Alex Debogorski, who has been hauling loads through northern Canada for about 20 years and was featured prominently on the television show "Ice Road Truckers," will be the guest of honor at this year's Richard Crane Memorial Big Rig Truck Show in St. Ignace this weekend. Mr. Debogorski, who lives with his family in Yellowknife, Northern Territories, will be available for autographs and to meet fans at Little Bear East Arena from Thursday, September 17, through Saturday, September 19. (Photograph by Bob Wilson) Rolling into St. Ignace in a 2003 379 Peterbilt with 792 horsepower, a custom black and white paint job, and a trailer sporting more than 200 lights will be the guest of honor of the 2009 Richard Crane Memorial Big Rig Truck Show, Alex Debogorski.

One of the drivers featured on the History Channel's "Ice Road Truckers," Mr. Debogorski has driven routes in Alaska and Canada, including the famous "ice road" by which he carried equipment and supplies across 350 miles of permafrost and frozen lakes and rivers from Yellowknife, Northern Territories to recently opened diamond mines further north.

"That is the main access to get to those places," Mr. Debogorski said. "The muskeg, lakes, and rivers become the roads."

But don't be surprised if Mr. Debogorski pulls into the show late this weekend. Both he and the Peterbilt's owner, Carl Carstens, are known for running a little behind schedule. Aptly named, Mr. Carstens’ beautiful behemoth has been christened "Running Late."

Mr. Carstens said he is looking forward to bringing Mr. Debogorski across the Mackinac Bridge for the first time, and has even offered his truck for the celebrity to drive during Saturday night's Parade of Lights across the Straits of Mackinac.

"It should be a very nice display going over the bridge," Mr. Carstens said.

After holding down "about 16" jobs after high school, Mr. Debogorski's first trucking job was carrying loads of coal about 100 yards from a pile to a power plant in Alberta, where he grew up.

Even on the job, Mr. Debogorski likes to poke fun, and is known on the television show for his antics on the CB radio. He said it's hard to resist when fellow truckers are broadcasting their problems over the airwaves.

"Sometimes it's easy to get on the radio and egg them on a little bit," he said.

The challenges Mr. Debogorski and others face while working the cold and desolate northern ice roads seem endless.

Air brakes freezing up and fuel turning to a useless gel from the cold are just two of the obstacles Mother Nature throws at the men and women who work in the harsh climate.

"When it's more than 40-below and the wind is blowing, sometimes the engine temperature will be 0," he said. "When it's running, the truck will usually stay at 180 or 200. You always have the concern that the truck is just going to stop."

Some of these common problems have solutions, while others just need to be taken in stride.

"We put alcohol in the air lines and conditioner into the fuel tanks so they don't freeze," Mr. Debogorski said. "Sometimes the brakes will freeze up on the trailer or the truck. Then I take a sledge hammer and get out under the truck, start pounding on the brake drums.

"It's basically men and women against the elements," he said.

Since his success on television, Mr. Debogorski has been traveling around to various trucking events and has visited Dallas, Las Vegas, Chicago, and elsewhere, mostly this summer. After attending the Big Iron Classic truck show in Kasson, Minnesota, he will be heading to St. Ignace for his first visit to the Richard Crane Memorial show.

"I'm very touched that so many people would like to meet me," Mr. Debogorski said. One drawback to his fame is that his travels may have spoiled him with warm weather.

"I'll be freezing this winter," he said, "when I go back home."

Some things make all the cold and hard work worth it, though, he said.

"My favorite stuff is like the Northern Lights," Mr. Debogorski said. "It seems like the colder it gets, the better they are. The wildlife on the road, caribou, sometimes wolverines, the spring time when the eagles come back. I've seen 40 to 50 eagles on the lakes."

Another reason he loves his work is the historic nature of what he is doing, he said.

"In the north you are always making history," he said. "In the first season we were hauling equipment to the first big diamond mines in North America."

In the second season, the truckers were hauling supplies to an experimental oil rig operation searching for trapped gas hydrates in the Tuktoyaktuk delta. On this road, which started in Inuvik, the drivers followed the Mackenzie River and parts of the Arctic Ocean to their destination.

"I t seems like in the north, when you're working on the ice you're always part of history in the making," Mr. Debogorski said. "That makes it interesting."

Mr. Debogorski is a car and truck collector himself and he said, although some might call his collection a junkyard, the vehicles are special to him. Someday, he said he wouldn't mind owning a truck he could bring to shows like the one in St. Ignace.

" I'd like to have a new Kenworth or Peterbilt and have it all fixed up like these show trucks," he said. "I would keep it clean and still make it productive."

Mr. Carstens said he has enjoyed traveling with Mr. Debogorski, and the two will stay together for more appearances through September and October, including a visit to California.

"He is an interesting, very colorful person, and that's what I like about him," Mr. Carstens said.

Mr. Debogorski will be available to meet fans and sign autographs during the show Friday and Saturday at the show office set up at Little Bear East Arena.