I started out on Monday flying to Williams Lake early in the AM to arrive at 9 ready for action. Mark Rebagliati picks myself and another guy Chris up and we drove to WL town to run some errands and grab a fridge while I'm there....
Skipping to the point: we get to camp and we're staying at this place called "Teepee Heart Ranch". It's a sweet little German tourist spot where Germans can come and 'experience a dude ranch'.
I'm sharing a cabin with a lady named Jan - she's a seasoned dirt bagging/line brushing vet who is a great mentor to a rookie like myself. She took me out yesterday and taught me how to not rely on my GPS but to use my compass as my guide. It was great to learn and she's constantly teaching me things!
The other girl I'm temporarily sharing a cabin with is Elena and she's a nice girl. Fairly city and her main job is in the HDI office but she comes out for field jobs whenever she can. She's only here for a month but she'll be around for the future in HDI I'm sure!
Two of the geotechs around camp are Chris and Chris: one is a young 23 year old Geology uni student, and the other is a 35yr-ish seasoned sampling vet. Both are awesome guys and both know what they're doing and are trying to show me the ropes the best they can.
I'm the only rookie of the lot but it's nice that everyone is looking after me. I always have help if I need it and I'm not afraid to ask questions or make comments (no matter how stupid they are!).
The job so far consists of heading out to a target grid as determined by geophys surveys and mapping anomalies, and setting up flagging that follows lines 500m apart going in the same direction (usually E/W). Starting from one end and going to the other, soil samples are taken at 50m intervals for (usually) about 2.5km distance (about 50 samples each line).
I'm outside for about 10hrs a day (getting the face tan of my LIFE!) and having a blast.
Yesterday wasn't so much fun though.
We got to our grid which was at a fairly high elevation, and got one of our trucks stuck due to the very recently melted snow. The geos were tottering around in another truck elsewhere, but even after warning them they got their truck stuck too! 6 people, 2 stuck trucks in the middle of nowhere. Our work day was cut short due to the extra hands that were needed to help get the trucks unstuck, but by the time Jan and I had arrived at the 2nd truck (everyone else had given up hope on the first after attempting that one for 2 hours already) it was determined that the best we could do was call for help using the satellite phone. We called for help, but the roads weren't marked and the person who was supposed to rescue us got lost! Since it was getting colder, later, and darker, we decided to start walking. We walked for 15kms before someone came to our rescue. It was a brutal trek after a fairly hard day at work (being a pro, Jan works at the speed of light and it was tough trying to keep up!). Most of us were in bed by 930 due to exhaustion so nothing too interesting happened after we got home and walked like zombies to our cabins.
Next morning, we all pile into the one remaining truck to try and attempt to pull the two out of the mud. Truck #1: Success! Got the grey truck out by pulling it with the blue truck. We then drive down the road to get the red truck out with the blue truck after driving the grey truck to safety. In the process of lining up the blue truck with the red truck to hook the chain to it, the BLUE TRUCK gets stuck in the mud. So now we're back where we started. Two trucks stuck in the mud and only one to use for 6 people. It was interesting. This evening, they got pulled out by not one, but two heavy duty tow trucks and it took them 5 hours to do it!
End of the story: After getting multiple trucks stuck multiple times, all large trucks are out of the mud and safe on hard ground!
Thats about as interesting as it's gotten so far. Chris W (23yr old) said getting the trucks stuck was the most disastrous start to the season he's ever had! Glad to know I'm not the only one who thought it was slightly ridiculous.
Now: onto another day! It's the first time I'll be on my own! Wish me luck!
Aaron says: "Why don't you have front and rear winches along with chains on the tires for the mud?"
ReplyDelete"That would have gotten you out of it in no time!"
Chains on the tires would have been smart, but they're new rental trucks and we weren't prepped for mud! Every other grid we had gone to was perfectly fine - this mud came out of nowhere!
ReplyDeleteIf the first week is any indication, honey, it looks like you're in for one heck of an adventure.
ReplyDeleteNice to see you're taking it all in stride ... that's m'girl!
Love and miss you. xxx