River Highwaymen: the marine transporters to Bush Alaska: those who transport goods to the Bush hustle all summer to provide a lifeline to rural residents.

• Author: Campbell, Melissa

There's no rest for those in the marine transportation industry during the summer months--no vacations and few days off. It's tiresome, difficult and dangerous work.

But without them, tens of thousands of rural Alaskans wouldn't have the goods and fuel they need to get them through the tough winter ahead.

There's no road access to the western half of Alaska. There are few villages in the Interior you can drive to. Only one highway goes to the North. But rural Alaskans and the companies that provide for them have access to thousands of miles of waterways. The rivers and seas that border the coast serve as the highways for the boats and barges that carry life's staples to Bush Alaskans.

The job has its drawbacks. Alaska is not an easy place to sail. The Bering Sea is reputed to be among the most dangerous, unpredictable waters in the world. It's cold and hard to navigate. The rivers aren't much easier ... silt and sand under the water constantly moves.

But perhaps the most challenging part of the job is the short season. There are more than 250 villages in Alaska, many of which rely on summertime barge service to bring them food, house hold goods and fuel enough to last until the next barge is due, sometimes nine months later.

For many parts of Alaska, the barge season lasts about 120 days, starting in May. Some villages only see a barge once, maybe twice, a year. Around mid-September, the temperatures start to stay below the freezing mark. Ice starts to build up to several feet thick over the rivers and seas along the coast. Barges can't get through.

"Ice can do some strange things," said Shaen Tarter, vice president for petroleum and freight services at Yukon Fuel Co. "If you get a tug or barge stuck in the ice, it can cause a lot of damage and it gets costly."

In that short season, crews at Yukon Fuel and its marine transporter partners Northland Services and Yutana Services work to supply some 50,000 rural Alaskans with cargo and various fuel products that include aviation gas, gasoline, heating fuel, etc.

"In most cases, we're done by Sept. 15," Tarter said. "We've loaded tank farms and delivered fuel to all our customers by then. Then we get ready for winter. We're ice-locked until May. It's a very seasonal business that takes a lot of planning.

"It's quite a mission," he added. "We travel to off-road, undeveloped places. We're traveling thousands of miles per season and with fewer resources than they have in the Lower 48. If we break...