Rookies, Wannabees, & superheroes. This is a true run about Heavy Haul.

The Building P3

Oh, the GKSR! It's so much fun...no really, this was brutal!
Holy God Almighty!!! Did it blow up here! Rocks, hills-capes, little shrubs, all exposed! Didn't even know half this was out here! Oh yeah, and all the snow has filled in the road. Our precious little road, normally cleared out to about 150' wide. It has been so blown in that all they've managed to clear for us in 2 1/2 days is about a 15-20' wide path! Have I mentioned that our convoy is 16 1/2 to 18' wide, all of us! Stop at Portage 1

Hang the Jewelry, dang I love my ScanTracs, and off we go. Don't ask why, but I'm leading. I guess if I get stuck, the boys gotta help me.
There's no possible way we complete this in the daylight after out late start, we're gonna be doing at least half this road in the dark in these conditions! Have you asked yourself lately?
BAM!!! POOF!!!
Look at me mom, I'm a snowplow! There are 28 Portages on the 132kms of GKSR, I plowed snow banks on every one of them! At least half of them, I was plowing snow on both sides at the same time, thank god I chained her up, cause I spun even with them on, oh and corners, hahaha I blasted almost every one, no choice. Not a thing I could do. Needless to say the regular truck convoys started catching us, sorry boys, doin the best we can. When the convoy started coming across Kennady Lake, the truck Marshall headed over to meet us. When he saw the stream of lights

ARRIVED!!! I HAVE ARRIVED!!! I HAVE FINALLY ARRIVED WITH MY BUILDING!!!

...wait for it...
Really, you honestly thought it was over? C'mon, how much have we been through with this? This, this was the load spawned by Lucifer himself to test me. He ain't done yet!
I arrived at about 10:30pm. The Marshall took me to where we were unloading the building, told me where to back in and I can go ahead and unchain The Beast!
Backed in, spotted, air dumped, unchained! Heeee's baaaack!

Yeah, one of the cranes gets alongside, and breaks down!

Two hours later, we're in business...

3:30am Friday March 6th, 2015, the clouds part, the birds start to sing, I strip down to my board shorts, break out a beach towel and plunk myself under the palapa...I, am unloaded! Ok, I didn't really, but if I had a beach towel,I would have, -25 be ######!
Mr. J-F, your contingency plan has been delivered. It has been one heck of an adventure, you are welcome sir.


Ok, from the top, that's 12 weeks and two days from the very first inkling of the load from begin to plan it to completion. Yes, there was a couple of other loads slid in while we figured out the final phase, but that's 86 days start to finish. This has been an extraordinary load, with extreme circumstances. No, not every load I or any of the other HH guys do is like this, but yes, it can and will happen. My patience was truly pushed to the absolute limits at times & this load certainly had many challenges, but I have had worse. Maybe not over such a long period of time, but I have had other loads break my spirit much worse than this. Does every load we do have issues? Honestly, No. I typically do about 22-26 loads per year. I bet more than half will have at least some type of issue.


I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed sharing the experience. I hope I may have helped even one person make a decision about a foray into HH, it is NOT for everyone. If you think it's for you, remember, you WILL be tested! If you do, good luck and don't hesitate to ask for help. When you learn, make sure to pay it forward! And when you persevere, remember what you went through, and be one of the guys who understands and drives rates up, because you are one of the special few, reward yourself & the rest of us few for it!


I have completed two more loads after the building, and have a final countdown of a hard 3...continued road status may allow for more, but I believe we will have our commitment filled by the scheduled end date.


I don't know it all.
I am still learning.
I still make stupid mistakes too!
I don't want this demi-god status mentioned earlier in this thread.
Take it for what it is, I'm just happy to tell part of my story.


Hammer

 

Thank you, I appreciate it. I've never thought of myself as a writer, like a book author.

I'll take you up on the drink offer, I actually do get to N. FL from time to time, my favorite hobby...cave diving, so I know the area.

 

I don't have time to write play by plays either. However, in this case it was pretty simple. Ice roads, max 25km/hr loaded on a 300' wide road, that is basically one direction and radio controlled. I would talk to my computer using voice recognition software while bored out of my frickin mind. Some guys watch movies, I talk to the voices, it's more interesting. Then edit when stopped, parked, or snow/wind stormed in with no cell service. Then copy and paste into the text boxes and post when I got service. Trust me, this isn't going to happen again anytime soon...if ever.
It was a "perfect storm" series of events that likely will never be repeated.
As you can tell by the progression, the boredom increased, hence the increased creativity of an extremely over active imagination...and too many voices in my own head helps...