Ice Run Log of January 31, 2007

This Ice Run made the last one look like a picnic in the park. It started out with my truck acting up on the way to pick up the Assistant, Jesse Q. Battery light on, gauge low, lights dim. When I got to the parking lot to pick up Jesse, I called my mechanic and asked him what it means. He said, "It means you're gonna be walking soon." When I told him what I was doing, he said they would get me in as soon as I could get there and he would order the alternator to be sent right now. On my way back to the office,before I went to the mechanic's, the light went out and everything went back to normal. Since this was the second time this had happened, the mechanic and I agreed that even if it went out again permanently, I would probably have enough juice in the battery to get by, if I used the heater, radio, lights, etc. very little. I might as well make the daytime run and bring the truck in later today or tomorrow. If I would have known what was to come, I would have been in deep distress, at the thought of having even a slightly questionable electrical system. (As it was, later that day, we ended up sitting in the truck for almost three hours at night, running the heater and lights and all full blast. The malfunctioning alternator was the least of our worries, but I'm sure glad the thing behaved.)

So, deciding to press on, I went back to pick up Jesse and we headed out to Denver with it lightly snowing as we entered the freeway. When we reached the Ice Company, there was no one there ( not an uncommon occurrance) but they had gotten a new forklift that I was unfamiliar with. After figuring out the controls and taking it for a quick spin around the warehouse, I picked up the 1600 pound order and tossed it (more or less) into the back of the truck. We added the insulated covers and tied down the load, and we were off to Boulder.

In Boulder, it really started to snow. We drove up the canyon fairly easily, as the plows were already running, but by the time we got to Ned there was 3 to 4 inches of snow and about 15 degrees.We stopped and had lunch at Back country Pizza and headed up to the shed around 1 PM. We got all the way up Doe Trail and even got onto the driveway that goes up to the cluster of four houses where the Institute sits.However, I could only make it as far as the first house on the road where a pretty bad hairpin turn was completely ice covered. I spent 45 minutes trying to get up the hairpin, but to no avail (little did I know at that time but that my 4 wheel drive was malfunctioning and I was in two wheel drive). I ended up parking in the neighbors driveway and we started to carry the ice up the hundred yards of common driveway to the hundred yard Institute driveway.....

You can see Gillian floundering around in a drift. That's Jesse standing next to the toboggan with a box of Dry Ice.

Jesse is a little cold.....he wore tennis shoes.

If you look up at the top center of these photos you'll see a tall skinny tree in the middle of a break in the green trees (right over Gilly's head in the left picture) Just to the left of that tree (in the right picture) is the top corner of the Institute building. Behind that is where we're taking the Ice.

Earlier that morning, I hadspent 20 minutes chopping the toboggan out of the ice at my office. It was a bit damaged in the process and is pretty old and neglected (not much use for it the last 7-8 years). Needless to say, it broke the first time we tried to load a couple of boxes on it. We made the first run to the shed, broken toboggan and all....using snow shovels to clear out a path. The road to the Institute was covered in about 5 inches of snow, but was pretty flat if a bit steep. We were huffing and puffing when we reached the top of the hill and the bottom of the Institute's driveway. It was there, we saw the first 5 foot drift. We continued on, shoveling and stomping the snow down, but it didn't really pack down. It was so cold, the snow was like sand. You push it down and stomp it into a path but as soon as you step on it you sink in six inches. We slogged on and finally got to the top of the hill in front of the Institute and started back to the Shed. Here's the front door of the Institute.....

We went around back and saw the shed....

Jesse is standing in front of the seven foot drift....

Jesse blasted through the drifts, while I hauled the toboggan with only a couple of boxes of ice.

We started to work on the drift right in front of the shed, and we had a rude surprise....it wasn't really all snow. Underneath 6-8 inches of snow it was pretty much solid ice. I bent a coal shovel, trying to chop it out. By the time we got enough of the ice chunk removed to open the door enough to get in (which was only about 18 inches) we had spent nearly an hour and a half just getting to the shed. At this point, I left Jesse there to continue to excavate the door and make a better path while I went back to the truck and headed back into town for some equipment.I ended up getting a set of chains for the truck, two plastic heavy duty sleds and a camp hatchet. When I got back, I was able to make it up the last stretch of common driveway and actually back up to the bottom of the Institutes driveway. With the new sleds, We can take 4 blocks or boxes at a time. Note that the drift is about a foot higher than the bed of the truck.

It took us another hour to off load all the ice and transfer it to the vicinity of the shed .

One good thing, tho....the small axe made it possible to chop out the ice and actually get the door completely open.

You can see the handy dandy axe lying above the handle on the door.

There's the other sled, too....smaller, but deeper. Good to carry equipment as well as ice.

We finally got into the shed, opened things up and started to dump ice.

The temperature was approximately -80 F, when we opened the cryonic chamber. This is 20 degrees colder than last time.

We were down to about 210 pounds of ice when we added our 1600 pounds,.leaving a total of a bit more than 1800.

By the time we buttoned up and hiked back down to the truck, it was 6PM. We'd been on the job for 8 hours.

I recommend the next Ice Run be on February 27th.

If there are any questions about this log, please contact me...Bo the Iceman

Addendum

The fun wasn't over yet. As we were leaving, we got maybe a quarter mile from the Institute and were climbing an icy hill when all of a sudden there was a lurch and the truck stopped moving. The engine was fine and it seemed that the wheels were turning....but I could not go up the hill. (Don't forget, I thought I was in 4 wheel drive, but I wasn't). I finally got out to see what was wrong and I found that my tire had ripped and had come completely off the rim and when I hit the gas, the rim would spin inside the tire. I don't carry a spare, because there's no place to put one. We were stranded. Fortunately, there are many wonderful and kind people in Ned. As we were looking at the shredded tire, the guy in the house next to where we were stopped offered us the use of his phone. I called AAA and they said they would be out in 90 minutes. We went back to the truck and sat there for an hour until the neighbor guy came over and said AAA wanted to speak with me. We hiked back up to his house and when I called AAA they said they were trying to get somebody who would come up to Ned and they were not having all that much success. One tow truck was on the way to pop a couple of people out of a ditch and then he could come and get us. Might be a couple more hours. We went back to the truck and sat for another hour. A little after 8 I hiked back up to the neighbors house and called AAA again. When I finally got through, the gut said the tow truck had slid off the road a couple times and the driver said he was turning back. No one was coming to get us. To shorten a little, the son of the people in the house offered to drive us all the way back to Longmont, as soon as he finished his supper. The Mom of the house sent me back to the car to get ready to leave with a basket of some tasty fried chicken and a couple bottles of water.for me and Jesse.( Earlier, a complete stranger had approached us as we sat in our car, obviously disabled. She knocked on the window and handed in a fresh baked (warm!) loaf of pumpkin bread which we gratefully wolfed down since we hadn't eated in a while. fried chicken and fresh pumpkin bread. YUM! It was the highlight of the day, I assure you.)

We finally got back to the office around 10 and I took Jesse home. We spent about 12 hours on the job today. I want to see the union steward! We want overtime!!