12th July – Raven Camp, SK

I did some logging with Steve and started learning the codes and practices. The core boxes are 1.5m long and you log on tables under fluoro lights. The “helpers” or fieldies are young kids from Saskatoon and good blokes. We had lots of fun joking around and getting it done (as they say here).

Brendo and I were very keen to back up our fishing luck and give it another go tonight. A rookie error was forgetting the bug spray. The bugs can be quite nasty. We put on our coats and fished away. It was terrible. Brendo and I come back quite early and full of bug bites. There are the traditional mossies, a spruce bettle which is really nasty (I haven’t been stung) and this little wasp that bites you and makes you bleed. You don’t feel the wasp bites but it looks like track marks on a junkies’ arm.

Near Kewen Lake, there is an old cabin. We stopped in to have a look and there was walleye skeletons everywhere. We were stoked just to see the semi-fresh carcasses. Another wierd thing was rabbit skeletons hung up to dry. One looked like he was quite comfortable recling in a hammock.

Instead of more fishing, we went for a cruise to the entrance gate to Rabbit Lake uranium mine, a big one just up the road and to the Hidden Bay camp ground. The forest here is quite old with an understory of pale green moss. It is referred to as parkland as it easy to traverse.