Trail and error

I've been slacking again. Slow to update. It's because we're really getting down to some work. Or at least that's the impression I want to give the boss...

What you have there is soil. With lines in it.

So, I last said I was going to try and make GPR interesting. Hmmmnnn. Not sure I can actually do that. I can give you the basic science breakdown. Basically, it's a magic box that lets you see under the ground. It is powered by powdered down divining rods and unicorn horns. You chant a new age prayer and then a leprechaun appears and gives you a usb stick with a bunch of data on it. If only. It really a radar and receiver pointed at the ground. It sends out an radiowave, which goes into the ground. Every time the electrical properties of the ground change, like going from peat to other soil ("other soil" I'm having trouble with. Peat I can handle, helfpful being Scottish), the wave reflects, which

One man...

is picked up by the receiver. Then the electronic gubbins turns it into an unintelligible shades of grey (not the housewife porn...). I will have the pleasure of spending the sultry Saskatchewan winter try to make sense of those! Anyway, we've been using that for the past week and a half, and it has been going pretty well. Which as usual means fewer funny stories. What is not funny is carrying all the gear that is necessary for a GPR day. Jeff gets the awkward orange box, while I get to carry the control unit, the GPS, the GPS aerial, a soil corer with 4 extensions, a second corer for sampling, the wheel attachment for Gipper (what I've named the GPR) and my rucksack with various other things in it. I guess it must be what a one man

...banned

band feels like. Still I'd rather all that than deal with the box!

So yes, that's going well. We are also up to 83 sites now. We did attempt to get the 7 sites at the end of the Jeep eating trail. It was a squeaky bum drive out along the trail. It was much drier, but much more rutted too. So we edged along it and got 8km in in about an hour (previous record, 6km on bikes). We were still 1km away from the start point to walk to these sites though. In a fit of sense, I called it off and decided to head back. The next couple of hundred metres looked really bad. We probably could have made it, but what was really worrying me was the bank of cloud that was coming over the mountains. I could imagine all too easily is spending 2-3 hours going to these sites, then the rain starting, and the trail going to mush, and us being stranded 8km away from the road. So those sites were binned. Aggravating. We did have a lead on getting access to Stoney-Nakoda land though, which would open up a bunch more sites. The cool at the field center suggested speaking to "Remy" at the casino. Sounded a bit dodgy, but we were starting to get desperate. We dropped in on the way back, but no sign of Remy. If indeed he exists, and we are not the but of some tribal joke. Still down on sites, I went back to the GIS map and managed to find another 11 possibilities. They were to be saved for a rainy day, since Gipper don't like the rain. Well, it rained a couple of days last week, so we managed to get 9 sites done, getting us to the 83. Actually only 8 from the list plus an extra one. We missed three, one because I wrote down the wrong coordinates and we went to the wrong place, and 2 because they were on private property. That is something that really gets on my nerves. All this private property that is just wildland, but you're not allowed on it. What, do you think I'm going to steal your trees?! Freedom to roam is a great thing!

Choices choices. Avoid the centre line...

That's the work stuff covered. The only other thing of interest I have done is cycle up the powderface ridge trail. Yet another straight up, straight down trail. No breaking your ride into a number of ascents and descents here! So again that meant me struggling to climb. And again a fair bit of walking. Partly this was because of the combination of loose trail surface and a back tyre that should have been replaced three years ago. But probably mostly because I'm still unfit on the bike. Anyway, all the walking let me admire the trail, and get to thinking that coming back the same way would be good. My plan was to go up one end of the ridge and down the other, and return to the car by road, or anther trail that looped around. But a

I'm coming back down here. Fast.

combination of the trail I was going up looking great for going down, my legs being humped, and the nice hikers at the top telling me they had to bushwhack up the other side of the trail, meant that I chose the return journey. 2 hours up, 20 minutes down. The descent was indeed fun. Even with three falls. Two slides off at corners (partly back tyre, partly poor skills), and one pedal caught in a root causing handlebar overage (luckily just after a slide so not going too fast). Good that I was wearing my leg protection! Just one scratch, so I fell gracefully!

That's about that. I had actually written more detail, but when I tried to add in photos I lost the lot! Grrrrr. We have 15 more days left, so it's feeling a bit more rushed now to get things finished. Also to take as more advantage of the location! Hopefully we can get everything done before I properly hurt myself!


And the obligatory left over photos...