When I agreed to transport an overseas shipping container filled with environmental supplies from North Carolina to western Colorado, the broker warned me that the delivery was 15 miles off road. I assumed he meant 15 miles from Interstate 70. I was mistaken.
My directions told me to take a certain exit and take a right at the end of the ramp. Then go until the road ends at the front gate of the energy company. There was no address, just geographical coordinates. I thought that I'd unload just inside the gate, but I was wrong again. There was myself and another truck that made the trip from NC with me. Once we got to the front gate, we had to wait on the mobile crane that was going to meet us there. When the whole crew arrived, they explained that we still had 15 miles on a muddy road to the unloading location.
It took an hour to drive the 15 miles up the tall Colorado mountains. We were at 5000' at the front gate and 15 miles later, we were at 9000'. That was quite a climb with 40K in the box and traveling muddy roads while raining. Being at that altitude put us in a cloud driving up anyway. I guess that was good so I wouldn't get nervous looking at the cliffs we were driving beside.
After unloading it was time to head back down the mountain. I found this scarier than driving up. The cloud had lifted and I could see the mountains we were driving down. It was really easy to lose traction going down with an empty trailer. Light braking and stage one of my engine brake provided ample stopping power without breaking traction - which was good since there were no guard rails!
Below is my picture taken about half way down the mountain.
