(sorry that it has taken so long to transcribe my notes, but the office sent be back into the field within days of being home, this time to northern Ontario working for a client that I’m not allowed to mention, on a project that I’m not allowed to discuss, because it’s highly confidential. However every place I went everybody knew what I was there doing and it was even on the local news.)
August 24,
Today we worked on Mile 222, that’s near to the Yukon border, there is a decent road coming into mountains from the MacMillan Pass and therefore lots of hunters. At this location there is a ranger station where the hunters have to process the paper work before removing any animals from the territory. The ranger on duty here at the time of our work was a young woman, who had already been in country for 3 weeks; working alone and still had 3 weeks to go on her assignment. I’ve been told that the ranges that get postings like this are on the bottom of the list, a few more years here and other rough and isolated places and then it’s on to places like the Nahanni National Park. (Regardless where you work - You have to put your time in!) anyhow she was telling us that she has no satellite TV, no radio, no internet and only a sat-phone (very expensive to use) and that she has watched every movie she has a least twice and has cleaned her trailer to within an inch of its outside walls….she has nothing to do! She also has not spoken to another human in 3 days. So after we got her life story we promised to bring out some DVDs the next time we were by. I had brought some to watch on my computer should the weather turn bad. Ha!
The ranger station.
One of the hunters we met with his prize caribou.
Nothing new on the work front, drill a hole, put in a well, move to a new location and repeat..
Dinner was great, Dall sheep and caribou tenderloin done on the BBQ.
Tonight there is a large grizzly bear on the Canol trail about 15 minutes’ walk from camp. Megan spotted it on her flight in from one of the hunting camps. Megan and her sister Baily are the daughters of Stan and Deb Simpson the owners of Ram Head Outfitters and our home away from home. They are both accomplished hunters, guides and chopper pilots. More information can be found here. http://www.ctomfoss.com/2011/11/bailey-simpson.html , http://live2hunt.com/ and http://www.chicksincamo.com/
August 25
We are all getting tired now, the light that comes on in our cabin when the generator kicks-in at 0500h does not affect us anymore, and the call to breakfast knock on the door does little except elicit a roll over and growl of “it’s not 6 yet!”.
Two more sites down and 2 more site to go… it takes 3 chopper lifts just to move the crew to and from the sites, as the senior technician I’m usually on the first bird in and as the “other wildlife monitor” I’m always on the last flight out. So what this means is there are times when I and one other member of our crew will be left sitting on site for up to 2 hours if everything goes well and longer if the chopper needs to go for fuel. This is generally the best time for a quick nap.
What is it I do here? Good question. From what I’ve been told I am the senior technician on this project and my primary duties are: responsible for the drilling program in the field, surveyor, lift master (responsible for securing the load for the chopper), wildlife monitor, primary first aid responder and second-in-command for the field program, camp therapist sent to deal with any issues that arise within our crew and instructor of survival skills both in camp and field.
When we returned home from site today, we heard that dinner will be a little last as they almost burned the kitchen down. There were 3 foot flames leaping from the top of the chimney and anyone that was in camp was conscripted into fighting the fire with whatever equipment they could get their hands on including extra spray bottles we use for washing our field equipment. In the end it was only a small chimney fire and was out in a few minutes.
Mile 222.2
Our work area is a small site at the end of the esker.
A view across the land.
August 26
1 ½ sites completed today, mile 224.6 and mile 225.2.
The crew drilling and sampling at mile 224.6
Canol pipe crossing bridge at mile 225.2
Canol truck in river at trail crossing mile 225.2
View across the land from mile 225.2
I finished my book and I’m now reading anything I can get my hands on, staying safe in bear country (good book, quick read), hunting magazines (old, some outdated by 10 years but still interesting) equipment manuals, home and garden, fit and whatever else is lying around. We still have cribbage and euchre at night.
August 27
Our chopper landing on the esker at mile 225.2
Today at noon we finished our last site, mile 225.2, however we had 2 ½ hour weight for our chopper, so the crew dove into the survival kit, power bars, boil-in-the-bag meals, tea and a can of Herford corn beef. As the wildlife monitor and I were the only ones that have ever eaten bully-beef, one of the drillers decided to try cooking it up. Too bad we had no onions and potatoes!
The crew.
Herford corn beef on the fire.
When our chopper did arrive we were informed that there was a new site added to our work plan and we were to fly in to June Lake to scout out a chopper landing area, before returning to camp. Later that afternoon we returned to June Lake to conduct our assessment of this site.
June Lake….
June Lake is the second lake in.
The site is where the beaver dam is.
Apparently this beaver likes to live in a house-boat or boat-house?
Looking down June Lake, what a beautiful place.
Too bad that there has to be rubbish left on the shores, maybe I’ll be lucky enough to come back to do the cleanup (a.k.a. fishing).
August 28
Our last day in camp, there are mixed feelings about this day, we are all glad to be going home, but sad to be leaving this magnificent land and hoping that one day we will be returning. The weather reflected our spirits – rain, fog, heavy rain then back to fog and cool to cold all day. We spent the day cleaning and packing up our equipment and downloading photos and completing bore hole logs on the few computers that were still functioning
We weren’t the only ones leaving, some of the hunters and the horses were moving to the “moose camp” down closer to mile 222.
August 29 – My last hours in camp.
Last night we had snow in the mountains.
We were expecting to fly out of Ram Head on an early morning flight; however when we woke in the morning the fog was low in the mountains. Apparently it was clear in Norman Wells and the plane could take off but could not land here due to poor visibility. A morning spent pacing back and forth, lunch, more pacing and finally at 1430h we got word that the plane was on its way. A good feeling to know that we were going to get out, but a little worried that we were not going to make our flight from Norman Wells to Yellowknife at 1700h.
Norman Wells through the front window of the twin.
Inside the North Wright hanger. That bear is about 13 feet long.
We arrived in the Wells at 1635h and rushed from the North Wright hanger to the airport only to find that all flights from the Wells had been cancelled due to weather and one of the planes was grounded due to mechanical issues. To add to our frustration all flights on the 30th had been booked solid…so it looked like we were stranded in the wells for the time being. We did manage to secure several rooms in the Mackenzie Hotel until our flight on the 31th.
The Mackenzie Hotel.
We spent Thursday wandering around the Wells seeing the sights (the Northern Store, the other grocery store and the museum) and taking long naps (pre-dinner nap then a post dinner nap prior to going to bed).
Photos from the museum:
Recruiting poster for the Canol Project.
On Friday afternoon we flew to Yellowknife overnighted there and then on to home and family. Thus concluding my latest experience on the Canol.
Cheers from Canada’s north.
