Four years ago Tanya Reid became a log truck driver and plans to stick with it as long as she can.
“I love it,” she said as she finished up one of her shifts for Hytest Timber in Williams Lake the second Thursday of September.
“It’s a lifestyle. I love the independence. I come and go as I have to and you are kind of on your own.”
The “good” camaraderie is another perk.
“You end up working with a great group. They are all mostly men - there is only a handful of us girls actually doing this.”
Having a few months off each year also gives her an opportunity to regroup because she works very long hours when she is driving.
Born in 1978 in Williams Lake, Reid’s parents are Caroline Cooper and Barry Moore.
Her sister Brenda Tunke is a peace officer in Grand Prairie and prior to that was a police officer in Edmonton.
The sisters also have four step-siblings.
Reid’s daughter Morgyn Lutz, 23, lives in Kamloops, and her son Liam Reid, 15, is still at home.
“My grandparents Alf and Gerry Bracewell raised me out west in Tatlayoko Valley,” Reid said. “It was amazing. I got to grow up at a guest ranch and my grandmother was the first female guide-outfitter.”
Life “could not have been better,” she added, noting she had 30 horses at any given time and was guiding by the time she was 14 years old.
A fond memory is going on trail rides with her grandmother and having her grandma yodel as they went through the wilderness to scare off bears.
“You’d have a group of five or six guests at least and would be just riding along and keeping everyone safe.”
She said her grandma made everything fun.
“Birthdays, Christmas, Easter and Valentine’s Day were a big deal. We grew up out west in Tatlayoko so you did not have access to stuff, but she was always prepared. That was always sweet.”
Crediting her grandmother for giving her the strength she has today, she said she instilled a very strong work ethic in herself and her sister.
“You need a strong work ethic and a lot of determination to do this job,” she said of being a logging truck driver. “It is grueling. It might look great on pretty days, but it isn’t always pretty. Life isn’t perfect. Trucks are machines.”
Some days she’s slinging two sets of chains, sometimes twice a day, or even three sets of chains.
“Each side of the truck has a triple train on both sides. It gets hard on the back and the arms throwing the wrappers.”
After going to school in Tatla Lake until Grade 10, she moved into Williams Lake to take Grades 11 and 12 and lived in the Columneetza dorms.
“Those were also some of the best years of my life,” she recalled. “The dorms had amazing support staff. We called them our parents. They were Jim and Sandy Middleton and Pat Moortele.”
Moortele did the day shifts and the Middletons did the night shifts.
Before becoming a log truck driver, she drove school buses for two years.
She loved driving buses, but said her boyfriend Chris Haverlin, a truck driver for 35 years, saw that she could drive and encouraged her to try it.
“I’d go with him and got all my miles with him. He trained me and told me every bit of information he could. Being able to drive with another driver is crucial I think. You learn a lot from all their years of experience.”
Her first job as a logging truck driver was with Calvin Black, a local operator.
“He had two trucks and gave me his other one to go and turned me loose the second day out. I hauled out of Nazko and got my miles under me.”
Reid has been with Hytest for just over a year and presently hauls out near Barkerville along the “gold rush trail,” she said.
“We are out in amazing country. I love the mountains and going out into the back roads. I’m happiest out in the wild.”
Sharing a few photographs she took earlier that day of her truck on the 8400 Road with a backdrop of the Cariboo Mountains, she said she likes to share photographs on the Cariboo Truckers Facebook page which has more than 1,000 members.
“We are like a huge family. We are always sharing pictures and funny stories or frustrating things or if we have questions and can get other people’s input.”
In the four years she has had nothing but help, she added.
“They have to trust you. You are coming at them empty or loaded. You build up this camaraderie. It’s pretty cool.”
READ MORE: Legendary Chilcotin guide Gerry Bracewell turns 101
READ MORE: OUR HOMETOWN: Kelly Moortele is a dedicated barber
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