Log Haul On North Fork To North Ram Road

[DonAndersen]

Folks,

Attended a meeting this past week hosted by Sundre Forest Products [ SFP] who operate the Forest Management Area west of Rocky Mountain House.

SFP will be hauling approximately 28 loads of logs per day from the Gap Lake compartment to the Main Line Road. This 8 km. section of road is part of the access to the North Ram River via that North Fork Road.

This section of road starts @ 52 19 44.6N 115 37 26 50W and ends at 52 18 11N 115 49 06.17W. This is the narrowest section of this road and dust will be an issue.

Be careful out there.

[ÜberFly]

Don,

 

Will there be mandatory call out on VHF radios for this road?

 

If so, do you know the frequency?

 

 

P

[DonAndersen]

Peter,

 

I have no idea. The road is open to the public.

 

Don

[northfork]

Government owns the road. Commercial traffic required to call kms. Ladd 2 on North Fork Rd, However Sunpine (SFP/West Fraser) contractors call on their private channel "Ram Haul" 159.555 tone 100.

 

They have been doing this for years now Don, they call the section of the North Fork Road between the Sunpine Mainline and Trout Creek Road part of "their" mainline, and they call trout creek road the "mainline" too. They have been hauling out of the Gap & Jock Lake compartments for quite a while now. If you want to see some destruction head up the trout creek road all the way to the south bench of the north saskatchewan river. Nothing left. When they are jockeying from Gap mainline back across to the sunpine mainline there are indeed some very scary sections, the inverted downhill switchback at km 53 and the blasted hillside that narrowed the road to 1 vehicle wide at km 46. They'll have all that country tore up before much longer. And they'll keep locking us out of public land too.

 

Anyone travelling in this country is foolish to go without a VHF radio nowadays. Some of these loghaulers are absolutely nuts and DO NOT care about your SUV or small pickup. They WILL run you off the road!

 

There is also a huge re-build construction project happening on the North Fork Rd right after the pavement ends. If you really need to get out to the Ram country fast, take 752 west and go up the trunk road, or come south out of Nordegg. I work out in this area a lot and these have been my observations.

[adams]

I concur with Northfork re the logging trucks. After being literally run off the road into the bushes several times (while they blast past throwing rocks in a blackout cloud of dust), I had to start "playing chicken" with them in order to complete my trip. I stayed on their side of the road when I saw one coming and forced him to slow down before ducking over to my side of the road at the last minute. That worked, but I won't go back on that road.

[FlyFishingEMT]

North Fork Road channel is Ladd 2(158.940) and they have signage when you enter loaded from FTR that radios are required. 90% of traffic ignores the signage including commercial traffic so be safe.

As northfork stated the section where the construction is being done is pretty bad. I was on it a week ago and wouldn't want to be on it after the rain we just had unless you are in a truck or capable SUV. I would not go that way if you are in a car at all until the work is completed which looks like it could be awhile.

[northfork]

I concur with Northfork re the logging trucks. After being literally run off the road into the bushes several times (while they blast past throwing rocks in a blackout cloud of dust), I had to start "playing chicken" with them in order to complete my trip. I stayed on their side of the road when I saw one coming and forced him to slow down before ducking over to my side of the road at the last minute. That worked, but I won't go back on that road.

 

That's sadly what it's come to. The only logging outfit who is somewhat courteous and friendly is the Coleman bunch working on the Fall Creek compartment. They are good guys.Keep making examples for them its the only way some of these tools are gonna learn. I don't care what they do on their private roads but the second they touch the north fork or the trout creek roads they need to play nice, theyre provincial roadways and they don't have any exemptions to allow for them to be dicks. I have given a few of those guys some choice words the last couple months over the radio for not calling or not playing fairly. A fellow ran me off west of thunder mountain into a steep ditch. Didn't even stop to give me a tug back onto the road or ask me if i could get out. Nice guy,

 

And EMT I agree there is not a lot of people calling KMs. Seems to just be us oilfield guys. You might not be hearing the loggers call cause they never switch off the ram haul channel. They got a repeater on the ram road off the mainline so they can all hear each other from the bottom of the gap to the highway. Makes sense for them, very unsafe for the other industries and general public at large. If I had it my way I really wish that the haul guys would flip over to Ladd 2 whilst on the north fork road between the Gap Lk and Mainline to call their kms but they don't. They only care about where the other loggers are. Luckily for me I have a feature where I am able to monitor two channels at once and it's been a blessing working up in that area the last two years. Construction project will be a while yet, the contractor who won the tender grossly underbid it and there will be a lot of stop and starts due to financials and weather. Next one is re-decking the bottom ram bridge just above the north saskatchewan confluence and that one will take a while and effectively lock the public out from the east access. Sunpine doesn't like the public on their mainline road, so next year or whenever they start the bridge work it will be a long miserable drive to go fish the N. Ram. The 2500 is taking a beating this year.

[Swede]

I almost died on the North Ram on the 6th. Never had a problem driving out on the north fork road lucky I guess. Got out there first thing I noticed I couldn't tie my flies on as good, had to rest my hands on my legs to do it , So after ignoring that I went fishing and noticed I wasn't quite as steady on my feet as I usually am. So after ignoring that second warning I noticed later in the day that my voice didn't sound the same. By than it was time to go so i head to the truck and proceeded to have a mini stroke that left me not been able to see right and feeling pretty sick and beat up.

 

My wife and friend drove me into Red Deer hospital which I just got out of a few hours ago. Didn't suffer any permanent damage other than having to make a few life style changes and probably taking meds for the rest of my life.

So ya dont be a dumb ass like me and ignore the warning signs.

 

The fishing was good LoL.

[ÜberFly]

Yikes!!

 

Glad you are ok Tracy!!

 

P

[Ricinus]

Yikes! Take care of yourself..

 

Mike

[bcubed]

... but how was the fishing?

[Swede]

It was fantastic actually all things considered. i could post you a few 20 plus inchers but I'm not about to pay 400 dollars to do it..

 

Just fish it the same as you would any heavily fished cutthroat stream.

[northfork]

Glad you are alright, take it easy for awhile.

[FlyFishingEMT]

Glad you are alright, take it easy for awhile.

 

Northfork I was trying to send you a PM but you inbox is full. Send me a message if you don't mind. Is your radio a Baofeng?

[northfork]

Sorry sir I'll clean it up. I'm running a commercial grade Kenwood in my company truck and a Motorola in my personal. Those baofeng handhelds are decent for scanning but their transmit range is pretty weak especially inside a cab. Know a couple guys running them for the exact area in question and some others just to monitor the chatter.

 

4 Watts vs 40 Watts right...

[FlyFishingEMT]

A buddy and I tested our Baofeng hand helds and found they will transmit to about 4km in most cases but extreme terrain can reduce that to about 3km. They also have the feature where you can monitor two channels at once which might not be a bad idea for north fork road. You can get a magnetic whip for them to mount on a truck too. Pretty neat little units for $45.