# Northern Manitoba Roads



## JoeCool

I came across some old pictures from my days driving my truck to remote towns with freight. These ones were after a recent snow and freshly plowed. Was a good trip. In the 4-hour one way stretch you may only meet a couple vehicles, often none...


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## Burkartsplow

The orginal ice road trucker right there. Looks like a good time.


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## JoeCool

That is an all weather road actually. Runs to a town that exists to service a group of Hydro Electric Dams. Here is a couple of Ice Roads though. This pressure ridge was closed to loaded traffic and we only used it on our way out empty, saved a few hours of rough roads the other exit.


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## JoeCool

This bush road was a favorite for me. 10-11 hours of road, then 4-8 hours of bush each way. The second shows the ice at my step looking down as I cross the one scary stretch of fast flowing river ice before entering the bush for an 6-10 hour run each way.


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## Dan85

Great shots, that's some serious driving! Would you travel alone or did you have any other trucks traveling with you? 

- Dan


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## JoeCool

Dan85;858816 said:


> Great shots, that's some serious driving! Would you travel alone or did you have any other trucks traveling with you?
> 
> - Dan


We tried to run a few together if we could, then you could pool talent and tools if there was a problem. My favorite route in the one pic I quite often ran alone, you might catch up to someone. 36 hour ringer (crisp and cold makes for good road). In this one you can see my travelling partner. We are running maybe 20 mph and almost at the ice crossing to begin the 10 hr. return on the gravel then pavement back for another load.


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## wewille

Very cool pictures thanks for sharing!


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## FEFMedia

nice pictures.. thanks for posting!


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## fireball

see that you have a rush hour problem too. Thanks for sharing


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## Raymond S.

N.F.W. = No F#*!%^# Way!!!!! You can have that driving.


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## Dan85

JoeCool;858861 said:


> We tried to run a few together if we could, then you could pool talent and tools if there was a problem. My favorite route in the one pic I quite often ran alone, you might catch up to someone. 36 hour ringer (crisp and cold makes for good road). In this one you can see my travelling partner. We are running maybe 20 mph and almost at the ice crossing to begin the 10 hr. return on the gravel then pavement back for another load.


 I don't think I could ever get use to the idea of traveling out there alone or not seeing anyone for hours on end!

- Dan


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## JoeCool

Dan85;860851 said:


> I don't think I could ever get use to the idea of traveling out there alone or not seeing anyone for hours on end!
> 
> - Dan


Figured I was 'special' lol. I was just a 30 year-old doing it for a few short years. Many guys did (do) that for a full career. Very knowledgeable and helpful. I still deal with some of them 15 years later in my decal work. Maybe I am 'special'. As for the alone part, it was a bit unnerving when I started but once I was in and back a couple times you just roll with it and enjoy the peace. Even the 'road loads' are low traffic. Longer runs are 12-14 hrs from end to end and the further out from the south the less traffic... less everything, except trees, lol.


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## JoeCool

Burkartsplow;858584 said:


> The orginal ice road trucker right there. Looks like a good time.


http://boards.history.com/topic/Ice-Road-Truckers/Winter-Roads/520044201 
I just was searching to see if I could find some other pictures on GOOGLE that would show the roads. I came across this blog. When I watch Ice Road Truckers I kept thinking the same thing as the guy from Gimli says. That the roads on the show look pretty tame, pretty closely monitored and not nearly as technical. Good to hear someone else say it, lol. I will be at a buddy's place this weekend and see if I can borrow some of his pictures and scan them. All I have left is a few from crashes in the bush and they are kinda lame.


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## EaTmYtAiLpIpEs

cool pics too bad you dont have anymore.


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## blowerman

Nice pics, thanks for sharing them.


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## Mark Oomkes

blowerman;861201 said:


> Nice pics, thanks for sharing them.


Ditto, awesome.

Ever see any UFO's? :laughing::laughing:


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## JoeCool

Mark Oomkes;861204 said:


> Ditto, awesome.
> 
> Ever see any UFO's? :laughing::laughing:


Better question would be be Sasquatch or Yeti... But what I have seen in the sky is the Northern Lights in extremely clear and full colour. Even a few hundred miles south, at home, they are not the same.


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## JoeCool

I have a few more pictures, just scanning them all in for my own collection and will post a few that might be of interest. This one is pretty narrow and gets very limited traffic.


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## JoeCool

Bare ice freezes down good and safe, heavy snow works the opposite.


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## JoeCool

Cat trains, with tires and with skis. Trucks bring the fuel to the nearest point and cats take it to the towers for supplying the generators. The year on the pictures is wrong. I decalled those trucks a couple years ago.


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## JoeCool

OK, this is an actual storm pic. After a storm the road was blocked and the trucks waited I believe almost 2 days for equipment to open it up. These are just before they got moving again.


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## JoeCool

Carrying a Satellite phone is now the norm., but who ya gonna call? Lol. When the trees are getting pretty small and spindly you know you are a long way north. Fort Severn is close to Hudson's Bay. Apparently on the Ontario side of the line, which I never knew.


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## JoeCool

Caribou are abundant and wolves seen often. Magical sunsets mean cold nights...


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## JoeCool

And that's about all that I think I'll throw on here. There were 11 rolls of film that I borrowed the prints for. When I return them he may have found some older ones. 10 of these rolls were from this past spring. There should be another 20 years of them, lol.


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## Mark Oomkes

Beautiful pics, Joe. 

You can post as many as you want if you want my opinion.

PS Have you seen sasquatch? :laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing:


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## JoeCool

Water can build up in swamps (underground springs) and eventually spill over the road and wash it out or as in this case undermine the road. Still frozen underneath the water but makes it rough and another obstacle to deal with.


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## JoeCool

.....................................................


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## JoeCool

The Hayes river flows enough to keep it open even through the -40 and lower temps. Makes you keenly aware that the river crossings you need to make are never as safe as the lakes.


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## JoeCool

A camp for, I am assuming, the road maintenance crew. Short trees so it must have been on the Fort Severn run?


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## JoeCool

Here is just a shot of the highway you would run to get to the start of the bush roads, or to any of the northern destinations I ran all winter . Often the road would be completely white from a few hours of snow with no traffic. The law of averages meant that you always met the traffic on a curve. You lock your arm so as to not steer either direction and hold your breath. If you feel the drop onto the shoulder you hope you can tell which side of the road it was, lol. The most unnerving part would be when the truck you met has a traveling partner that is following so close that you never quite got out of the snow dust to get your bearings before being submerged again for another 10 seconds or so. Dumb ass...


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## prostk2

Great pictures Joe
I would imagine you have seen some crazy accidents and other stuff while driving the roads!


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## JoeCool

prostk2;865151 said:


> Great pictures Joe
> I would imagine you have seen some crazy accidents and other stuff while driving the roads!


Crashes happen everywhere. Seen them in the bush, on the highways, in the city... often tragic.
This one was 1/2 hour outside the reservation I just unloaded at. There was no accident on my way in a couple hours earlier and ... I was just sick thinking I was the first on the scene... but nobody to be found, already hauled by someone.


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## JoeCool

This image of a wolf is a hand painted mural by a local artist who has done some impressive work in our capital city but this building is 500 miles north. At night it is illuminated and gives incoming traffic a spectacular view.


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## JoeCool

Plowing... or this doesn't quite count?


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## JoeCool

Here is a vid of one of the roads I ran. He also has a bunch more of the 2008 season. You can see how much you get bounced around and how when on the lake you can finally relax. Lake running is much less glamorous than on Ice Road Truckers, lol.


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## JoeCool

Well, thanks to Cretebaby I can now embed, lmao...


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## JoeCool

Bridge crossing on the road to Brochet. Summer view from the air.


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## JoeCool

A new batch from the archives. 1- Stay on the track or... 2- Speed bump... 3- Plowing with a bumper just works for so long...


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## Duncan90si

I'm loving the pics. This is the best pic thread I have seen in a long time, maybe ever. Keep them coming.


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## JoeCool

I have more to go through and scan, I was thinking maybe the interest was gone already. I am not sure of the story behind the fenders, but I do know that since they pay by the load for drivers it becomes a race to see who can do the most loads a season. Blind corners often result in knocking down some trees if there is a surprise on the other side, lol.


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## Mark Oomkes

Keep posting, awesome pics.


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## JoeCool

Load and haul from one camp to another in the bush, then bring back a D6 as well.


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## Omran

THAT IS JUST AWESOME>
thank you for posting such nice pictures.


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## JoeCool

Guess I missed the Cats on the return load.


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## Omran

I tell you what, I wish I get trained from someone with all the experiance like you. I love what you posted.
Well it is a man thing I guess.LOL


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## JoeCool

I don't want to shatter my image, lol.but... These are borrowed pics. I did the job two seasons and one run the next season with a buddy after I left the company.I was injured on the job the following summer and no longer drive/operate. Some pictures are mine, but they are earlier in the thread. The guy in the truck above runs 8 of his own and has a few hired. Some pictures are his own and some are from the drivers but I figured to save a bunch to my computer as I only took pictures the second season and not many at that. I have another 6 packs of photos to go through and will post some that might be of interest.


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## Fire Guy

Man those pics are awesome! I'm having flash backs of when I worked in Northern Alberta surveying in the oil fields. We either drove roads like that in our half ton or used the sleds on those roads to get to where we were working.

WOW!


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## JoeCool

Some times the swamps don't give you a good feeling for how the road is, but no troubles this time. Here's an obligatory plowing pic, lol.


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## Mid-Ohio Scaper

Awesome pics!!!!!! Keep em coming


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## JoeCool

One blind corner we met a truck without a radio (so no warning on the bush channel) and it took the rad out of the international which was the lead truck for the segment. We limped it to the 1/2 way point which is a fishing lodge that is open for the road season. We then delivered 2 of the three loads and when we returned the other truck hooked to load #3 to deliver. We bent over all the rad tubes that seemed to be leaking and filled with water from the lake. We tarped the front end and fired up two tiger torches in stove pipes aimed at the oil pan. We left it to warm up while we went in for a hot breakfast. We started the truck and hooked onto the empty trailer and lifted a couple extra drums of water into it for the return run to the terminal. We made a couple checks on the way but no water was added (pretty good bush fix, lol.). Rad fix and back to work next ringer. My truck is the KW and we used it to boost/warm up the batteries for the cold start.


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## JoeCool

Broken springs are a regular thing. Extras are carried and changes are made right on the spot.


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## augerandblade

Thanks I enjoyed reading.viewing this thread, keep em coming, Still waiting for the King of Obsolete somewhere in Manitoba to post. I think he is from Ly nn Lake.


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## Mark Oomkes

JoeCool;885821 said:


> Broken springs are a regular thing. Extras are carried and changes are made right on the spot.


That's GOT to be cold changing them out. Brrrr


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## cretebaby

Mark Oomkes;886317 said:


> That's GOT to be cold changing them out. Brrrr


That is why that one guy is taking a drink of "antifreeze" LOL


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## JoeCool

Mark Oomkes;886317 said:


> That's GOT to be cold changing them out. Brrrr


But it's a dry cold lol.


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## DeVries

The guy in the first pic changing the springs looks like he's drinkin a beer


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## JoeCool

DeVries;886469 said:


> The guy in the first pic changing the springs looks like he's drinkin a beer


You guys down east must have bigger beers than us then. I wasn't on the trip, but I suppose it was something to warm his belly and quench the thirst at the same time.


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## Mark Oomkes

DeVries;886469 said:


> The guy in the first pic changing the springs looks like he's drinkin a beer


Or recycling his beer.


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## JoeCool

I posted on pic in the Whoops thread of a stuck truck in a 'snow bridge' over a creek. Rather than build a crossing over a creekbed with some soil and logs to give some stability and bottom to the crossing it was simply mounded up with snow and packed. As you can see it was OK for the first couple trucks and then you would need to straddle the tracks to get the next ones through. After that you needed to pull the trucks through. Eventually someone had to get bottomed out. This required shovelling out from under to free it up to pull back with a tractor/dozer and a truck. Then drag forward with 4 trucks hooked together. You will see that the line was still a few trucks long so many hours were spent here.


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## JoeCool

Then once all was past the creek the bed was filled in and packed with the tractor as best as could be and the tractor was reloaded and the trip went on. The creekbed was filled because they still needed to cross in a few days on the way out...


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## grandview

Mona Lisa is ugly.


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## BC Handyman

Awesome thread, how long you been off the haul road Joe cool?


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## Chineau

Sweet you travel some of the roads i do, the building with the wolf mural is one of my properties for plowing and sweeping. Watch out for the caribou better to shoot them than hit them with a vehicle, safe travels to you.


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## JoeCool

BC Handyman;1652422 said:


> Awesome thread, how long you been off the haul road Joe cool?


1996 would have been the last time up there but last time on the bush roads would have been the 1992 season. Still do jobs for a few different guys that run them, small operations like the ones on IRT the last couple seasons (2012-2013).


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## DieselSlug

Very cool pictures!


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## Chineau

gotta ask joe you a Peanuts fan?


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