Grand

Just a quickie. A wee thanks to everyone who's been reading. That's the blog been read 1000 times! I've had lots of positive comments, which is nice! Maybe I should extend my blogging into the day to day drudgery of normal life in Saskatoon. And maybe you all need to invest in some books by proper writers!

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...

New discovery!

I've finally worked out what these funny little flags are for!

Working like a beaver

I'll give you $100 to put a few logs over there.

That is, not a lot. I've been hanging around beaver ponds all summer and I have only seen 3 beavers. I suspect they get contractors in to build their dams. I've definitely seen more logging trucks.

I need a one button mouse.

I finally managed to get my laptop back from the bear. I thought there might be a fight, but he said that he'd rather have a Mac. Aye bear. That'll be right.

Anyway, it has been a bit hectic here. I think my last post was the week after the Stampede. My mum had gone with Amanda to Saskatoon for the week, and we got some work done. On the Sunday before my mum was due to arrive in Canmore, we had an open day at the field centre. Basically a day where anyone passing can come in and have a look at the different projects going on. This meant 6 hours sitting at a table with a poster of my work displayed behind me and various items from our field work in front. It was a case of answering the same questions over and over again to a variety of people; park rangers, university professors, random members of the public. The main difficulty was maintaining a straight face every time I said the word beaver. But I am getting better at that. There was a worrying moment when the CTV crew visiting looked like they may come and interview me. I think the massive beard and unintelligible accent probably dissuaded them though. Not sure having me on the Calgary news would help with shedding the stereotypical image of "Scottish" here.

Not my ideal Sunday, but at least there was a bbq and free booze afterwards. The free booze also help bring out some stereotypes. It was nice to finally have a sociable gathering with other people, many of which I hadn't ever seen around the centre. The main two national groupings are Canadian and American. The Americans set up the drinking games early on, keen to show they are party animals. They were first to fall. The Canadians stayed until all the free booze was finished. Some pretty good going there. The Scottish dragged his field assistant back to the cabin to continue drinking whisky and watch Billy Connolly, Danny Bhoy, and Frankie Boyle clips till 4 in the morning. As I said, stereotypes. Well, the good thing about being the boss is being able to call "office" days when you need to.

Dangerous.

 

So monday was an office day. My mum also arrived in the afternoon. Strangely on the same flight as my supervisor. She was out doing her own work though, not checking up on me. My mum was staying in Canmore, and so was Cherie, so we all met up for dinner on monday evening at the Grizzly Paw bar. Bison burger and Beaver tail ale. If you can find me a more Canadian sounding meal, I want to hear about it! It was very good.

Burstall pass site. Not bad.

Remember when you made me do chores?

Tuesday I recruited my mother as field assistant. I had a walk planned which just happened to go past a site I needed to visit. What better way to show someone your work by getting them involved. I'm such a thoughtful person. The walk was along Burstall Pass trail. It is actually very nice. And the car journey to get there is along the Spray Valley, which is a lovely drive if you like snow peaked mountains and stuff like that. It's all getting a bit samey to me.

Falling water. Strangely interesting.

The rest of the week was mostly hiking around. Particularly memorable was fridays visit to Johnston Canyon. A very sanitised trail up to two big waterfalls. Actually paved all the way. It's very popular, but it does have some nice waterfalls. There is also a less popular trail going on from the upper waterfall towards some freshwater springs which pool up on the surface. These are called inkpots because they show up different shades of blue or green. Something to do with the speed at which the water rises. I guess they must have been rising at the same rate that day, because they were mostly

Scottish people in their element

water coloured! That was a reasonably good walk though, a nice long uphill and then about a kilometre downhill to the inkpots. The valley they are in was a nice spot for lunch. Seems to be the meeting point for 3 valleys. Made for some good scenery. On the walk back we got caught in a massive thunderstorm. At one point the thunder broke directly overhead,which was fun. In a scary fun kind of way. The storm lasted about 15 mins, which seemingly was enough to pull down a tree over the trail. The rain stopped just as we got back to the car park. Which was nice. Luckily we both brought changes of clothes.

Inkpot

Nice spot for lunch.

Juxta...

It was still reasonably early, so we decided to drive on to Lake Louise. On the drive we met the thieving bear. Quite impressive though. I guess I shouldn't have got out of the car to take a photo, but there were another 20 people there, so I thought I could probably outrun at least one of them. Lake Louise is really pretty. Probably the best view so far this summer. As long as you keep your back to the monstrosity behind you! I can't believe that that hotel was allowed to be built. The complete scene looks like a dictionary definition of "juxtaposition". Looking up the lake to the glacier is just awesome though.

...position

So that was friday going pretty well. Nice walk, bear sighting, awesome glacier viewing. Then we drove back towards Canmore. It turned out that the downpour we were caught in caused a mudslide across highway 1 just outside Banff. This is the section of Higway one where there are no alternative routes, so you get funnelled through the national parks gate and have to pay the $10 entry for the pleasure of using their roads. The pleasure turning out to be taking 3 hours to get past the mudslide! These things happen I suppose. They seemed to have mostly cleared it up by the time we passed it. I feel sorry for the people who got there just after it happened. They must have been waiting for about 6 hours. Eventually we made it back to Canmore though, in time for a much needed beer, and dinner.

It was great having my mum across, but when she left on tuesday, that meant a big push to get back into working. We did manage one site day will she was here, and got up to 74. Anything above 80 will be a bonus. Now the main focus is the GPR. Gipper has been getting many walks this week. But I'll leave that to another post, because I have to think about how to make it even slightly entertaining...

Some more photos...

Paddling

3 hour tailback.

Another good office.

Seriously, why are they so interesting?

Hardcore rock climbing in sandals.

Grassi lakes.

Grassi again

Castle mountain

I am Bear

I recently came into possession of this laptop after a scared little tourist dropped it while I was chasing him. I let him get away though, I wasn't that hungry.

I feel I should take this opportunity to once and for all answer that question all you humans keep asking about bears. For the record, it seems a bit fetishistic that you all have such an interest as to where we partake in our toilette, but hey, live and let live. For your information, we build nice composting toilets in an environmentally friendly way. Unfortunately we build them too small, and usually in car parks near where all you annoying tourists park, so we can't use them. So generally for a bit of privacy, yes, we do stick to the woods. But roads are also fine, as are wetlands, trails and just outside your cabin or RV when no one is looking. Maybe this isn't the most classy way to evacuate, but certainly more classy than having an obssession about asking where we do it!