My father has been a
trucker for a few years now, and he loves it. As he says, “I get
paid for sitting on my butt and not doing to much else”. The thing
is, I know there's more to it than that. Trucking can be really
difficult some days, especially when operating on busy Canadian
highways such as the 400 series. Cars can get in your massive blind
spots, and you have to remember when you last saw a vehicle to recall
if it's still there or not. You're responsible for thousands upon
thousands of pounds of machinery and cargo (sometimes explosive,
sometimes living) and some days you could be working on a deadline
that seems impossible to make. Your days could be long, and although
you want to keep driving, you're legally forced to sleep. It's not
like the road is going to disappear or anything.. it'll still be
there tomorrow, next week, and months down the road. But.. wait, what
if some days, it wasn't? If one person would understand that
experience, it would be Alex Debogorski, from History Channel's hit
show, Ice Road Truckers.
Alex Debogorski with his truck!
Photo Retrieved from http://johnburridgephoto.com/alex-debogorski-ice-road-trucker-toronto-editorial-photographer/
So,
I sent an email and we arranged a call. He wasn't in his home city of
Yellowknife, Northwest Territories at the time as I expected him to
be, but in a city called Williams Lake, British Columbia (about 550
kilometres north of Vancouver). I caught him while he was setting up
for the 2013 Williams Lake Stampede (starting this year on June
28th),
in which he had a booth. Once Alex answered the phone, something
happened in the interview that I had never experienced before.. Alex
started explaining some views on Canada he had, before I even had the
chance to ask a question. The thing was.. it was so interesting! He
discussed his views on Canadians living in a “fishbowl paradigm”,
his views on Canadian arrogance, the idea that our nation is like a
large park were we're nothing but administrators and many tidbits of family history that relates to how he views the nation he
now lives in.
But,
after about twenty minutes, I decided to ask some questions about his
experiences with the show that helped him become a name known
worldwide. For him, I guess it all started around 1972, when Alex
Debogorski first started his career as a commercial truck driver.
Alex
first attended the University of Alberta for a year after high
school, followed by him entering straight into the work world. I
completely understand what he meant by saying getting a job out of
school was impossible, his year being a pattern of “last one hired,
first one fired.” Jobs came and went, sometimes on an oil rig, or
occasionally in a tire shop. Then in 1972, he started driving at a
coal mine for a company called McIntyre Porcupine in the Northern
Alberta community of Grande Cache. His profession of a truck driver
moved with him to Yellowknife four years later, and yet another four
years brought him in first contact with Canada's ice roads.
So,
I didn't really know what roads were. I sort of just thought that they
were roads slicked with ice. Was I ever wrong! It's actual bodies of
frozen water, as in lakes and rivers, that these massive trucks are
driving on to resupply mines, quarries or aboriginal settlements. Not
that it wasn't there before, but after hearing that I for sure had
much higher respect for drivers like Alex. Driving a couple tonnes on
sheets of ice is as daring a job as any, and as Alex explains, takes
just as much patience. Back when he started out, there weren't too
many rules out on the ice roads, and Alex was trekking in some areas
that were hardly ever trekked before to ensure supplies would get to
those in need. Although to this day some road “scare the pants off
of him”, rules make things a bit more predictable. Predictable down
to the kilometre, to be exact, which leads the drivers to need
extreme amounts of patience.
Alex signs copies of his autobiography at home
Photo Retrieved from http://alex-debogorski.blogspot.ca/2010_10_17_archive.html
Most
roads may be down to a 25 kilometre an hour limit, no more or no
less. The concentration needed could be the difference between
driving on a road.. or having the lake below break through. Alex
explained to me on the phone how he could get radio calls in saying
he needed to increase or decrease his speed by a half kilometre rate,
I don't think I could make that fine of a difference if I tried. He
knows that truckers can die on a normal, straight, paved road. He's
heard many stories of log truck drivers getting in fatal accidents
out in British Columbia. He doesn't want to be one of those
statistics.
But
I mean, how boring is focusing on a half kilometre difference for
hours a day? Following one of the greatest laughs ever, Alex informed
me of the magical things you hear on Channel One of his radio, which
is supposed to be kept clear when driving up North in case of
emergencies. The men and women create makeshift talk shows with each
other, discuss politics or marital issues, spread rumours, question
alien abduction or write poems, among many other things he's heard.
Alex has even learned how to properly grow marijuana from a couple
other drivers sharing techniques.
While
the truckers were laughing away or engaging in political discussion
in Northern Canada and Alaska, History Channel in the States
was airing a documentary on the Denison ice road. They realized
whenever this aired, their ratings went way up. With this in mind,
they contacted the production company who covered the show Deadliest
Catch to head over towards Yellowknife to see if any drivers had
interested in being on television. Some did, well most didn't. The
general idea expressed was “if you want a real character, you
should get Alex Debogorski.” That's what the company did, tried to
find Alex.. who just so happened to be trapped in a snowstorm on
Great Slave Lake. When he came back, he sort of thought the
production crew was a joke, so he wasn't to serious. It seemed they
liked him though, and surprisingly, “Debogorski” started becoming
a household name.
I
was informed by Alex that no road is too dangerous for him,
especially if some of the women drivers were doing them.. then he
kind of felt he had to at least try! The beauty on the stretches of
highway never fail to impress Alex, or the thousands of viewers who
see him on Ice Road Truckers. Sunsets hitting mountains,
eagles flying en masse above his head.. these are inspirations that
will keep Alex, as he told me, driving the ice roads as long as he
can.
Alex Debogorski wonders what his future holds...
Photo Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/ice-road-trucker-eyes-federal-election-run-1.1016182
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