Well I’ve been working now for just about three weeks straight and will get a week off this Thursday. I will then have to put my truck in the shop to get it serviced and a good check up to see how much damage the rough gravel/mud roads up here have caused. (more…)
Been a little lazy with the posting lately, however I just went to the Yukon again and got to go up to Keno City. Hauled some construction equipment to Wolverine Mine (3 hrs from Watson Lake) and then to Keno City operations up in the northern tip of the Yukon. The weather was great all the way until I got to Faro when it started to drizzle a little. Along the way I got to see black and grizzley bears, buffalo, cariboo, elk, moose, wolverine and a beautiful black wolf with brown blotches. The wolf was an amazing animal to watch as he ran away from the sound of my big truck. I only wish I could have gotten a picture of him but he was gone too fast.
Quite the little mining town, there was museams and little tourist stores everywhere. The museum was cool with all kinds of pictures, tools and info about the mining days. This is a silver mining town of about 20 locals with about 120 workers that stay in camp. Apparently it has been a successful mine for over 20 years.
On the way home I stopped in Ross River to visit with a friend whom I hadn’t seen in over seven years. Ross River is a nice place also with lots of rivers and lakes. I’ll post some pictures below. Bye for now.
Hauled a load with a pump jack to Lampman Sask, and then up to Regina to load 2 steel coils for delivery to Calgary. From Calgary I loaded crushed cars to deliver to Richmond, BC. In Richmond, I loaded some wooden crates with valves inside for the oil patch to be delivered to Edmonton. Along the way I ran into some freezing rain between Blue River and Valmount. I also ran into freezing rain inside Mount Robson Park. There I heard of a major accident on the radio and decided to pull over and get some sleep. When I awoke in the morning they were still cleaning up the accident (see photos) so I got stuck in a line up of big trucks waiting for the okay to move on. We were made to chain up for 20 km to help break up the ice on the road. This was a first for me but you gotta do what you gotta do. After removing my chains I continued on into Hinton where the scale was open and I was held up for two hours while they did an inspection on my rig. Because of some air fresheners hanging from my sun visor they decided to call in the RCMP to search my truck and load for drugs or weapons. After leaving with clean bill of health I continued on to Edmonton and unloaded the crates. I then drove to Nisku to load another pump jack to be delivered to Mission, BC. First time I’ve hauled a pump jack to BC instead of to Alberta. Bye for now.
Finally got through the holidays which aren’t my favorite time of the year. Too much money spent and not enough earned. I didn’t do much after spending Christmas with my sister and her two boys but sit in Abbottsford. Got to take a load of pump jacks for an oil well to Lampman, Sask. From there I loaded two stainless coils (48k) from Regina and delivered them to Calgary, AB. Then I had the pleasure (not) of loading crushed cars from Calgary to deliver to Richmond. I’m sitting in Kamloops as we speak getting ready to head for the lower mainland where I’ll have to reset my log before delivery on Monday. The rates are sure taking a beating it seems these days. Definately not much money to be made in hauling decks these days. May as well be a company driver as the money is about the same now. Might look at hauling vans or new cars, not sure yet though. Depends on how long this set back with the rates continues. By for now.
After unloading the rebar under the Port Mann bridge for the new bridge, I headed to Delta to load some huge tires (see pic) to deliver to Red Deer. This of course means that I had to travel the “highway of death” as it is known. The trans canada highway between Kamloops and Golden is the worst stretch of highway in western canada with the exception of the Fort MacMurray highway maybe. This is because it is narrow and winds through the mountains. The maintenance on this highway during the winter months is poor for some reason. All drivers seem to speed also which doesn’t help much. Things were going pretty good for a while even though the road was icy in some spots traffic seemed to be driving cautiously. Another rig with a load of tires was a few kilometers in front of me and we were talking every now and then on the radio about the road conditions etc. Then the other driver was involved in an accident on the corners next to Summit Lake. It seems that a mini van lost control on a corner and bounced off the cement no post then veered into on coming traffic hitting a SUV head on and then bouncing off of the rig hauling the tires. The rig driver tried to ditch his rig to avoid the mini van but it hit him in the fuel tank rupturing it and then coming to a stop a few feet away. The rig ended up in the snow bank (see pic) off the road and there were three seriously injured people in the two vehicles. I got stopped about half a km away but could see the mayhem and listened to the other rig drivers who witnessed the whole thing describe how the accident occurred. Two hours later I was able to resume my trip to Red Deer. The driver of the rig was okay but couldn’t get his truck pulled out because of the ruptured fuel tank (environmental issues) until morning, so he was going home. I wished him a Merry Christmas before heading on my way. I kept thinking that if I had left before him that could have been me involved in the crash. Not his fault in any way but just bad luck I suppose. I must have counted 5-10 vehicles in the ditch between Kamloops and Golden because of icy road conditions. Oh by the way, the sand trucks showed up while they were cleaning up the accident (figures). Delivered the load in Red Deer and drove to Edmonton to load a John Deere excavator for the return trip home only this time I’m going down Highway 5. Get to spend Christmas with my sister and nephews in Red Deer though. Bye for now.
After leaving Dawson Creek, last week I picked up a load of lumber from MacKenzie and delivered it in the pouring rain to North Vancouver. From there I went to the port and loaded up some 50′ steel pipe with an outside diameter of 48 inches and delivered it to Nisku, Alberta. I had to take the canyon as the Coqihalla was closed and the roads through the canyon were a little slick also. At least the temps warmed up to where I could shut my truck off at night to conserve fuel. From Nisku I drove to Fort Saskatchewan to load some rebar to deliver to the Port Mann bridge project in Surrey, BC. I am currently sitting in Kamloops waiting for my log book to reset so I can drive the rest of the way. Bye for now.
Started working for another company after taking six months off of work to regroup. Haven’t taken out a load yet but hope to soon. Spent the day getting pro rated insurance and new decals put on the Pete. I blew a head gasket back in June and had an inframe done for 16 k in July. Haven’t even broken it in yet. Looking forward to getting back on the road even though it’s winter here and the mountain passes are already covered in snow. That’s trucking. I will start posting on a regular basis again once I start hauling loads. Should be within the next couple of days. Bye for now.
Wow, my bad. Haven’t posted here in a long while. I just took a load of towers and equipment for Bell Mobility to Fort Nelson, BC and because I cannot load my back haul until Monday (long weekend) I have to sit and wait in Fort St. John, BC as that is where I’ll be loading from. It’s a dirty little town to say the least, but not as bad as Fort Nelson is for sure. The weather has been nice any ways which is a bonus.
My truck was running excellent up until I returned from holidays last week when I found out that someone had ran into it while it was parked in the yard. Of course no one will own up to it. Not much damage just a bent out bumper and a few scratches in the fiberglass. But now the alternater is always charging more than it should when I’m up to speed and when it’s idling it is charging really low. I noticed that my driving lights flicker on and off so I’m hoping that the bent bumper may have caused one of the wires to ground out and draw down the batteries. Will get it checked out when I return.
Right now I’m building a website for a new client who is hosting on my server and it’s been fun actually. Hope they like it. Bye for now.
Took some more steel plate to Edmonton, Alberta. This was a 12′ wide load with a jeep and booster on top to add more revenue. I had to have a pilot car take me to the Alberta border, where I carried on alone the rest of the way. When we got to Mount Robson National Park we had to wait for over 20 minutes while the road crews cleaned up a slide (see photos) that came down the night before. Stopped in Acheson, Alberta to fuel up and caught a nice sunset (see photo) on my camera. After unloading the jeep and booster, I headed to unload the steel plate then headed to load some foam for the return trip home. Along the way home I went through the slide again, but it was a little faster to get through this time (5-10 minutes). It was raining and the crew were worried that more rock and mud may come down. I took a photo of a rainbow that looked okay over the Thompson River outside of Clearwater, B.C. No pot of gold however. Talk to you later.
Took a load of misc. construction equipment to Innisfail, Alberta and had to travel the dreaded Trans Canada highway which I dislike. The trip went okay for a change and the weather was hot all the way. After unloading in Innisfail I headed to Calgary the next day to load some scrap metal for delivery to Burnaby, B.C. The weather in Calgary was very hot and I couldn’t wait to get home to the lower mainland where it was warm, but not hotter then the hubs of hell. Talk to you later.
