Ekati, Jericho and Snap Lake etc) needed vast amounts of material and supplies. Echo Bay Mines with not much to do, formed in conjunction with the Kitikmeot Corporation of the Central Arctic, a Joint Venture and called it NUNA Logistics.

NUNA Logistics now does all the construction, maintenance and policing of the Ice Road to the diamond mines,

As far as THC's "Ice Road Truckers" goes, it's not available in Canada at this time, I haven't seen it. I have a friend in Texas who just put all ten episodes on VHS and has sent it to me, it's in the mail as we speak. On Youtube, I've seen a clip from the Jimmy Kimmel Show where 'Hugh', whoever he is, spouts a bunch of nonsense, including the fact that 39 drivers have died on the Ice Roads. This is not true! A blatant lie, and an attempt at sensationalizing what is in all events a mostly mundane, albeit occasionally dangerous but ultimately hard and boring job.

I'm not sure I'm going to enjoy watching the tapes of the show, even my friend in Texas who is not a trucker, has panned it. I know, it's just gonna spike my blood pressure.

In response to some comments made about Alex on THC discussion boards. Alex is as tuff as nails, an individual, as hardworking a guy as you'd ever wish to meet, full of fun, and a doer not a talker. You'd consider yourself lucky to know him. He's been driving and working on the Ice Roads for about thirty years. I knew him in the beginning. What a super guy!

If you would like to read about John Denison and his Ice Roads, might I suggest a book, published in 1974, called "Denison's Ice Road" by an American authoress Idith Iglauer, and available from Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Denison%2527-Ice-Road-Edith-Iglauer/dp/1550170414

That's my two cents worth for the day. If someone wishes to post it to the 'Friendswitoutborders" or the THC discussion boards, feel free to do so. Sheesh! They call it the History Channel, the least they could do is include some history and give some credit.

Cheers.

Icemannwt.