The wife came with me for a trip this last week, so I asked dispatch to send me over to BC, so she could see one of the most beautiful places on earth, happily they obliged and we left the yard on Saturday with two trailers to Calgary. Once there on Sunday evening I would drop them in our yard and then pick up a preloaded trailer from a customer on Monday afternoon for a run to Langley BC.
We had a mooch around the shops in Calgary before going to pick up the trailer to BC and then set off over the rocks, it was a good run and we had a good amount of daylight for this time of year. After dropping the trailer at the customer we bobtailed down to Chilliwack and camped out for the night. The next morning we went for a full English at the excellent British Empire cafe and stocked up on British goodies and then hired a car for a little drive around. We spent the day sightseeing and then had a lovely fish n chip dinner in C Lovers chippy opposite the Husky truckstop.
The next day was remembrance day and I had a trailer full of sugar waiting in our yard in Surrey for Taber AB which was delivering Thursday, so we set off mid morning and headed into the hills, going up the Coquihalla we saw that the road crews were out in force sanding and spraying the road with anti icing juice and counted our blessings that we were missing whatever they were preparing for, it started to snow and we saw Al Quiring and the fat bloke that used to shout and holler at everyone when he was on for Jamie Davis, so it looked like the snow was going to keep coming down long after we passed through.
We had a good run through to Revelstoke and then it started snowing quite heavily, the roads were good though and it never slowed us down, not until we reached the summit of the Roger’s Pass where we ,joined the back of a stationary line of traffic and sat for half an hour before moving again with no apparent reason for the hold up, it was snowing pretty good, but the roads were in good shape, although this didn’t count for anything as the trucks at the front of the queue were driving like Muppets, absolutely terrified of it and creeping along the straights at 50km/h and braking for every bend, luckily the passing lane came soon and they were just a dot in the mirrors as we flew by.
We stopped in Golden for steak and chips in Boston Pizza before the last few hours run to our planned stop for the night in Calgary. As we climbed out of Golden the snow started to fall again, the road had been closed for most of the day because of a bad accident and there was a long line of oncoming traffic, the roads were in good shape though and we were making good time, but I noticed that the oncoming traffic was creeping along and wondered why, the roads were wet, I was kicking up plenty of spray and I had zapped the road with my laser temperature gun to see if there was a danger of ice, which there wasn’t as it was well above freezing.
Then the road went shiny and the excrement was introduced to the fan, I had slowed down to a safe speed and dropped back from the coach I was following as we got to the bottom of a fairly long drag, a few hundred yards into the climb and the brake lights on the coach came on, I was confident of making it up the hill until that point as I was nailed to the floor with the load of sugar and I had momentum, but now we had stopped and the heavy load was going to work against me.
In fairness to the coach driver he had stopped for a good reason, there was a spun out super b in front of him and there were trucks sliding down the hill at all kinds of funny angles towards him. He waited for a gap and then lifted his tag, slid about a bit and got moving again, I had no such luck, I was lucky that I wasn’t sliding straight back down the hill as the road was a sheet of polished ice. At this point I was pretty ■■■■■■ off, I had passed maybe a 100 trucks and not one of them had flashed their lights or called me on the CB to warn me of the approaching danger.
Now I was left with only one option and that was to chain up, not the easiest job at the best of times, but stuck on an icy hill with trucks sliding down out of control nearly crashing into my truck made it even more difficult, plus I had the wife with me and I quite like her, so I didn’t want her to get mangled by one of the idiots that were sliding down a road they should never had attempted to drive on without chains on truck and trailer wheels to stop them sliding out of control. Now this may upset the left wing amongst you, but it’s a fact, so ■■■■ it up, every single truck coming down that hill out of control was driven by a driver whose family tree started growing in India.
One of them jack knifed in front of me and how he missed me is a miracle, he was completely out of control, the truck stopped about six inches away from hitting mine and the drivers got out, I was expecting them to stay where they were until I could get moving again or the sand trucks came along and made the road safe, but oh no, they just swapped drivers and carried on sliding down the hill, well not all the way down as they went into the ditch a few hundred feet behind my truck, the ditch on my side of the road I might add! I had positioned myself as far to the right as possible before stopping, one to get out of the way and two, to get into the fresh snow on the shoulder for more grip, to give you a better grasp of the sheer stupidity of the drivers, they were already on the wrong side of the road in a jack knife before they came to my truck as the hill has a passing lane on my side of the road. Truly shocking behaviour, they are a danger to other road users and sadly these two planks are not the exception to the rule amongst Indian drivers. I make no apologies for this statement as it isn’t a racist comment, it is a fact.
Anyway I put my chains on, it takes a lot longer than it usually does as I have to stop every time one of the idiots comes sliding down the hill out of control and join my wife up the bank so that I don’t get crushed and killed if they slide into me and knock my truck down the hill. When chaining the passenger side my wife is keeping look out for me and letting me know when it’s time to get to safety, she is absolutely terrified, we’re stuck on an icy hill, we have no phone signal and we’re under attack from out of control trucks, but we eventually get back in the truck and get going again, I have chained all four outer tyres and have all my diff locks engaged and we make it up the hill without a problem. My wife was dead quiet and I reassured her that we would be OK, however I wasn’t so sure as it was more luck than judgement that prevented us from being taken out by one of the Indian Truck Bobsled Team.
At the top of the hill was a 3mile line up of trucks with sensible drivers who had elected not to go on the suicide run down the hill, but there were drivers pulling out of the queue and going for it, even though they had had trouble walking from their place in the queue to the front to see what was holding them up! I was bloody glad to be out of it to be honest and I got as far away from the madness as fast as possible. At the top of the hill I could’ve took the chains off, but I knew from bitter experience that the next hill would be a challenge as I had got stuck on it once before when a storm blew in from nowhere and dumped a foot of snow in about 2mins, so I elected to keep them on and drive on the snowy shoulder to protect my chains and tyres until I reached the relative safety of the summit. I warned every oncoming truck of the imminent danger on my CB and by flashing my lights and got not one single reply!
It was a crazy night and all totally unnecessary, I had checked the weather and highway status before leaving Golden and there was no mention of any problems, BC has a website called Drive BC which tells you of road conditions and there was no mention of any slippery sections, so it all came as a bit of a shock to me, compounded by the fact that not one single driver had warned me I was heading straight into a gongshow, which had I been forewarned would have given me the option of parking in a safe spot or chaining up before going up the hill and getting stuck because of the spun out super b.
The upside of it all is that my wife was very impressed by how I just got on and dealt with it and I’m now her hero, the downside is now she has seen it with her own eyes, she doesn’t want me to go to BC in winter anymore and I know she’ll be worried and stressing out if I do and I don’t want to put her through that. I have a decent amount of winter mountain driving experience and I’m confident of my abilities and more importantly I know when it’s time to declare Mother Nature the winner and park up until conditions improve, but my wife doesn’t have that and unless she knows the sun is shining she will get in a flap, so that’s completely put the kybosh on me sitting down and enjoying a full English and stocking up on British goodies in Chilliwack for the next few months and I’m not happy about that at all…
and a day spent waiting for repair NEVER again.pic shows aftermath o rock slide ,rocks were against tyres ,had rocks between the wheels no wonder the tyre on the other side blew on the way home as I was like a ship under full sail after this happened,company LDB were as good as gold , asked if I was ok tyres etc can be replaced. jimmy