Scarey Ride
Took a load of pipe bends to Foster Creek, Alberta similar to last winter when I was up there. Along the way the temperatures flucuated from minus 8 to minus 35 degrees celcius. Took some pictures while driving through Jasper National Park with the crisp air making everything seem so clear (other than my dirty windshield). Got to Foster Creek and the temp dipped to minus 35 but at least it was sunny. Unloaded and headed back to Edmonton to load some fertilizer for the trip home. Ran into a snow storm between Edson and Jasper on the way back. West of the Fraser River Crossing I came across a serious accident between two four wheelers. Story is one of them crossed the center line and got hit by an oncoming car. There was fatalities, but I was allowed through before they shut the road down to do their investigation. You hate to see this sort of thing, but speed was definately a factor in this accident. The rest of the drive went without incident until I got to the Coquihalla Hwy between Merritt and Hope. After stopping at the rest area above the “smasher” hill, I started down the hill in 4th gear taking my time as the road was a sheet of ice. Using my jake brake and brakes sparingly I found that it didn’t matter much as I started to jack knife a couple of times due to compression from my rear wheels. I finally decided to put my foot into it and hold on. Luckily I had moved a lot of my weight onto front wheels for this reason so I was able to turn when I had to. On the way down I looked over the other side of the road and it was a nightmare. There was trucks and fourwheelers spun out everywhere on the hill. It looked like a traffic jam during rush hour traffic in Vancouver. They were backed up all the way down to the Box Canyon chain up area and tow trucks were constantly pulling rigs up the hill. Boy was I glad I was heading south instead of heading north for a change. Bye for now.
