Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Just doing a little daydreaming this morning folks, thinking about the upcoming trip to the North with Big Bear.

This little ferry crosses the Yukon River at Dawson City and drops you at the start of the Top of the World Highway that takes you into Alaska. Although it looks real small, I've crossed there many times years ago (30+) with a truck and trailer. Of course during the winter the ferry doesn't run and you just drive across on the ice.

The last time I was in Dawson was in the summer of '91, when my bud Ralphy and I were hauling fire retardant into the small airport there to load on the planes that were fighting some pretty big forest fires. The load would originate in Calgary AB, and while we were coming south the driver would head north and we would meet up in Ft St John BC, switch trailers, and head back north as hard as we could.

Prior to that I used to haul groceries into an asbestos mine at Clinton Creek, just across the river a few miles at Dawson. I'd leave Vancouver Friday afternoon and be up there Sunday night, 2000 miles one way. While I was having a sleep at the camp they'd unload the grub, load the trailer with asbestos, and when done, come wake me up. I'd shower, eat a big meal, pack a bigger lunch, and, head down-ass up, head back to Vancouver. Ah, the good ol' days.

It was on that run that I had this wreck just north of Whitehorse in Oct '76.

Although the picture from the paper says I was uninjured, it wasn't until I got home that the injuries, including a partially torn liver, showed up. Guess I was running on adrenaline, and just wanted to get home. Hell, they even forgot my first name.

I could never have dreamt all those years ago that I would one day be returning in a vehicle like Big Bear. Just as the trip to Newfoundland last year was special for me, so is this one. Truck wrecks and tumors be damned, I'm still sitting In The Driver's Seat!

Trucker Bob blogged at 3:20 AM

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