Siteseeing...

I just thought about my affinity for science fiction. Maybe that's the genre my thesis will be put in... Being able to put Sci-Fi writer on my CV would be great, but that might come at the expense of being able to write MSc (twice). Since I started, I've had a nagging feeling that I've been making it up as I go along. Maybe that's why the boss came out this week to check on me!

My sis in the process of winning the world Duathlon Champs in 2010

Before I start wittering on about my week, I feel I need to return a few plugs I've been getting for my Blog. My sister, the world famous Ironman Triathlete managed to double my audience overnight by tweeting my blog. You can find out about her at www.catmorrison.com. A true athlete in the proper sense of the word. Several time world champion at crazy endurance stuff, and almost as smart as me... Currently rehabilitating gammy Achilles, so good luck getting back to killing yourself soon!

You too could work here. With her!

Also, thanks to my supervisor for being more interested than me in promoting my work within the university and more extended hydrology community (fear of having to present and a preference to fly under the radar). She is currently seeking someone who can work on other research in this really terrible location. To make up for that you can be based in wonderful Saskatoon! Could be MSc, PhD, postdoc or research assistant. If you know a bit about hydrology, and can put up with regular trips to Kananaskis (tough, I know), you can get in touch with her. Dr Cherie Westbrook, info here - http://homepage.usask.ca/~cjw842/


The Centre for Hydrology is where I'm based at the University of Saskatchewan. They are doing a lot of interesting work in hydrological type things. It's all very technical to me, so I'll not try and explain stuff. Go here to have a look if you are interested -  http://www.usask.ca/hydrology/

A nice picture to break up all this text.

Finally, the Global Institute for Water Security who are the source of all cash! The Global Institute is concerned with developing tools and techniques in managing the worlds freshwater resources in a sustainable way. My main interest is to help do my bit to ensure that I can always get enough water to make a cup of tea! But if you want to get more serious, you can learn more about what the institute is doing here - http://www.usask.ca/water/

Plugging over!

Just another pretty picture.

Well, another week down and a total of 48 wetlands visited. A much more relaxed feeling this week. Monday morning was set aside to go and collect the GPS points of where we ran the GPR the previous thursday (too many acronyms, I know. It's a Canadian thing. They also have a a strange habit of pronouncing them as words even though the words they come out as often sound nothing like the acronym looks. For example, shirk which would be SHRC. So from now on I think I'll refer to the GPR as "Gipper"). That done, we decided to take Gipper out since the forecast rain hadn't appeared. We have two sites quite nearby, site no. 510 and site no. 4. We checked out 510 before hauling Gipper down. That turned out to be a good plan, because the area I though we could use it was shin deep in water. It was a wet weekend, hence why our only activities were shopping, cinema and blog writing. There was another area on that site which I thought might be a good possibility for running Gipper, but I wasn't sure if it was peat, so we abandoned that site and headed to the other.

Site 4. Nice.

Site 4 is one of my favourites. Right next to the road, and not to much wading to get around. There is also something that looks like an old infilled beaver pond about 10m from where we park. What makes me happy out here is a bit different from normal... Anyway, you can often get an idea of where an old pond is because the is a kind of triangular shape where the vegetation is less dense and lower than the surrounding vegetation, with the downstream edge of the triangle being raised slightly. It's not always right, but it's a good hint. It was one of these that we decided to use Gipper on. So we laid out 4 transects, and I got setting Gipper up, while Jeff cored along the transects. We were frozen out here as well. Which wasn't the biggest problem. The bigger problem was that I had forgotten to make sure that this area was actually peat. It was not. I should

Nice trace. Pity it's not peat.

probably get my research objectives tattooed to my hand. So that turned the Gippering into a practice session. Since it was all laid out, we ran it anyway. The traces looked pretty good. Jeff had measured a frost table dropping lower along our first transect, and the trace seemed to show this. Amazingly, I may actually be able to work this thing! Interpreting may be  a different matter.


Job done, we packed up and headed back to the field centre. About two minutes along the road, a massive thunderstorm and torrential rain hit. Deciding not to stay and try and take Gipper further down the site was a good idea! It also meant we got back quite early, and I had time to go and pick my bike up from the shop. I was amazed to hear that they found no leaks in my brake system, and that bleeding them again seemed to have worked. Maybe it was a bad bleed after all they said. Shocked I was, that this might be the case. I'm still reserving judgement until I've had a proper ride.

The wrong clothes...

Top of the Highwood Pass...

Yup. Pretty snowy.

Tuesday, apart from working in a continual downpour, was pretty successful. 5 Sites visited, south of the Highwood Pass. This drive had nothing to recommend it on tuesday, although returning to it on Thursday it was really very pleasant. My good friend Kenny reminded me of a Billy Connolly truism; "There's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes." Something that rings very true when  you forgot to pack your waterproof trousers! Still, I was better off than Jeff, who didn't pack a waterproof jacket either! Well, it's not too cold when you keep moving. And at least we were leaving the higher altitude sites to another day, as the drive back over the pass was through heavy snow. The wrong clothes also appear to help you move faster, as we managed to get through our list of 5 by 2pm. So a nice early finish again. Which was good because Mrs Boss woman was arriving on wednesday, and we needed to do a bit of cleaning of the man pit!

Working like a beaver.

The good Doctor was due in at Calgary airport at 7:07am, which meant a bit of an early start. Ooof. I hate mornings. Jeff was also flying out from Calgary that day as well, so good timing in a way, but not that good as his flight wasn't till 4.30. Ouch. Calgary also needs to work on it's signage. We managed to miss the turn off for the airport and were a good way out of the city before we turned around. We were both looking for the sign and both didn't see one. Smartphone activated, we headed back, and sure enough there is as sign. It's a tiny one and it is right at the turn off. No wonder Albertans change lane suddenly quite a lot. Actually, I think I may have to add a supplemental about Albertan drivers. Terrible they are. Pardon the digression. Our lateness of arrival at the airport was compounded by the fact that Dr Westbrook had decided that she didn't really want her phone with her and left it on Saskatoon. So sshe couldn't call to ask where we are, and we couldn't let her know we were running late. All these scientific minds at work. you'd think common sense would be, errrr, more common.

Canadian Moose - much larger than its Scottish counterpart.

With the airport dealt with, it was back to the field centre, and working out how best to use my supervisors time. Part of my site visitation is assessing for suitable places to take Gipper for a walk on. I've found 5 that seem to be good, but I worry that my selection is not very scientifically based, and has more relation to them being very easy to get to! It is a big consideration since Gipper is a portly beast, but shouldn't be the only one. So I felt that going back to these sites and getting a second opinion would be useful. Cherie seemed pretty pleased with them. Which is either a good sign, or a sign of someone pretending to themselves they've not wasted a bunch of money funding a half assed researcher! Possibly a bit of both. Other than driving about and soil coring, which is mostly boring (yes, I did just do that), it was a pretty successful couple of days

Very huggable.

Ruff.

The ideal pet for your kids.

wildlife spotting. There was a Golden Eagle (maybe, certainly a big hawk), deer, 2 moose, a wolf, a toad, a beaver (only the second one I've seen!) 1 adult and two baby grizzlies, and what Cherie is convinced was a wolverine. I'm not so sure. It didn't have metal claws and an Australian accent. We also saw a wild Albertan redneck driver. Who drove past us at about 100 on a gravel road and kicked up a huge stone which almost punched through the windscreen. Pricey.

Croaaaak.

Mmmmm, Bruski!

Today has been pretty quiet. Not much office work, and I'm not trusted to go out on my own. I had a wee investigative bike ride along the widowmaker trail. Rather disappointing given it's name, and is only 3km long. It follows the widowmaker kayak course which looks much more fun. I want to try it! Apart from that I've been looking at the trail map to see where I can go tomorrow and test my brake out. Maybe Prairie View trail over to Quaite Creek trail for a 20ish km blast. Or maybe do the Baldy pass trail without the ridge nightmare! After that, I have found a curry shop in Cochrane which has a promising menu and hopefully I can have a curry worthy of the name! I may even have the Irn Bru with it!


 

SUPPLEMENTAL - OBSERVATIONS ON ALBERTAN DRIVERS

They won't move back into the slow lane unless you are almost touching their bumper. Even then only 50% of the time.

They tailgate.

Combining the tailgating and not moving over creates ridiculous traffic flow situations where there are up to 20 cars crammed into a 150m length of 2km of otherwise empty double lane highway.

Select Albertans overtake on gravel roads purely to try and smash your windscreen.

They cut in and out of lanes very quickly.

Most cars are sold without indicators (signal lights).

You are not a real man if you don't have a big truck.

I'm sure this list could grow indefinitely.



If you read this small rant, here are some more bear pictures as a reward.

To pacify a bear, stab it in the rear with a red ballpoint pen.

Brokebike Mountain

Well, I decided to take it easy yesterday and not do any more updating. We had to recover from a mad mad mad Saturday night out in Banff. Dinner and a movie. Maybe this time away from our girlfriends is starting to get to us... I'm embarrassed to say that we went to the Irish pub. Speed and cost were the main factors for consideration though since it's near the end of the month and we still haven't be reimbursed for expenses submitted about 3 weeks ago, and we only had 50 minutes until the movie. I highly recommend Okanagan Summerweizen Apricot flavoured beer! And Prometheus in 3D was pretty darn good. Although I am a sucker for Sci-Fi.

It'll have blown over by the time we get there...

How to attach your $3k soil corer to your $1.5k bike...

Last week. Yes. A bit of a trial that one. It would be great to get a reliable weather forecast, but I suppose that there are drawbacks to working near the mountains. I had planned our second biking excursion for the monday. We had previously scouted the start of the route that would take us along a trail for 10km past 6 sites. A nice wide ATV trail all the way along. Dry and dusty when we passed it, and due to be dry for the Monday. Kit was packed up, bikes thrown in the SUV (mid sized) and off we went. It looked dry in every direction. Except the direction we were headed. In that direction there were some nice purple looking evil clouds. But we had a plan and we were going to stick to it. On arrival, it was still dry, and it looked like we might actually get away with it. So we headed off down the trail, which was still nice, dry and solid. 5 minutes in the downpour started. I've seen worse, so just kept pedaling. Then the hail started, which kind of stung, so we pulled over to shelter under a tree until it eased off a bit. 15 minutes of heavy rain and hail later it finally did lighten off. So back on the bikes, cycling along what was now a small stream. The going wasn't too bad though and we had a quick discussion and decided we might as well keep going so we didn't have to come back. However, the rain kept coming, and the mud was getting deeper and deeper. At about 6km in I lost Jeff. I wasn't too worried as he usually takes a bit longer than me. I waited for a while and then decided I'd better go back and check. I found him 500m back carrying his bike. Mud had clagged his chain, causing

Ideal conditions

Clag

Got a little mud on me.

chainsuck at the front, which in turn forced his rear derailleur into the spokes of his back wheel. Result – rear wheel wasn't turning, and gears were a thing of the past. $200 bikes are not very hardy in tough conditions. As the designated bike technician, I had to do a trail fix, which involved brute force to bend the derailleur back to around where it should be, and use two rocks to hammer the cage back into shape so that the chain would stay in it. I got it going, so apart from being soaked, cold and annoyed, I was quite pleased with myself. There was no way we were going any further forward on the bikes though. We had stopped just short of one site (the plan was to go to the furthest one and work our way back) and had passed one on the way, so we managed to get these done. Then it was a slow, wet, cold, muddy crawl back to the SUV. It was ridiculously sticky. Rolling along the trail for 10 metres tended to double the weight of your bike. I tried to get Jeff to ride his bike through all puddles to try to keep the mud off,

I hate mechanikking

but he didn't seem to be listening. Probably off in a world of misery. I left him to push while I rode my much tougher bike back to the SUV. I was just congratulating myself on having bought a sturdy steed, when I started to hear a metal grinding noise from the back. The mud, as well as being really sticky, was also really coarse, and it had worn out my rear brake pads. Then there was a similar noise from the front. Which is quite amazing really, since my front brake problem from the weekend had recurred and I hadn't actually used the front brake for a few hours. And I had also put in new pads at the front. So without being able to engage the brake, the mud had still managed to eat it's way through brand new pads in about 10km!

A very generous time for 20km of riding would be 4 hours. Add in 6 work stops and make that 6 hours. It took us the 6 hours to do 12km. Another day of learning! No more taking the bikes out in the wet!

What I stand in 6 hours a day 4 days a week

All this made tuesday a bike parts shopping and maintenance day. One of the benefits of having a cheap bike seems to be cheap replacement parts. Jeff's new derailleur was only $10, whilst my fancy hydraulic brake pads cost $45. It was nice to have a change of scenery and go to Calgary to get these. Back at the cabin, I had the whole afternoon for the simple replacement job on Jeff's bike, and the even simpler pad replacement on mine (which still had to go back to the bike shop to enquire about the crapness of their brake bleeding skills). So, 4 hours later and after a lot of swearing and petulant kicking, I had to give up on both bikes. Jeff's needed a new gear cable; my spare ones were too short. I got the brake pads in on my bike, but the rear seemed to be jammed on, and although the front ones seemed fine, it would have to wait until the bike shop fixed their bad job to tell.

Everything looks better on a good day.

Wednesday. Finally things went well! We took what was planned as two days of sites and hit them all. 8 in one day is our new record! Funny how when things go well, there's less to say. It did feel like we had somewhat recovered from the earlier disaster. There were some nice photos to be had, and despite the forecast it stayed dry most of the day.

Following the weather forecast again (rain), we decided to map out and core a site for using the magic box on. It has to be dry to use the box, for woe betide anyone who buggers up the electronics on a $30,000 piece of equipment! Of course it was blazing hot sunshine

Everything...

when we got there... Basically what we were doing here was marking out grid lines with flags for GPR transects. We also need to core so we can compare the GPR data to the actual soil content. For this site that meant 8 transects and 21 soil cores of 2m deep or more. Well, 2m deep or more if you don't encounter frozen soil after 50cm! Coring was a bust, so I made a quick decision to go and get the box, and we'd do the GPR survey. Then we'd leave the flags in and come back with the GPS and note their locations so we can come back and core when the ground has defrosted.

So back to the cabin to quickly pack up the GPR. Have some lunch and head back out. Then the fun job of hauling this kit through a wetland for 1500m again. 1400m in is a terrible time to realise that you've forgotten the control unit. Another minor disaster. So I got to run back to the SUV, drive the 40 minute return trip to the cabin in 30 mins, and run back through the wetland to catch up with Jeff. During the drive it started to rain. Which was just brilliant. I was going to have to run all the way back and tell Jeff that we need to get everything back to the car, and that it was all big waste of time! It was still raining when I met Jeff, but had lightened up a lot. And after 10 mins it was actually dry again, thank goodness.

Controller bag generously donated by D. Donaldson.

Finally we got started with the GPR. At this site the ground is terrible for trying to drag a cuboid over. To me, scientific research shouldn't involve two grown men jumping up and down on hummocks trying to make the ground smoother! The surveying went reasonably well though. I'm still not sure we can actually use it on the terrain at this site, but far improved on our previously reported attempts. To my surprise, we had still managed to finish by 5pm. So again it seemed like we had recovered somewhat from unpromising beginnings!

Where?! I wanna see it!

As friday is our office day, nothing of great interest happened. If you want to avoid some venting at comedy bike shops, stop reading here and just look at the pictures.

We finished our paper work early, so were able to go into Cochrane to the bike shop and get them to have another try at fixing my brake, and also get Jeff his new gear cable. I'm glad I know at least a few things about bikes. Firstly the shop tells me that my make of brakes quite often don't work as well after a bleed. I'm prepared to accept “not as well”, but it was working “not at all”. They then suggested I had a leak. Which I knew might be a possibility when it stopped working, but I was checking and there was no sign of leaking fluid anywhere. In any case, it went through a cycle of working/ not working/ working/ not working. So unless it leaked, and then somehow sucked the fluid back in, then leaked again, I can't see that being the problem.

The scenery is growing on me.

They agreed to check it over again. The next thing they tried was to suggest that I needed Jeff's cable accurately measured so I could fit it to his bike. That's the first I've heard that one. I had to ask three times to get a cable. After several attempts to get me to bring the bike in and to tell me that gear cable comes on a spool (so how then does it stay in the shifter?) and I need to tell him what length I need, he finally took me into the workshop and asked me to point out the cable I needed. All that for a sale of $2. And you thought car mechanics were bad.

So as far as measuring accurately goes, I fitted the cable and had the bike fixed in about 10 mins and did not measure once. And I just picked up my bike today and the brake seems fine just now. I'll reserve judgement until I ride it though!

So that was the disaster week. Apologies if it comes off as a bit of a rant! If that's going to be the worst week here, I think I'll manage just fine.

Here's another bunch of photos...

No beavers, plenty of "Damn!"s

**UPDATE. Forgot to mention that the default setting is to only allow GMail users and selected others to post comments. Have fixed that now.**

It seems like a long time since I've posted anything here. Well, it's been a long week of disaster followed by recovery.

I'll start with last weekend. Last Saturday was the first sunny weekend day we have had since our first weekend here. So on friday, I decided to do a wee bit of bike maintenance so we could go riding up the

The objective - See, looks pretty harmless...

trail behind the field centre to Mount Baldy. A simple brake pad replacement, since my front pads were getting quite worn. Really just a case of undoing one bolt, pulling the old ones out, and putting the new ones in. Of course I'm incapable of not trying to make an improvement while I'm at it. So I tried to make the brakes work better by pumping the pistons out a bit. I got a bit distracted and when I looked at the calliper, I had pumped too much and the piston had popped out, followed by all the brake fluid. Damn! Rather annoying. So a quick internet site found a well reviewed bike shop in Cochrane which could rectify the problem. I drove down on Saturday morning and they kindly worked on it at short notice. By 12.30 I was back at the field centre with working front brake. Jeff and I rode off at 1.24pm. Mount Baldy doesn't look too high, and it seems like it's only about 1 lateral kilometre. So 2, maybe 3 hours tops to get there and back. The ride up Baldy pass trail is mostly forestry road, and not that steep. Jeff is still getting his bike legs so he ended up

A little bit higher

pushing a lot while I went ahead. I didn't take my map, which could have been a mistake as I came to a split in the trail that I wasn't expecting. Fortunately for me a couple of hikers were coming the other way and gave directions. One of them clocked the Scotland strip I was wearing and asked why they weren't in the Euro's. I briefly considered telling him that it was something to do with having Spain in our qualifying group, but decided on the more honest answer of “we're terrible”. They were supporting Holland though, so I'm sure there was some empathy! Now pointed in the right direction, the trail narrowed and started heading more steeply up. Fun for coming down later I thought. After a couple of km going up my unused bike legs were showing. So much in fact that Jeff had caught me up, having dumped his bike before the start of the hill and walking. By this time as well, the repair of my front brake was starting to look suspect. Pressure was dropping out of the system and brake power was very low. By the top of the climb it was gone. So that repair lasted 10km going uphill where the front brake was rarely used. This made me rather annoyed that my downhill fun was going to be spoiled. Damn! Downhill with no front brake is not sensible. 

So the top of this bike climb brought us to the ridge that runs to the summit of Baldy. We had already gone up about 450m, which left about another 400m vertical distance to gain. The summit couldn't be far, after all, it looks like the ridge is only a few hundred metres when you see it from the field centre...

The first part of the ridge is downhill, and then uphill for about 200m and is pretty steep. The you reach a

At the cut off to the ridge. That is NOT the summit in the middle!

level bit, after which there is another steep climb for maybe 50m. This looked like the summit. Damn! It wasn't. There was another bit on top which was the summit. Jeff decided not to go on here, as the climb looked a bit sketchy, what with the steep drop on either side. Not to be denied while so close, I scramble up, only to see the top was another 50m along and up. So I shouted to Jeff that I was going to the top and started climbing again. By this time my legs were burning. A combination of higher altitude and not being a climber. I was looking forward to getting to the top and tucking into my Subway Italian BMT that I'd brought for sustenance. I duly reached the top, with dead legs. I got a great view from there, of the 400 or so metres to the actual summit. Damn! It was down and up 50m ish again, and getting rather rocky. Still, the end was in sight and

Is that the top?! No.

Nearly there. Lets get a photo...

I am stubborn, so I thought, I can get there and back in about half an hour and Jeff wont be waiting too long. So off I scrambled, legs more tired than they have been in a long time, and started coming over the rise to the top. I could see a cairn this time so I even cheered as I headed towards it.

Looking back the way we came.

And guess what I saw from

Is that the top!? No.

there? Damn! Another 400m or so of even sketchier looking ridge followed by an almost vertical climb to what surely must be the summit! At this point my legs were really gone, shaky to stand on, and I would have turned back. That is I would have if I hadn't posted on facebook that I was going to go and climb this easy looking hill, and if I didn't know that my sister

There it is, I'm sure of it!

had already climbed it (presumably with much less difficulty than me).

So again, off I went on my summit hunt. I was hoping that Jeff wasn't getting worried and didn't think about calling mountain rescue, and also wasn't still waiting for me. It had taken me about 45 mins to get this far. After another 15 mins I made it to the base of what looked to me like a rock climbers dream. Damn! A nice vertical chunk of rock. I paused to eat my Sub, and considered the sensibility of trying to climb this on shaky legs. Of course I had to do it. I found a route which scaled around and up a bit, leaving just a 5m or so rock climb. Then I heaved myself up it, thankfully getting to rely on my arms for a bit.
As I popped my head over the top, a man was there staring

DAMMIT

quizzically at this guy who had just come up a cliff face dressed in a football top, biking shorts and carrying a helmet. I'm guessing Canadian, because he was very polite and asked me how I was enjoying the hike. He and his hiking friends then proceeded to walk in the direction I came from, but along the nice easy path down that I somehow didn't see on my way across. Ah well, I like rock climbing at 2192 metres.

Umm, are you really meant to go this way?

Objective - Achieved.

This time it actually was the top!
Apart from the facebook boasting and the sibling rivalry, part of the reason this climb was following a more recent tradition I have started when close relatives have died. I like to climb something and toast them when I get to the top. This one was for my dad, and it was nice to know I was doing it somewhere my sister has been too. Unfortunate that I forgot the whisky, but probably apposite! Also, might not have been good to try the return journey on my thoroughly wrecked legs after a dram. I would have done this near Saskatoon somewhere, except that there are certain geological limitations with that! After a quick phone call to Amanda, who got worried when she thought I said I was in the hospital, when what I said was “I'm at the top of a hill”, and a few photos, it was time to head back. It was 5pm by this time, so I was a bit out in my 3 hour estimate! Going back along the ridge was a quite painful experience. Sore knees, burning legs, getting scratched by the obscenely sharp rocks. The downhill parts were worse I think! I had the same false summit issue as well, having forgotten how many times it happened on the way out. But after about two hours of starting on the ridge I got back to my bike. Jeff was kind enough to leave a note scratched on a stone to say he had gone back to the field centre.

Some okay views up here

Nice.

Look, there's where I started, in the centre right.

Downhill on the bike should be nice and quick, but not without a front brake. I went for it as much as I

The way back down from the summit was tricky...

could anyway, getting the back brake on early for turns, which was working okay. Then gradually my front brake started working again, and I got to go fast down some pretty nice single track (not too challenging for the well practiced bikers, so good for me!). The trail that took 2 hours to cycle up took me half an hour to go back down. And I found a nice narrow steep shortcut track that literally led down to 20m from the back of our cabin. A good end to the trip. Two and a half hours longer than I expected, and I haven't been that physically tired for a long time. Although I think a lot of that must have been not being used to the altitude, because I didn't have the normal stiffness and pain the day after hard exercise.

But not as tricky as the way I went up.

I was going to go into this weeks trials and tribulations, but I may leave it till tomorrow, or later tonight. It's raining again which leaves not much to do, so maybe good to spread out the writing!