It’s a Slippery Slope, Literally! EP Mark Miller Sets Up The Treacherous World of MUD MOUNTAIN HAULERS

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede Mud is worse than ice. That slippery theory is put forth in the first episode of MUD MOUNTAIN HAULERS, which debuts Monday at 10 p.m. ET on Discovery. If true, it surely poses a unique challenge not only for the special breed of log haulers featured in the show, but also for the TV crew filming it. “I’m sure you’ve been out in the garden in the muck when it has rained, and your feet just go out from underneath you – there’s nothing you can do,” executive producer Mark Miller said. “There’s something about the consistency of that kind of mud, where chains aren’t going to help you, good tires aren’t going to help you. Ice is not really that hard. You put a 140,000-pound load on a set of wheels, and a set of chains, it’ll bite into that and break things up so you can deal with it. But mud? Mud doesn’t work that way.” Set in the kilometre-high Cariboo Mountains of British Columbia, MUD MOUNTAIN HAULERS follows the LeBeau brothers – Craig and Brent – who are third-generation loggers operating separate logging businesses in the steepest, muddiest conditions in North America. Whereas the casts of other Discovery shows such as HIGHWAY THRU HELL and HEAVY RESCUE: 401 have to deal with busy traffic areas, MUD MOUNTAIN HAULERS offers a window into a world where people are really on their own. “This is kind of a spinoff – we meet a lot of truck drivers on HIGHWAY THRU HELL and HEAVY RESCUE: 401, and what we discovered was some of the most interesting guys were these log haulers,” said Miller, who works on all three shows. “I don’t want to say that they’re wired differently – that’s not derogatory – but they are different. They have to go up on these remote mountain roads that are really very temporary. They built their own roads, mostly. The trucks break down and can slide off the road, and there’s no calling CAA, because a repair truck could never get up there. There are bears, and cougars, and all sorts of things. But these guys just love it. They love the challenge. Maybe it’s the same thing that attracts people to the Yukon or Alaska, that sense of independence.” Has anything surprised Miller about working on MUD MOUNTAIN HAULERS? “What surprised me is how important these log haulers are to our everyday life – I mean, Craig, the main character in the show, says, ‘You start your day with something I made, and you end your day with it,’ ” Miller said. “That roll of toilet paper in your bathroom, there’s a good chance that in the last year it was on the back of one of Craig’s trucks. I just try to imagine life without paper, without wood. I mean, in Western Canada, most of our houses are built of wood, particularly in western British Columbia, because of the earthquakes.” Miller said he was also very happy to witness the emphasis that’s placed on sustainability. “I thought maybe they’d be kind of cowboys, and they’re not – for every tree that they harvest, they plant between four and six trees,” Miller said. “For Craig, some of his most stressful times are when he checks on the forest he has planted, and if some of it isn’t taking. He’s already a third-generation logger, and he’s thinking about the next generation, right? So I thought that was pretty cool. I hope this show changes people’s perceptions about the forest industry.” Series such as MUD MOUNTAIN HAULERS, HIGHWAY THRU HELL, and HEAVY RESCUE: 401 are among the most difficult for TV production. This isn’t exactly studio work. Does Miller ever feel as if he’s a glutton for punishment? “Some days when I’m up there, I wish I were working on CANADA’S DRAG RACE – but all these shows are fun, and production on anything is hard, so I’m sure there are days when the people working on CANADA’S DRAG RACE are thinking, ‘I sure wish I were up on the HIGHWAY THRU HELL right now,’ ” Miller said with a laugh. “Maybe we should invite them.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv