Olde Wolfe's Ramblings: Go North, Young Man!

Last year, Dyno Nobel asked me if I would be interested in going to work in the Seismic field when things slowed down. It would be on a three weeks in, one week out basis, working six days a week with the seventh being an on-call reset day for my logbook. (As truckers, we're only allowed to work so many hours a week. Dyno's system has us doing a maximum of 70 hours.) Me being me, I naturally said "Yes." And so began a whole new education.

We started in November of 2013 with me flying to Calgary. From there, I would proceed to Rockyford, AB, to pick up the truck and drive it up to Fort Nelson, BC. Our Operations Manager, Kevin, would run ahead of me in a company pickup that would be left there for our use. When I arrived in Calgary, they had just had a blizzard pass through, bringing high winds, and a big temperature crash. It had dropped roughly 15 degrees and was suddenly -10 or so, instead of +5C. After spending the night in Stettler, Kevin and I proceeded to Rockyford, finished loading the last minute items into the truck, and left on our way to Fort Nelson. Well... talk about nasty roads. Admittedly, I've driven on worse, but there was no way I was going to make highway speed on that polished ice. I didn't quite need to chain up, but I certainly needed to think ahead of what I was doing. It took us 4 or 5 hours just to get to Whitecourt, where there are government scales, but I wound up being passed right on through as all the MOT workers were more than tied up with other trucks. We made it as far as Fort St. John that night before I ran out of hours.

Alaska Highway

The next day we continued to Fort Nelson, on vastly improved roads. The Alaska Highway is maintained to a very high standard, and honestly, at -20C, even ice is like driving on blacktop. I'm kicking myself for not taking any pictures while I was going up, but so much of that drive was so boring, I was just glad to get it over with. Especially since that truck cramped me up terribly. An interesting thing about the Alaska Highway is that when you're approaching Chain Up areas, they have lights that the Highways crews will switch on when it's mandatory to do so. The worst spot was what's called Sikanee Chief. It's a steep, twisty little sonofagun that drops down into the Sikanee River Canyon. You stop at the Brake Check, make sure you're good to go, and then take your time heading down, and walk on it to head up the other side. I was lucky... I never had to chain up. Kevin and I spent the rest of the week in Fort Nelson, preparing the site and the apartment/office that Dyno had rented for the other driver and myself. After the week, I drove the company pickup down and waited for the call to say it was time to go to work.

Alaska Highway west of Fort Nelson. Yes, it's icy, but very driveable.

That came at the very end of November, telling me to be there for December 2. I left Terrace on the first, heading for Dawson Creek. Note to self, and you, Good Reader, don't drive the Pine Pass at night if you have any choice in the matter. The snowstorms through there can be nasty. At any rate, I made it to Dawson Creek, and carried on the next day. The other driver arrived two or three days after I did... Phil was his name. Good guy. Different, but good. The first two weeks, we didn't really do a whole lot except detail work, but it kept us busy. Then, when the job actually did get started, it was a little rocky at first due to the weather not being quite cold enough. But we got them going, and then they decided they were going to shut down for a week over Christmas, so we had to turn around and clean their storage out. Very well and good. Just in time for me to fly home, anyway, for my first turnaround. I'll tell you... when you don't see the family for three weeks at a time, you want to spend your time with them when you can. I'll also tell you... the Fort Nelson airport is unlike any other airport I've ever been in. Security? Not there. We stopped and grabbed coffee on the way to the airport, and I got on the plane drinking the same cup of coffee! It did, however, land in Dawson Creek, where we had to disembark, claim our luggage, and go through security there.

That's where the next 'adventure' began... We got into Vancouver okay, although a little behind schedule. That was no big deal, because I didn't have to fly again for 5 or 6 hours, and on a different airline. If everything went right from there on, I'd have been home by 11:30 or so. Except, this was December 22. The busiest day in the world for flying. Due to all the delays, my flight didn't leave Vancouver until 2:00am. That put us at the Terrace airport at roughly 4. Fortunately, I had a friend on the flight who offered to give me a ride home. Thank you, Ian.

Anyway... I got word that I had to be back in Fort Nelson for New Year's Day. So I spent December 31 flying back up there. January 1, 2014, Phil tells me in the morning to grab my trunks and towel, and off we went to Liard Hotsprings. So off we go, four hours to the west, to soak up some of the nicest natural hot water I've ever been in. Along the way we saw moose, bison, and MORE moose on the return trip. That's a pile of swamp donkeys up there, I'll tell you.

Bison

Liard Hotsprings

Phil

Frost covered tree from condensation and freezing

Another thing about Fort Nelson... I got to spend some time working on night photography. I would go out to a place called Steamboat Mountain, and it was so dark, and the air so clean, that I could easily come up with this:

Shot from Steamboat Mountain

Shot from the Brake Check on Steamboat Mountain

Shot from viewpoint on Steamboat Mountain. Click for larger view.

And then, the Northern Lights. Mister man, I haven't seen Northern Lights like I did up there in a long, long time. I keep hoping to, though. Eventually we'll get a clear night... won't we?? Anyway... here's a few of my shots from while I was there.