Tag Archives: road

Truck Shots From The Road

Taking photos from the truck is tough, but possible, as we have discovered.

The back of this truck looked quite fabulous reflecting the sunset.

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Driving out of the sunset, surrounded by trucks.

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The trucker didn’t know that this piece of wood was near to falling off the rear of his truck.  It must have worked its way out of the load.  Jack tried to tell him on the radio but wasn’t able to find the right channel and soon we were passed him.

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This dump truck was losing it’s load, spraying gravel all over the road.   (The coffee cups look like they are floating but it’s just the reflection of them sitting on the dash.)

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Trucks pass under these wildlife corridors in Canada with plenty of room to spare.

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And Jack, enjoying the setting sun, driving south.

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Wild – and Not So Wild – Animals

This wolf was the first serious wildlife Jack and I saw, soon after entering Yukon Territory, Canada.  Quite a thrill for both of us.  Maybe a little more for me since Jack drives the Dalton and sees this stuff all the time…

Driving near the border of Yukon Territory and British Columbia we saw some bison relaxing in the late afternoon sun.

And then big horn sheep in Jasper National Park.

And here’s our not-so-wild dog Sport jumping over a log, acting like he is 4-years-old again.

Last but not least… us enjoying the late afternoon sun on a mountain in the Black Hills.

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Grizzly Bear Close Encounter!

We are absolutely positive that we will never again have this close of an encounter with a grizzly bear!  (Or at least we hope we won’t!)

This “griz” was right on the side of the road, digging up roots and eating them.  We took photos from the truck.  He paid us no heed at all.

To see a video of him/her digging in the gravel for roots, click here.

All we can say is “WOW”!!

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Still Hauling Pipe

Here are some photos of the job Jack is presently working on, hauling huge pipe sections from the port of Valdez to Salcha where there is a railroad bridge being built across the Tanana River.

Empty trailers, waiting for the pipe.

This is a photo from an earlier post:  the trucks loaded with 2 lengths of pipe each, and more pipe in the background that still needed to be loaded and hauled to Salcha.  Each section is 6 feet in diameter and 43 feet long.  That stack has been transported by now but more has arrived from other barges.

Eight inch wood dunnage cradling the pipe.  It gives space for the forks to pick it up and set it down, and the pipe chalks (upper wood pieces) stop it from rolling until they get it tied down.  Each piece of pipe is 25,000 pounds.

The trucks have to stop at quite a few roadwork sites along the Richardson Highway.  This is in the canyon just north of Valdez.

A couple of days ago Jack was held up at some roadwork for almost 2 hours.  Since the Richardson is one of only a couple of major highways in Alaska, there  must have been a line of ticked-off tourists 10 miles long!

Anyone interested in more information about this bridge project can go to this link:  State of Alaska webpage.

World’s Largest Convoy 2009 – Special Olympics Fundraiser

In September of 2009 Jack took part in a fundraiser for the Special Olympics in Seattle, Washington.  Over 250 trucks lined up and drove through part of the city to create the “World’s Largest Convoy 2009”.

Jack signs photos and talks to his fans.

And he catches a photo with the Special Olympians.

In the next post there will be more photos from this fundraiser.

Happy Fourth of July everyone!!

Jack’s Northern Lights Shots

Not sure if you’ve ever tried to take a digital photo of the northern lights but it will most likely turn out grainy unless you have a very expensive camera (or you know some really good tricks and in that case please share!).  So I took 9 of Jack’s aurora shots and put them together in thumbnails after running digital camera noise removal on them a couple of times.  If you don’t know what this means don’t worry about it, but the shots turned out kind of surreal.  Click on the image below and check it out.

You can see the side mirror in one of them – he obviously took the top 3 from the truck.  The bottom 6 shots show one formation getting larger from at first just a wisp in the sky.  The northern lights are a winter-only phenomenon for us since in the summer it’s light throughout the night, from May until August.  This awesome kind of sighting is a big perk for us in the winter, and boy do we deserve it after months of bitter cold and darkness.

Click here for a couple more shots of northern lights – these taken from our house.  Have a great week!

Bear Follows Wolf

Jack had an unusual wildlife sighting the other day on the Richardson Highway (the road that connects Fairbanks to Valdez).  A grizzly bear crossed the road in front him, so Jack pulled over for a possible photo since the bear was now on the left side of the road and easy to see from the driver’s side.

As soon as he snapped the photo of the bear, a wolf stood up out of the brush and trotted off, away from the bear.

Then the bear turned around and followed the wolf into the woods.

It’s pretty rare to see a wolf by the road, much less a bear and wolf in such close proximity.  Was the bear following the scent of the wolf?  Was the wolf injured?  Unfortunately, we’ll never know.

Hauling Pipe from Valdez to Salcha

This month Jack has been hauling huge pipe sections to Salcha, a small community about 35 miles from Fairbanks.  The State of Alaska is building a railroad bridge across the Tanana River in Salcha and these pieces are probably going to be standing supports with concrete poured inside.  Each driver manages to haul two sections a day, you can see them loaded here.  In back of the trucks and in front of the shipping containers there are stacks of more pipe that need to be hauled to Salcha, so Jack won’t be off this project for a while to come.  Yes, work means a paycheck, but ending up with one a a half days off a week is hard when you’ve got a home you want to take care of, and knowing there are only 3 months of summer in Fairbanks.


We’ll post more about this trip soon, so stay tuned and click “follow” if you are interested in getting an email each time a post is made here.