Setting the scenic.

Blogging, how sad. But got to find something to do in the evenings when there is no telly. I thought I should start with a brief intro, but I though the text from an information bulletin sent out by the field centre I am now at would be more attention grabbing...

 " Wildlife Encounters

Bears:

·         Bears are generally not a nuisance here. However, if they smell food (i.e lunches, garbage) they will be attracted. In the field, keep lunches in vehicles if possible or at least in your pack. Don’t leave garbage in the field- bring everything back to the Field Station for disposal.

·         Bears (both black and grizzly) are common at the Field Station, so don’t leave any bottles, mugs, dishes, garbage outside to attract them.

·         If you have a bear encounter- first rule is don’t run away. You will Not outrun a bear! Stay quiet- try to back slowly away as the bear may not have seen you. If the bear has seen you, try not to appear as a threat- back away, talk to the bear to identify yourself as a human. Chances are that if it a surprise encounter for both you and the bear, the bear will go one way and you should head out in the opposite direction. If there is a mother bear and cubs, try not to get between them- if you do, again try to back away slowly- if the bear sees that you’re not a threat, she probably won’t bother you. Her main concern is the safety of her cubs. Give the bear an escape route.

·         If a bear is displaying aggressive behaviour towards you- try and appear as large as possible- wave your arms above your head- shout. You have to appear more aggressive than the bear. It is common for grizzlies to bluff charge if they are threatened (protecting cubs, food source) - if they decide that you are not a threat, they usually will leave the area. Another option is to play dead (only with grizzlies) so that you don’t appear as a threat. An aggressive black bear is a very dangerous situation and you must fight back if attacked by a black bear. Each encounter is different and you have to react the best way that you can. Aggressive encounters are rare- most encounters are “surprise ones” and the bear is startled and acts defensively.

·         If you see evidence of bear activity in your study site (diggings, scat, smell a kill), leave immediately and choose another area to work in. If you are working in an area with prime “bear food”- (buffalo berries, raspberries, cow parsnip etc.) be extra cautious- make lots of noise and keep your eyes and ears peeled.

Cougars:

• Cougar sightings are extremely rare- if you should be lucky enough to see one, don’t approach them- slowly back away, avoid eye contact so you don’t appear as a threat. Do Not Run!
• If a cougar attacks you, don’t play dead- you have to fight back the best that you can.

Wolves:

• Sightings and encounters are extremely rare- you would be extremely fortunate to see one."

Although it says don't run, I have been training since January to make sure I can at least run faster than whoever is with me! We have a bear encounter kit ready anyway. Ready for the fight...

If you leave me alone Mr Bear, I'll give you the beer.

So intro, short version - Moved to Saskatoon, Canada for a wummin. Fortunately a good one. Lucked into a research MSc position the first week I arrived. It's fun, but now I have this terrible burden of being stuck in Kananaskis Country, Alberta, in  the Rocky's all summer. Which is why I find myself sitting in a cabin by a lake surrounded by 2000m + mountains, with no telly and no phone signal.

The research - Working thesis title is "Identifying paleo-influences of beaver on mountain peatlands". So if anyone knows what that means, let me know. It would help. My real research of course is "Discovering how long it is possible to avoid real work". Something of a tradition in the younger Morrisons...What it boils down to is I have about 120 potential peatland sites, with evidence of beaver activity, which we have to drive, hike or bike around. Area containing these sites is about 8500 sq km. Lotta hiking.

A disappointing google images search result for "Beaver features"

So the past 6 months have been working towards getting out to the mountains. Aim of the summer is to find beaver infested peatlands and use witchcraft and sourcery to see below the ground for evidence of old beaver dams and ponds. Apparently this may have some bearing on hydrology and peatland formation or somesuch thing that I'll find a way of imparting importance when I write up. Someone else can work the details out after me.

So picked up the "mid sized SUV" from the rental people in Saskatoon on Wednesday.

Can't beat the North American stereotype of oversizing everything. Still, our stuff only barely fit inside it...
As you can see, packed full of necessary field equipment.

Thursday Jeff (field assistant) and I took the short 8 hour drive most of the way across 2 provinces. Driving across the prairies is a fantastic experience full of lovely flat fields, for mile upon mile, as far as the eye can see, with roads that challenged our vehicle's capabilities to the maximum. After about six hours some strange new features appeared on the horizon. Enough to strike fear into the hearts of the untraveled Saskatchewaner.

Prairies

We took in such delightful locations as the KFC in Kindersley, The FasGas in Drumheller (Home of the worlds largest dinosaur), and the liquor store in Airdrie. Which made me think we'd gone in the wrong direction. Its namesake is quite similar... I did like Airdrie though, because they asked me for ID when I bought beer. Maybe they though the big beard was to make me look older. Clearly I still look under 18 though. Good good.

"Scaries"

So after picking up our essential supplies, plus some food items, it was another 2 hours to get to the field station. This part of the drive was pretty boring. Too many hills getting in the way of the horizon. Facebook updates became impossible. Communication was slowly being withdrawn from us. By the time we arrived, phones were usefull only as paperweights. Which makes it tough to get in touch with people to say you arrived safely...

First things first after parking up, beer. And then a look at our digs. Sleeps six, plenty of room, view from the from porch is okay.

Porch view

It was a pretty nice evening, so I put the bikes together and we took a sandwich and some... refreshments down to the lake which is a couple of hundred metres down the road. thought we would see if we could get some bars on the phone. Quite a nice downhill roll all the way, with a bit of single track leading down to the beach. Single track is the last place you want to realise you had manged to reverse your forks when you put the bike back together. Lucky enough my bike skills are slightly better than my mechanic skills.




So there was a nice hour and a half of evening reception searching and "refreshment" drinking walking along the lakeside. Managed to get a few emails off and a phonecall in to the lovely lady. Time for a few photos as well.

So back to the cabin, another refreshment, and a couple of games of cards and that was it for official day one of our summer beaver hunt.

Day two is just finishing. Less to report, which will probably be pleasing to hear for anyone who's read this far (future posts are likely to be shorter due to knackeredness, and lack of time). Less to show through photos, since I forgot my phone when we were out. Started off with breakfast of sausage and bacon, generously provided by Amanda's dad (Amanda will find out when she gets home that I removed it from the freezer...), plus some scrambled eggs. Then the realisation that that was about all the food we had as a result of our (correct) prioritisation of liquid supplies the previous day. So a 45 minute drive to Cochrane for some proper food. The mid size SUV has a removable roof, so we decided to make its aerodynamics even worse and look like a couple of hairdressers. Nice though. Got back had a bit of lunch, and then headed out for a bike ride. Poor Jeff hasn't really biked before. Which is fortunate for me, since I haven't for ages, and I'm really slow. Did a 15km ride from the front door around the lake. Kept to tame stuff because of the lack of experience and fitness, but one word kept popping into my head....

PLAYGROUND!

Then I started worrying about getting any work done. Then I rode into a tree...

Kananaskis might have won that one, but I'll be back for more. Give it a chance to leave some proper scars!

Stats:

Grizzly Bear sightings - 0
Black Bear sightings - 0
Cougar sightings - 0
Wolf sightings - 0
Beaver sightings - 0
Gopher sightings - 7
Bike accidents - 1 (minor)
Distance biked - 15km
Distance hiked - 0