The roads around here must seem downright pedestrian for Alex Debogorski, but he still looks to the Cariboo region for adventure.
The extreme cargo hauler - founding co-star of the hit TV series Ice Road Truckers and author of the book King of the Road: True Tales from a Legendary Ice Road Trucker - lives most of the time in Yellowknife where he was a legend on the weather-whipped Dempster Highway even before the television crews started charting his tractor-trailer missions across the Arctic.
Now he is recognized around the world by audiences who see what first attracted the cameras - a magnetic storyteller with a big sense of humour and a thirst for history and current affairs.
The larger-than-life personality will be live at Art Space on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
He knows the backroads of this region almost as well as the routes north of 60. He had gold claims in the Wells-Barkerville region back in the 1970s and he is once again taking up panning as an enhanced hobby. He'd be as happy to talk about placer mining as he is about cutting a warm line across the savage winter.
"It's a lifestyle. I was raised on a farm, and its the same philosophy - lots of hard work and being passionate about what you do every day," he said of all the adventures he puts his mind to.
Debogorski also has diamond mining interests in the Northwest Territories and has experienced some court conflict involved in that venture. Fresh from participating in the Quesnel Gold Show in early May, and with the Minerals North conference on this week in Vanderhoof, he wants to talk about that as much as trucking.
"What my experiences have led me to is a book called Resource Rulers (by lawyer and longtime federal strategist Bill Gallagher). I'll be sharing what I know from personal experience and from that book what I know about First Nations people and how we all do business together. After the federal government basically gave up on its responsibility to negotiate and the courts laid out case after case of First Nations rights, we need to deal in that way with disputes over industry and land use, and whether you like it or not, that's how she is from now on, and all of Canada needs to come to terms with that."
The man has opinions and a rare set of experiences. He is the father of 11 children and grandfather to 13 kids. He makes topsoil. He has more than 150 vehicle restoration projects sitting on his Yellowknife property so he's willing to make a deal over vintage car parts.
"They are probably worth more to other people than to me. I'd be happy to share what I've got," he said.
He also loves meeting fans of the show and the many men and women who are employed like him in the transportation industry, all with their own stories to mix with his.
He said he gets a laugh out of people who think the show is scripted or contrived. Much more compelling TV material is lost because it's all happening on the fly, said Debogorski than ever gets the luxury of a second take.
"But I've been impressed by what the cameras do get, sometimes, just by being in the right place at the right time," he said. "They got a chain or two breaking on the load. Who gets to see that? You know it happens but who ever gets to see it? You certainly can't plan for that."
Debogorski said the show is not a success because of anything a script could contrive. It's a success because of the personalities hauling adventures, not trucks hauling cargo.
"If you want to make a reality show, they [networks or producers] don't want to know about what the people are going to be doing, they want to know who the five main characters are. If you don't have interesting people, they don't want to know about the topic, and if you have strong real-life characters you can be doing almost anything."
Tickets to Friday's event are $20 each, available in advance at Books and Company.
