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.