moving to washington state

Glad to be of help.

Calrile drivers I've been talking to say they hardly run North anymore, mainly southern B.C. and Ab.. Are they still running teams North?

Do they make you run the Cassiar in the winter? Two winters ago it was closed more than it was open. They had record snowfall through there. They didn't push the snow far enough back at the beginning of winter and a lot of it was single lane with pilot cars. I took a load to Dease Lake otherwise I wouldn't have been on it. It is a few miles shorter than going through Ft. Nelson but time wise longer. Vic Hoskins insurance company banned them from it a few years ago because of accidents.

I learned my lesson on there many years ago. Had an avalanche come down in front of me. Backed up two miles, got turned around, went three miles and an avalanche had come down behind me. A chopper came in the next day and offered to take me out and bring me back in a couple of days when they got it re-opened. I told them I had lots of food and would wait there. I don't like flying.

 

You might look at Sorenson Transportation out of Chehalis, WA. They run refers mainly I-5 from Bellingham to LA and also to Arizona. I have several friends that work for them (both drivers and admin.) and all have positive comments about them.

 

There isn't enough money in the world to get me to run team North. I don't know how anyone could get decent sleep. Interstate out of Seattle tried it a few years ago for McDonalds and I heard it nearly bankrupted them. They totaled eight trucks in a year. One of them went into Kluane at the lakehead and hazmat cleanup crews were there for three months that I know of. Had one pass me going North at the top of the Stikine River bridge hill. I told him he best be slowing down but they didn't even give their drivers VHF radios. Somehow he made it around that 180 halfway down and got on the bridge but rolled it on the right curve coming off the bridge. When I got down there the wheels were still spinning, hamburger patties and buns and french fries everywhere. I stopped and helped him get his co-driver out. He said " I'm one hell of a driver, I made through every curve except the last one." I told him "Son that last one is the one that counts."

That road was originally a radio controlled private off highway logging road open to the public only from 10 PM to 3 AM and weekends. Skeena Forest Products started going North from Kitwanga and Cattermole started going south from Watson Lake for their mill there. We had a dryland sort yard at Cranberry, just south of Mezziaden Junction. The old camp is still there. Logs were loaded from that yard on highway trucks for their mills on the eastern Skeena and off highway trucks for Terrace via the Nass. I hauled on the Terrace run with my old Hayes HDX with 14' bunks in the 60s. We used to call it the Mezziaden Haul Road and I sometimes still refer to it that way when I'm not thinking.

 

Thanks ND When I ran for Polar Roller I always wondered where that road from h@!! came from. Took me over a year to convince the boss to stop running that road and take the AlCan all the way. 100 more miles but 2 hrs shorter.

 

You can cut off another 36 miles by turning off at Ada before Dawson Creek and running over to Farmington, twixt Dawson Creek and Ft. St. John. I ran that way to avoid the Dawson Creek scales before they shut them down. I dislike scales almost as much as flying. People go through them, break even and act like they won the lottery. I've never had anybody hand me $100 bills at the scales but I have left a few $100 bills behind. The Ft. Nelson scales used to be downtown before they moved them to Muskwa Flats and were easy to get around.

 

very few conservatives in WA, OR, or CA. Look beyond WA is my advice. Try UT or ID

 

I also believe the Cassiar is over rated as a short cut. Call the Alcan the girlie road, who cares. Hudsons hope loop from Chetwynd to Charley Lake cuts off a little, steep, deer infested but helpful.

 

Team driving the Alaska highway is torture for the partner in the sleeper. Rest? What rest.