Chapter 18

Friday: The next thing I knew, Jenn was shaking my shoulder, telling me it was time to get up. Tommy, in the bunk below, was grumbling about the hour. We were each handed a cup of coffee to help to wake us up. It was 4:30 AM and we were schedule to pull out at 5.

The start was sort of anti-climatic, with Rob in the tractor leading the way and me following. This area was pretty windswept, so there was not a big build-up of snow, so the wheels were still down and we trundled along. Except for the compass and the GPS indicator, after we were out of sight of the highway, we could have been anywhere. We traveled until 8 when the snow became consistently deep enough to raise the wheels on the tractors.

During the stop, we checked each tractor first; then raised the wheels on the haulers. Sul had a problem with one of his and we found part of a tree limb jammed into the mechanism which was used to raise and lower the wheel. Art ran it all the way down and we pulled the limb out and the wheel went up without a problem.

By the time we had the tractors and haulers taken care of, the women had breakfast ready for us. We had fresh eggs, which was a treat that I missed living at the mine site. I must admit powdered eggs and milk, while better than nothing, do not take the place of the real thing. Shortly after nine, we were on our way again. During the break, Rob had showed me a map where he was recording our GPS reading as we went. The next trip would be easier since we could just follow the readings.

Our next stop was for lunch at 2 PM. We were able to check out the tractors in full daylight. This was accomplished easily and I was surprised at the drop in the outside temperature. Sul teased me about not noticing it on the gauges and I told him, "The engine temperature gauges have not varied over a couple degrees all day."

"Did you look at the gauges above the driver that give us outside temperature, barometer and wind direction if we are standing still." asked Rob

"I knew about those gauges but didn't pay them any attention. I was more worried about the engine gauges."

"You should worry about the engine gauges more but from a survival standpoint, you need to be aware of what the weather is doing. A cold front is moving through and I expect that after the front passes, we might get some more snow." explained Art.

"What happens if we get more snow?"

"Depends if it's light and if I can still see well enough, we will continue, on the other hand, we will stop and park next to each other as close as possible, if we get white out conditions. That way, we can move between cabs without getting lost." said Rob

Lunch consisted of hot soup and sandwiches. The thermoses were refilled with coffee and we were on the move again shortly after 3 PM. I decided I needed to pay more attention to what was going on around me, so I had Jenn dig out our map. I recorded our location on the map. I then made an entry in a notebook recording the weather information, our heading and speed. I calculated we had been traveling about seven and half hours at about 10.5 MPH, which meant we had traveled between 75 and 80 miles, so we were about 2/3 of the way home without mishap. Great!

Shortly, we were driving with our lights on and then we swung north up a valley. The outside temperature dropped two degrees after we entered the valley. An hour and half later I noticed the walls of the valley were closing in. When I told this to Lee, she asked me how I knew. I told her I could not see as many stars overhead because the mountains on each side blocked them. About an hour later, Rob got on the radio and said he was going to stop at the head of the valley to let us all catch up, before he made the left turn and started the last leg home. Each of us acknowledged we had received the message.

We were stopped for about ten minutes when Rob announced on the radio, "Here we go." I told Jenn and Lee I thought "Wagons Ho!" would have been more appropriate and we all laughed. The turn was not bad but I noticed that Rob had not picked up his usual speed. Then I discovered we would be following a twisted path. The river to our right was not completely frozen, so we could not take the tractors out on it.

We continued along the side of the river, sometimes turning more inland to miss a stand of trees. Three hours later, we came in sight of the hanger. Rob had been talking to them for the last hour but the rest of us had not interfered except to answer specific questions asked of us.

After we stopped next to the hanger, we all went in to have a cup of coffee. Rob and Art were discussing the last leg. The last leg had taken us six hours. Three hours after we made the turn to follow the river that lead to the mine site had been incredibly slow by comparison. Art was of the opinion, if we had taken the first valley as we originally planned, it would have taken longer. We would have been spent more time following the other river. One of the Air force guys asked which way we came and Sul told him.

He said, "You couldn't! That place is all marsh. I flew over it and looked at the moose grazing there, when I came up here."

"What you said is true, but you missed one thing." said Sul without rancor.

"What's that?"

"Its winter now, it frozen now, and we just did it."

Matt started chuckling and said, "Guys, the natives here have been doing the impossible for a long time. They have survived where all of us would have died many times over. Don't sell them short."

We decided to shut two of the tractors down, use power from the one running to keep the heaters going in the blocks, of the units turned off. Jenn, Lee and I walked up to the cabin. I led the way, breaking trail, and was happy to reach our door and Lee gasped when we walked along the porch and further east to our tunnel door. I retrieved the shovel from inside the door, pulled it shut, and made quick work of clearing the snow from in front of the door so we would not track it in.

Jenn's first words were "Would you PLEASE get a fire lit in the stove." I may have overdone it, because a half-hour later it was toasty warm. Jenn had proudly shown Lee our cabin, while I was busy with the stove.

After I banked it for the night, I said, "I'm going to bed. It has been a long day!"

I started up the stairs, with Jenn and Lee close behind. I undressed and climbed in my side of the bed and boy was it cold. Jenn stripped down, climbing in next to me. Lee left her bra and panties on, but climbed into bed next to Jenn. I could hear them whisper as I fell asleep.

Saturday: When I woke up in the morning, I was alone but I could hear Jenn and Lee moving in the kitchen. It was nice to lay there and know someone was waiting for me. It's a feeling I find hard to explain but I had lived alone for so long. Yes, I have had a couple live-in girlfriends but I had come to realize that it was not the same as with Jenn. Jenn made me feel complete.

I went downstairs, said good morning on the way to the bathroom, where I took care of the three "S's". When I came out, there were fried eggs and pancakes for breakfast. Jenn said I had slept for ten hours but she had not heard from the others yet, so assumed they were still asleep or at least taking it easy. After breakfast, I called the hanger on the radio to see if anyone was working on the tractors. Matt said, "I was beginning to think you all had died."

Then both Art and Rob said good morning over the radio. We held a short conversation and decided we would start with unloading the tractor I drove. Since I had three haulers, we would disconnect two of them and use all three tractors to move the haulers to the locations where they needed to be unloaded. We agreed the women would stay home and we would drive the tractors to the cabins and help unload them.

After I had cleared the entrance of the tunnel again I started for the hanger. When I was about halfway, Sul showed up on a snowmobile and offered me a ride. By the time I reached the hanger, Art and Rob had disconnected two of the tractors. Sul and I made quick work of disconnecting the last two haulers from my unit. I took off for my cabin.

Jenn and Lee met me and suggested that we separate the food into four piles before taking it inside. I suggested we unload the desk and credenza and chairs first, to give us more working room. This was agreed to. Next Lee suggested we take the furniture through the front door and I agreed that would be much easier. With both women up on the hauler, they were able to move the furniture over to the side where I could support it until they climbed down and we carried it into the cabin.

After the furniture was in the cabin, Jenn added a couple logs to the stove before she came out of the tunnel. Lee and I had started sorting the food. I had not fully realized just how much food we had brought. When we had loaded the haulers, everybody helped load each one so it went fairly fast and you did not handle everything. With our sorting it, I soon realized we had bought four cases of everything, so while the sorting was fairly easy, it was still a large job.

It took us a total of four hours before I was ready to move the tractor. I called Rob and he agreed we should eat before we moved the tractors. Art would go to Rob's cabin and Rob or I would wait near the hanger until the other one passed then proceed to our appointed destinations.

Jenn had soup already warmed, so lunch was quick and filling. I waited about five minutes for Rob to pass me, then headed up to Art's cabin. Unloading was easy this time since it did not require any sorting and the part we wanted was just five feet from the door. Shortly I was done and headed to Rob's cabin. They were still unloading, so I gave them a hand. Then Art left for the hanger. I was already unloading my load when Rob called to say that he had crossed over the river at the ford and had not broken through. That was good news because that was my next destination.

Going around the hanger, I lined up on the ford and drove across with no problem. Rob was still unloading at the hut Tommy and Art Sr. lived in, so I went to the shop and started to unload our building supplies. Sul showed up shortly to lend a hand. As soon as we were done, Rob pulled over and we all helped him unload. Next we pulled my tractor in front of the other hut and started to unload the food there. Art Sr. kept saying there is no way we can ever eat this much. Sul finally said "Look, they do not have enough room in their cabins, so they have to store it here."