update

Long time no blog, will start again soon. Will be traveling south and start in when settled

BACK IN ALASKA AND GLADS TO BE HOME

Well here we are back at the homestead and everything is still here and it survived the winter with no busted pipes or other damages. I went up to Northway with my friend Blake to look at a couple of mobile homes and after getting back we got a call and the native corporation accepted our offer on one unit and the other one has not been decided on yet. We are going back up there a week from next friday and getting the first one ready to move. We are installing carpet in the bedroom and front room of the cabin getting it ready to put up for sale with the intent of reinvesting in Arizona property for our eventual retirement. I am working on selling some property for Sam Bishop at Glennallen and have a potetial client to show it next week> Later, Cliff

North to Alaska

Left Olympia on Tuesday, May 4th in our motorhome pulling the car behind on a dolly, stopped at Bellingham and saw grandson Tony Gibson and then continued on into British Columbia and stayed overnight at 150 mile house (near Williams Lake). Got an early start on Wed and made it over to the start of the Cassiiar Highway which runs 420 miles through beautiful BC, we went to Bell Two resort and stopped for the night. Left at an early hour and saw many black bears, Moose, Caribou,Coyotes,Porkupines, Deer and Elk, we made it all the way to Haines Junction in the Yukon, Territory where we stopped and had dinner with some old friends of mine, Allen and Sue who have a restuarent there, they had just got back from a China visit where they had come from 24 years ago, a great dinner and good to see them. We were on the home stretch the next morning and got to the Alaska border around noon. We had a problem with the fuel filter so had a mechanic replace it at Tok, Alaska we got the bill after about a 15 minute job, it was $20.00 dollars for the filter and $62.50 labor a total of $82.50, the point being if you are going to go through Tok, Alaska get your fuel filter changed before you get there, ha,ha.We saw a lot more wild game on this leg of the trip, Sheep, Grizzly bear, etc but the most awesome thing was near Northway Alaska we came across a Moose that was pure white on it's front half, I will email pictures out after we get them downloaded from camera. Made it into son's place in Eagle River and went on home to Kasilof Saturday, long but enjoyable trip, Later, Cliff.

Headed north

We left Redding for Olympia and made it up close to the Oregon border when a fan blade came loose and went through the radiator, we called a tow truck and they took us back to Yreka, Calif where we spent the night and got it repaired the next day, we then went on up to Seven Feathers Casino and spent the night (didnt win any money) then on to Olympia with no further problems the next morning. The old motorhome seems to be in real good running order so we believe it will make the trip on to Alaska OK. Will spend a week or so here with Son Cliff and get some golf in and maybe a Mariners game before we leave. We will meet up with Sam and Joan Bishop in their motorhome up in British Columbia at Cache Creek and go on up the road to Alaska, look forward to a nice enjoyable trip. Will post again next week, later Cliff and Jeanne.

Update

We have been neglecting our blog so will try to catch up. Jeanne had to go back to the hospital for three days to find out that she did'nt have anything wrong with her, for which we are thankful. We have had a good time here in Redding seeing old time friends and relatives, Junior Mark came into Barnes and Nobel at my book signing, he is an old time friend and we went to dinner with he and his wife Helen, he had seen the ad in the paper that I was going to be there, it was great renewing our friendship. We have been working on the motorhome getting ready for the trip up the Alaska Highway, we will be going up with Sam and Joan Bishop and will keep a journal of the trip and put it in the blog when we arrive. This trip started on Sept 27th out of Fairbanks (2009) and due to Jeannes operation and recovery we still are not home. Will close for now--Later, Cliff.

Getting ready to travel back to Alaska

We have a book signing this saturday at Barnes and Nobel in Redding and will start getting the motorhome ready to head up the Alcan and home soon after. We have been enjoying the nice weather and warm sunshine the past week or so. I have plyed golf with my nephew Sam Bishop a couple of times and hope to do it again before leaving. We will be keeping the blog going on our trip north and will keep our eye open for the many varieties of wilodlife that we see on this trip, most of the time the wildlife is in the middle of the road and reluctant to move. This has been a very interesting trip,with Jeanne having the emergency operation it really changed our plans and delayed our return north, however all is well that ends well and we hope things keep on track from here on. Later, Cliff.

Renewing old friendships at book signing.

Went to Barnes and Nobel in Redding for book signing saturday and was totally surprised by the appearance of an old time friend from Palo Alto, Calif. who I had not seen or heard from since Dec of 1941, her name is Adele Hazeltine and she was the cousin of my girlfriend at that time Kay Keharas, we double dated with my friend George Walker and Adele and had some great times, almost 70 years have passed since we had seen each other. Another surprise was a very old and dear friend Junior Mark came by and we had a great visit and went to dinner with he and his wife Helen, we had worked together in the trucking buisness years ago and had lost contact many years ago, both of these people made it a great day for me. Will be doing another signing on the 20th, same place. Later, Cliff.

Back to Redding

After the trip to Yuma we went up to Phoenix and spent a few days with Jeannes sister and brother in law Tini and Rich, played golf and enjoyed the sunshine, we then went over to Valley Center out of San Diego and stayed with Tim and Hilda Geiermann. Played golf with Tim and had a great time, won a new driver in the sunday golf tournament. We got back to Redding last night and will do a book signing on saturday at Barnes & Nobel in Redding and another on the 20th at the same store, we will then pack up the motorhome and head north to Alaska. I plan on setting up the motorhome in Homer and doing book sales for part of the summer and going gold mining with Tim Geiermann when we can get back to the mine after snow is gone. Till next Time, CB & JM

On the road again

Leaving Phoenix in the morning for Valley Center, Calif, will spend a couple days and get in a game or two of golf with Tim Ghierman and Hilda, then on to Atascadero to visit with my daughter Cathy. We will be back in Redding for the March 6th book signing at Barnes and Nobel and another on the 20th, then we will head north back to Alaska for the summer and catching fish and enjoying the Land of the Midnight sun, best wishes to all, Cliff.

Arizona Sunshine

Got to play golf at Sun City and it was'nt in the rain, we actually had real sunshine and it was great. My wife Jeanne and her sister Tini have been garage saleing every day, I dont know if we will have room to haul it all back to Calif. when we leave next week. I have 2 book signings in Redding, Calif. on the 6th & 20th of March at Barnes & Nobel, we will depart soon after for Alaska in our motorhome. It will be good to get back after all of the unforseen things that came up on our trip. the biggest of course was Jeanne's emergency operation in Quincy, Illinois and the three month recuperation after that, she is doing real well now and we are very grateful for all of the wonderful health care that she recieved also for all the kind thoughts and prayers. Until later

Alaska Picnic and on to Phoenix.

We arrived in Yuma saturday evening from Valley Center, Calif. contacted Skip Weeks an old time Alaskan friend and got the details on picnic. Met up with about 450 or more sunday AM and renewed old time frienships with people I had not seen in many years, Leonard Willbanks, Pete Wylie,Carol Neeley and many more, it was certainly worth the long trip and time to attend this long running function and hope to do it again. We had a night out in Yuma and the next morning went across the border to Algodones, Mexico and bought some odds and ends like all tourists, also had nice evening at the local Casino with Jeanne and her Sister Tiny. Hope to get in some golf while here in all this beautiful sunshine, best to all, later.

Traveling

I finished up the short story about the Arctic trip and submitted it to several magazines and the first day got a reply from Overdrive magazine, they put it in their publication which is a great help in getting the book out into the whole country, I will enter their internet link into blog and on my webpage which is a work in progress. We traveled from Anderson, Calif. to Valley Center out of San Diego and spent the night with Hilda and Tim Gierman then played a round of golf with Tim this morning and then drove over to Yuma, Ariz. We will go to the Alaska picnic here in the morning and then go down to Mexico monday for some shopping. We plan on going back up to Phoenix for a stay with Tiny and Rich before going back to Anderson, talk to you again in a few days, Cheers.

Burned Snow Train.

Snow Train Recovery.

The Snow Train was left by the side of the trail and was later pulled out to the Taylor Highway useing Cats pulling one unit at a time. The Taylor Highway should have been named the Goat Trail as it was a narrow and steep trail through the 40 mile country that ran some 160 miles into Eagle from the Akaska Highway at Tetlin Junction. I took on the task of recovering this crippled machine and takeing it out to the Highway. I transported my Cat bulldozer up to Boundry on the Alaska, Yukon border where these 6 units were located and in minus 62 degree weather began moveing thse big rigs one at a time down the road. There were several bridges across rivers that the big 16 foot wide rigs were wider than the bridges, so I had to build ice roads and take these units across the rivers off to one side or the other, this turned out to be quite a big operation, with -60 weather and many other unforseen problems we ran into,all of these complete story's and many more in my book 18 Wheels North to Alaska, available at, publicationconsultants.com . There is ample material within this book about this historic journey and other story's of the Alaskan and Arctic north to make a great movie, read it, you will like it. End Snow Train Story. Start of many more excerpts from book and other tales.

Maiden voyage to the Arctic.

The Snow Train was loaded up and set out for it's maiden voyage, there were a lot of people who had grave doubts as to whether this huge machine could possibly make such a trip, however it performed very well and reached the Arctic without any major problems, it was left on the trail after unloading and returned back to Eagle, Alaska on the Yukon River in the early winter of 1955 and reloaded for the much longer trip back to the Arctic 1900 miles northeast of Eagle, however this giant machine jack knifed ino a canyon which caused a fire and burned up all of the electrical system, this totally disabled it and they were forced to offload all of the freight onto sleds that were pulled by the Cats and went along with the rest of the truck convoy to their destinations. Cont.

Really Big

Cats removed 60 foot snow drift

24 Wheels across the Tundra

Rolling North

The Snow Train

The next chapter in this historic ice road trip will focus on the machine that was the creation of Al Ghezzi the man who came up with the idea and inspiration for this history making journey to the Arctic Ocean, this huge 274 foot long train was built especially for this trip and remains the only one of it's kind ever to run overland to the Arctic Ocean. This train consisted of 6 units, the front unit contained the diesel engines that ran the electric generators which delivered over 700 horsepower to each of the 24 electric powered drive wheels, the overall width was 16ft for the power unit and each of the 5 following trailers, the engine cab was 17ft- 4 inches high, truly a sight to behold. This train was built by the R.G. LeTourneau Company and was designed to carry 25,000 lbs. on each of the 5 trailers, this rig weighed in the range of 400,00 lbs. gross when loaded, the train was completed in time to join the first trip from Fairbanks, Alaska to the Arctic Ocean in the winter of 1954-55. Cont.

Thanks for the lift.

More than a flat tire.

Not so solid ice

Homeward Bound

Due to delays from mechanical problems, river crossings and the rig falling through the ice, they were running quite a bit behind schedule, this meant that the lakes; rivers and tundra were getting more dangerous to cross with each passing day, the nights were still getting very cold but daytime temperatures were melting the ice very rapidly, several rigs broke through and had to be winched out by the Cats but they did;nt lose any. When they reached the Yukon River after many days and nights of travel and overcoming any and all the problems that arose they found that the banks of the river were very steep, so they ran a Cat down into the bed of the river and pushed gravel up from the bottom to make entry and escape ramps to cross this last big barricade, the water came up over the operators lap with Cat all nut completly submerged in the river, the details of this and other storys can be found in my book 18 Wheels North to Alaska, also the names of many of these Pioneer truckers. For all intents and purposes when they crossed the river this historic journey was completed. Looking back over the past two winters and all the miles traveled over these vast areas this hard working group of Pioneeer truckers stand alone to this day for being the only one's to ever travel these difficult if not impossible area's.

Through the ice

On solid ground

On to the Arctic ocean ice

They knew that the Arctic Ocean was very near when they saw the Eskimo seal hunter, they stopped and took pictures and handed out some goodies to the Eskimo and then headed out onto the ice covered water towards Victoria Island , one of their destinations, they had gone about 35 miles out when one of the heavy loaded Macks broke through the ice and all but the front steering tires ended up beneath the surface, the bottom of the trailer was flat against the ocean ice. Had this rig gone any further and broke clear through it was over 700 feet to the bottom of the ocean. They offloaded the frieght and pumped the diesel fuel out of the in bed storage and then were able to get the rig out of the ice. They decided that the danger of others breaking through was not worh taking the risk so they off loaded all of the heavyest loads and put the frieght on sleds and continued on with Cats pulling them to their destinations which they reached with no further problems. These Pioneer truckers had made this historic trip a reality and all that was left to do was return some 1900 plus miles back to Alaska. Cont.

eskimo's on the Arctic

After many days & nights of travel an Eskimo dog sled was spotted, he had a dead seal on it thayt had been taken from the Arctic and was headed back to his village of Coppermine, this meeting was a complete surprise for both the truckers and especially the Eskimo who had never seen the likes of this massive gathering of men and machines. Cont.

Book Cover

Pictures

As soon as I get some tech advice I will post pictures of equipment and ice roads,remember I was a trucker not a computer whiz.--Later

north to the Arctic

North always North to the Arctic

They fought their way north day by day the temperatures dipped into the minus 70 below range and the engines on the big diesels were left running 24 hours per day, the drivers would have to fuel up and check the oil levels with engines running all this after 15 or more hours of driving, the favorite saying when they were awakened in the AM was (it sure did;nt take long to spend the night here). The axels on the big trailers gave them a lot of trouble with the massive loads they were carrying and the extreme tempertures they were plagued by breaking apart and after this occured several times they had to replace many axels and all of them on the rigs that were carrying the 300,00 lb. plus loads, this was a major setback as they had to fly the axes in and then replace them under very adverse conditions, the men never backed off from whatever challenge confronted them, I found this to be true over many of my ice road trips with problems we faced, such as rigs slideing off the trail and having to be totally unloaded to get them back on track to mechanical problems of all kinds, the word quit was never used and although we were forced to turn around and go back to our starting point on occasion we always gave it another try and in the end we got the job done. Continued

North to the Arctic cont.

They special ordered several big Mack trucks with flat bed trailers that held over 5500 gals of diesel fuel in the bed and when the rig was loaded plus the wieght of the truck and trailer they grossed out over 350,000 lbs., these Macks plus the dozen or so Kenworths and the huge snow train with several big bulldozers made up the primary convoy. The Macks were shipped into Valdez, Alaska, loaded up and driven to Eagle on the Yukon, River a trip of some 500 miles with the last 168 miles into Eagle having to be cleared of snow, all of the supply's were trucked in and the convoy was off to the Arctic Ocean with the big Cats leading the way. They had mountains , river's and tundra to contend with, the rivers such as the McKenzie had to have an ice bridge built over it, this was done by pumping water from the river onto the existing ice and making a 60 ft. wide and 4 ft. plus thick ice bridge in order for these huge loads to go safely across, this was done on several river crossing's. Every inch of this trip up and back had to be bulldozed in front of the following convoy, 20 miles progress in one day was great but there were many days only a mile or two were made and mechanical problems at times shut the whole outfit down for many hours. A very bad accident occured with the snow train , it jackknifed into a canyon and burned up the engines and electrical system putting it totally out of commission, they offloaded the frieght and put it onto sleds behind the Cats and continued on. I will tell about my recovery of this big snowtrain in another chapter. In spite of all the problems these men never backed off and made their on towards their Arctic Ocean destination.---Continued.

Book 18 wheels north to Alaska, available at-

www.publicationconsultants.com--amazon.com or your favorite book store.

Trucking story/s of Alaska and the Arctic North

This is the start of a brand new blog relating to Alaska trucking and the book which I wrote, Eighteen Wheels North To Alaska, we will be talking about the book and some of the story's in it, also other tales of Alaska's historic past and additional incidents that I have experienced in my many years of working and living in the Alaskan North. The first subject that comes to mind is the historic trip that was made in the winter's of 1954,55 and 1955,56. This project known as the distant early warning system was born from a decision by our military leaders to install a radar shield totally across the Arctic Ocean shoreline to give warning of a possible sneak attack by Russian bombers over the North Pole, these journeys were made over thousands of miles of never before traveled areas of Alaska and the Arctic North and I doubt that there has ever been or ever will be another ice road trip to match this historic undertaking, truly a journey that could be hailed as the "Mother Of All Ice Road Trips". This task was headed up by a company called Alaska Frieght Lines owned by Al Ghezzi who in my opinion was the greatest innovator of Alaska and Arctic transportation of our time, Al Ghezzi was a man who had the fore sight, imagination and guts to put together this massive undertaking of transporting hundreds of tons of materials across this forbidding and difficult terrain. I suppose the Jap attack on Pearl Harbor had a lot to do with their thinking as both the US and Russia were dealing with very heavy issues during this so called cold war that many thought could erupt into a full blown conflict. The first trip left from Fairbanks, Alaska after being outfitted and loaded up in the fall and in the winter of 1954&55 they struck out from Fairbanks and proceeded cross country north and east over frozen tundra,lakes, rivers and mountains,through country that had never before or since seen the likes of this gathering of men and machines bent on reaching their goal on the Arctic Ocean shoreline, this ice road trip was lead by a team of bulldozers and followed by 32 conventional diesel trucks and trailers plus a huge machine called a snow train, it consisted of a locomotive type power unit and 5 - 40 foot pull trailers behind it , this unit was capable of hauling 150 tons on it's 24 electric powered wheels with tires over 7 feet tall, this unit was ordered and special built by the R.G. LeTourneau company for Al Ghezzi, This machine was 264 feet long and over 17 feet tall truly a monster. They made slow but steady progress towards the Arctic Ocean and after many difficult miles of travel and mechanical problems they reached their destination, unloaded and returned back south to Eagle, Alaska on the Yukon River. The following winter of 1955-56 they resupplyed the snow machine and brought in huge Mack and Kenworth trucks and trailers and departed for a much longer trip much farther north and east. Will post this and continue later.