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Down South
04-19-2018, 05:30 PM
I’ve been on our site out of Prudhoe Bay.
That’s me on our Ice Road about 2-3 miles out in the Arctic Ocean.

OS OK
04-19-2018, 06:10 PM
DS...check with the 'lost and found'...you might find your mind there! . . . :bigsmyl2:

waksupi
04-19-2018, 06:25 PM
At least the sun is shining! I thought you retired?

Down South
04-19-2018, 06:39 PM
At least the sun is shining! I thought you retired?Retired, I have too much fun to retire.
Well, probably June next year I’ll shut it down.

KenH
04-19-2018, 06:55 PM
DS...check with the 'lost and found'...you might find your mind there! . . . :bigsmyl2:

Best comment yet!!

jsizemore
04-19-2018, 07:49 PM
I don't see any targets set up. What gives?

starmac
04-19-2018, 07:58 PM
I don't think he would want to be caught with a gun on the field at all, at least not if he ever thinks he wants to come back. lol

I have a friend that got lost in a blow on an ice road a few years ago, I don't remember if he was heading to Alpine or point Thompson, he finally just shut it down and went to bed, till after the sun came up the next morning. He could see something so drove over to see what it was. He has a picture of his truck sitting there next to a sign, saying that you are interring international waters. lol

Down South
04-19-2018, 07:59 PM
I don't see any targets set up. What gives?
Well, actually I was the target. The Polar Bears are just coming out of their dens with their little ones and I understand that they are very hungry when they come out. We had about 160 sightings last year.

lightman
04-19-2018, 08:22 PM
Cool Picture! It looks cold!

OS OK
04-19-2018, 08:25 PM
Best comment yet!!

I've watched these Ice Truckers on TV programs hauling heavy oil rig equipment across that stretch, seen them bust through, some got help others lost rigs! The wife and I just look at each other and shake our heads in disbelief. It must take 'nads' the size of cantaloupe to do that job...

If you see one of them walking across the ice looking bowlegged...he's prolly an Ice Trucker...if you get my drift.

starmac
04-19-2018, 10:51 PM
It is rare,rare,rare and did I say rare that anyone busts through any Ice road at Prudhoe, maybe some podunct ice road across a river or creek or something that is not monitored or maintained.

Down South
04-20-2018, 02:34 AM
That road is deigned to handle 250,000 lbs. It cost 5.5 million to build and is only just over three miles long going out to our island, Spy Island.

Three44s
04-20-2018, 02:47 AM
Well, actually I was the target. The Polar Bears are just coming out of their dens with their little ones and I understand that they are very hungry when they come out. We had about 160 sightings last year.

Maybe they should allow you guys to chose a less vibrant outfit then?

Three44s

Down South
04-20-2018, 03:06 AM
Cool Picture! It looks cold!
The temp was 4F when we took that pic. It had warmed up quite nicely. But the wind was about 30 knots as you can see my collar blown up against the side of my face and me bracing the wind. It’s been a mild winter so to speak. Still drops to 10-20 below at night.

farmerjim
04-20-2018, 09:15 AM
Did you bring your new bike up there?

starmac
04-20-2018, 01:30 PM
Riding bikes to Prudhoe is a big thing in the summer, But believe it or not I met one a few years ago in Febuary. I had heard snippets about him and the temp being 29 below at Prudhoe when he left on the radio. I met him at Galbreth and the temps were up to 9 below, but there was a blow going on and visibility was probably less than 50 feet.

starmac
04-20-2018, 01:33 PM
That road is deigned to handle 250,000 lbs. It cost 5.5 million to build and is only just over three miles long going out to our island, Spy Island.

WHAT, you mean it ain't like it is in the movies? lol

Down South
04-20-2018, 07:21 PM
WHAT, you mean it ain't like it is in the movies? lol
Yeah, like most stuff in the movies. It usually has nothing to do with reality.


I’m now sitting at the airport in Anchorage waiting on a flight that won’t leave until late this evening. Dang, I wish I had booked an earlier flight out of here. I won’t get back to Houston until tomorrow afternoon.

starmac
04-20-2018, 09:13 PM
A few years ago I picked up a college kid from London, hitch hiking to Prudhoe. It was late at night and I picked him up about atigun camp, where he said he had walked out to the river to camp, but there was a lot of bear sign, so he decided to just try and get another ride. He told me the Ice Road Truckers show was big in England and ask if I had ever driven on it. lol I told him that we were on it, this is what it looks like in the summer time, but then he said, no I am talking about the ice road, again I explained to him, he was on what the show called the ice road, that those guys didn't actually get to drive on the real ice roads. lol

We got to deadhorse at around 4 in the morning and I switched trailers, ask him where he wanted dropped off at, and he ask where was anything to see or do, I told him you have already seen and done it, anywhere would do, but you can get coffee at one of the camps, and breakfast in an hour or two.
He ask where I was headed, and I said back to fairbanks, but will sleep a while at coldfoot, so he just rode back to coldfoot with me.

CLAYPOOL
04-20-2018, 10:01 PM
SIR , That's all nice, BUT WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU HAVE TO...... well POO..? I am trying to be real careful and NOT get in trouble with the board sensors AW GIN..!!

Plate plinker
04-20-2018, 10:25 PM
Where are all the trees and animals?

MaryB
04-20-2018, 10:40 PM
No thanks, I don't care how thick that ice is!

The Canadian ice road truckers run across the big lakes... now that is dicey! Have a pressure ridge open up under you and down you go!

RugerFan
04-21-2018, 01:52 AM
I was up in that neighborhood last Sept. Shot a young bull caribou a few miles NW of pump 2. I'm not too interested in going up there in the winter though.

Down South
04-21-2018, 02:11 AM
Question was asked about a bathroom break. I was only a few minuets away from the camp on the island and maybe 15 minuets away from the main camp.
The camps are nice. Better than some motels.

Down South
04-21-2018, 02:15 AM
No thanks, I don't care how thick that ice is!

The Canadian ice road truckers run across the big lakes... now that is dicey! Have a pressure ridge open up under you and down you go!
Mary, the water depth between the mainland and our island is shallow. Around 10 feet I’ve been told. The ice is froze to bottom plus many extra layers of ice have been applied.

Down South
04-21-2018, 02:20 AM
Where are all the trees and animals?
No trees. But even on the tundra, there are no trees but it does come to life after the thaw. Animals are plenty especially the Caribou. They come up around the camp a lot. But so do the bears.
Lots of Fox and other critters too.

starmac
04-21-2018, 02:36 AM
What about a bathroom break, DO NOT GET CAUGHT, if you do, you use the spill kit you carry with you and scrape it up. You do not get caught emptying a coffee cup, if you intend to stay long.

The outfit Downsouth works for is strict, but does not hold a candle to any EXXON ice road.

Mary those lakes in Canada has built up and monitored ice roads too, it is not like a guy just decides it is time to go trucking, most of the pictures of rigs going through are faked for TV. There is a legit picture of a freightliner with a tanker that went through, but it was because the driver was a certified idiot and was not even suppose to be on the road yet, it was only open for pickups.
In all reality it is only dangerous for those on the road building crew, when they first start building the road.

BZimm
04-21-2018, 07:46 AM
I just looked at satellite pics of Spy Island. Man, you are up there. I wish I had pushed further North when I was up that way forty (million) years ago........

Down South
04-21-2018, 10:14 AM
Pic from the main camp looking out across the Tundra.
Well I can’t figure out how to turn the pic upright on this phone.

Oh, Starmac is correct. You don’t use the bathroom, pour anything out or even spit tobacco juice on the ice.
Even if you need to leave a vehicle idling you have to put a containment under it just in case it might leak. All trucks carry such a containment with them.

I now sit at the Denver airport waiting on the last
leg of my trip back to Houston.

woodbutcher
04-22-2018, 04:05 PM
[smilie=s: Talk about an ice road.During WW2,the russians built a railroad across a frozen lake to get supplies to the troops:shock:.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

starmac
04-22-2018, 06:44 PM
They have some big drilling rigs up north, I would imagine as big as any anywhere in the world, and at least some of them move from location to location, all in one piece, they do not even lower the derrick. I do not have a clue what these things weigh, but I doubt a train puts anywhere as much ground pressure or ICE pressure as those rigs do.
They only move something like 1/2 mile an hour, and take up all of the road. It is a royal pain to get caught during a rig move.

10x
04-23-2018, 08:58 AM
No thanks, I don't care how thick that ice is!

The Canadian ice road truckers run across the big lakes... now that is dicey! Have a pressure ridge open up under you and down you go!

It is the speed and weight of the truck that creates a bow wave in the ice. Heavy loads at fast speeds can cause the ice to break up in front of the truck at a pressure ridge or in shallow water - especially leaving the ice at the shoreline. the ice is smooth, smoother than the best pavement, but the speed limit is extremely low


One of the fellows I coffee with in the morning was an original ice road trucker - running cat trains to Dew line constructions sites, and then building winter roads in the High Arctic in the 1950s.
His trucks were some of the first vehicles over these ice roads as they hauled in portable camps, and supplies for the men in the camps.
This individual had ownership and control of over a dozen companies working in the high Arctic.

On another note - I have known Alex Debogorski since he was 18 years old, read his book to make sure I was NOT mentioned in it.
An interesting fellow who sometimes stops for coffee on his way from Yellowknife to parts unknown.

starmac
04-23-2018, 04:20 PM
If that is the same Alex that came over here and run the haul road, I met him, I did not know him. I am not taking away anything from his ice road ability on the lakes, but he took an abnormal amount of training here to be able to run the haul road, and several trainers at least some of the trainers only let him drive once, then took the reins back, and told their boss, no way were they trusting their life to try and school him up on the road. I do not know if it was attitude or what that caused it to be so hard for him to learn to negotiate the hills or what, but I know he had a lot of trouble learning.

They were not on anything we call an ice road here, they only took freight to the start of the ice road, as far as I know, they never got on the ice at all except for some staged roads over at the lake just for the show.

10x
04-23-2018, 06:58 PM
If that is the same Alex that came over here and run the haul road, I met him, I did not know him. I am not taking away anything from his ice road ability on the lakes, but he took an abnormal amount of training here to be able to run the haul road, and several trainers at least some of the trainers only let him drive once, then took the reins back, and told their boss, no way were they trusting their life to try and school him up on the road. I do not know if it was attitude or what that caused it to be so hard for him to learn to negotiate the hills or what, but I know he had a lot of trouble learning.

They were not on anything we call an ice road here, they only took freight to the start of the ice road, as far as I know, they never got on the ice at all except for some staged roads over at the lake just for the show.

Interesting stuff - Could be him. I know a lot of folk that worked in the Arctic, some were bluff and bluster, some did remarkable things they don't brag about.
The guys I know who ran cat trains and did winter road hauls in the 1950s through to the late 1970s are not impressed with the little they saw on television shows.

One fellow I coffee with supplied rigs in the Beaufort out of Tuk over the ice - before the days of ice penetrating radar. They never lost a truck or a man. He has interesting stories.

starmac
04-23-2018, 08:00 PM
I don't know about in Canada, but the show ice road truckers they filmed here was all scripted and in a way to just be a lot of drama and make the drivers look stupid.
They were constantly in the way and doing stupid stuff for the show, that was sometimes a danger or close to it, to the normal traffic. The film crew was even worse, as far as I was concerned.

Down South
04-26-2018, 08:26 PM
We have been building ice roads for yrs now. We have hauled heavy drilling equipment across our ice road with no problems.
What you see on TV is for drama. Big oil companies don't screw around with chances. When you spend over 5 million on an ice road it is for a reason, no problems....