I went over to catch up with Brendo tonight at Points North. He leaves tomorrow and I will look after his program until he returns. That night Dave, Brendo, Leo and I planned the next lot of drilling in an area called Tent Seal. Another place to explore. The key to my room was in Brad’s pocket at Raven so I was roomless for a while. At 11:00pm I went out of the office and watched the green fountain of northern lights (check the brilliant image I captured above). It was okay but it was better the first time I saw them. At 11:35pm, I gave Brendo a call. “I can’t wait any longer for these keys to turn up, I’m sharing the room with you.” Brendo was watching this shite movie and winding down for his break. I fell asleep quickly, knackered.
Tuesday, 28 August 2007
16th August, Points North, SK
I went over to catch up with Brendo tonight at Points North. He leaves tomorrow and I will look after his program until he returns. That night Dave, Brendo, Leo and I planned the next lot of drilling in an area called Tent Seal. Another place to explore. The key to my room was in Brad’s pocket at Raven so I was roomless for a while. At 11:00pm I went out of the office and watched the green fountain of northern lights (check the brilliant image I captured above). It was okay but it was better the first time I saw them. At 11:35pm, I gave Brendo a call. “I can’t wait any longer for these keys to turn up, I’m sharing the room with you.” Brendo was watching this shite movie and winding down for his break. I fell asleep quickly, knackered.
15th August, Raven, SK
Dave Rhys, a consultant has come in and we spent a bit of time talking about exploration and good geology. It’s good!It’s getting cooler now!! This afternoon Tom decided to light the stove (the heater) but because it was low it had blown out and the base had filled with diesel (our source of heat). Tom decided to give it go and lit it up. Well….. the sound this thing made as it going was pretty amazing. We both thought it might blow it was that noisy. I went outside to check if you could hear the sound. No problems at all!! The tent had that much smoke blowing out it’s chimney that if had wheels we would have taken off like Puffing Billy.
14th August, Raven, SK
Today was all about moving cut timber. Mike, Corey, Brad and myself got stuck into it in the afternoon and I helped do the power lift. First you cross stack the timber with a couple of good solid ones at the base. Then you all get under them and clear the whole lot out in one go. I’ll give you the tip, that wood is heavy when it is wet! Brad gouged a chunk out his stomach doing one load but it went well. It was cold and wet, 10 degrees Celsius but doing some physical work meant we were all sweating pretty hard.
13th August, Raven, SK
This morning a squirrel worked it’s way under the door and was running around the office tent. I gave it an awful fright and it hid under the fridge for a while. Something different.
Tonight we waited for Brendo to come down so we could go fishing. When the truck came and he wasn’t in there I quickly got Derek to catch the last hour of darkness. We drove down to the boat ramp at Hidden Bay and traversed the awesome parkland towards the Umpherville River as it flows into the bay. The river which I have mentioned before is very picturesque. Up to 40m in places and fast flowing over rounded glacial boulders. I got my feet wet again but casting into the rapids for grayling was lots of fun. We worked our way down to the end of a small island and casted into the shallows which eventually dropped off into the honey zone.
It wasn’t long, second cast and Derek tapped into a monster pike!! It fought hard, had a little jump and I got most of it on video. When the monster come to shore it was a mad rush to get hold of it to calm it down. A few happy fisherman shots and it was back in. My Minor Bay 1-888- BIG – PIKE measuring tape got a work out and the fish was 35”. Nice.
I ended up losing my lucky lure, the one I got snagged seemingly a long time ago at Wolf Lake where I retrieved it in my jocks. Derek finished the night we a solid walleye. All in all a great night’s fishing.
Tonight we waited for Brendo to come down so we could go fishing. When the truck came and he wasn’t in there I quickly got Derek to catch the last hour of darkness. We drove down to the boat ramp at Hidden Bay and traversed the awesome parkland towards the Umpherville River as it flows into the bay. The river which I have mentioned before is very picturesque. Up to 40m in places and fast flowing over rounded glacial boulders. I got my feet wet again but casting into the rapids for grayling was lots of fun. We worked our way down to the end of a small island and casted into the shallows which eventually dropped off into the honey zone.
It wasn’t long, second cast and Derek tapped into a monster pike!! It fought hard, had a little jump and I got most of it on video. When the monster come to shore it was a mad rush to get hold of it to calm it down. A few happy fisherman shots and it was back in. My Minor Bay 1-888- BIG – PIKE measuring tape got a work out and the fish was 35”. Nice.I ended up losing my lucky lure, the one I got snagged seemingly a long time ago at Wolf Lake where I retrieved it in my jocks. Derek finished the night we a solid walleye. All in all a great night’s fishing.Thursday, 16 August 2007
12th August, Raven, SK
A really busy morning! Today is the sample shipment day. The ore material is classified as a dangerous good so once they are loaded the truck has to drive ten hours to Saskatoon to the lab. It is important to get all the paperwork right and ensure safe delivery of our samples. Samples are placed into pails (white buckets) and typically we send 20 – 40 off a week. Today we sent off 98!! A Raven record, thanks to our West Bear sampling. Hopefully we get some good results. The line cutters , Larry, Thomas and Norman, come back again for the afternoon and got stuck into it. Chainsaws are a lot quicker than the trusty axe. 
We heard about a month ago that the MacKenzie River was the place for walleye. Derek, Jessica (the baker) and myself hooked up with Brendan at Points and then traveled another 30km the other side. We knew where is was because we had a look in Google Earth. We got there to see a nice sandy beach. Derek caught a nice pike within minutes. I followed suit with another. A kingfisher was darting around us and wasn’t too happy by our presence. From the bridge with my new polaroids I watched a pike strike Derek’s lure. Watching this was inspirational to catch more. Derek ended up walking out a long way along the shallow levee bank and fish in deep water and nailed one more great pike. Brendo, Jess and I went the other side and fished in the shallow water. I ended up wading out past the height of my gumboots and the other two decided to do the same. 
One more pike and this one decided that my repair job from that afternoon was insubstantial. It was weird fighting a fish with only the bottom half of the rod doing the work.The sunset was great, lighting up the road cutting and surrounding trees. The esker, long sinuous ribbons of sand had about 8m of relief on the edge of the lake / river. That night it belted down with rain on the tent roof. Pity as it was supposed to be the night of an awesome meteorite shower.
I got some photos from Derek where he captured underwater footage of the pike. They are pretty neat!
11th August, Raven, SK
The days are rolling into each other at the moment. The line cutters come down from Points and got stuck into some serious clean up with the chain saws. It went well.
The nights are starting to get cooler, down to 6-7 degrees Celsius.
The nights are starting to get cooler, down to 6-7 degrees Celsius.
9th August, Raven, SK
What is there to do in northern Saskatchewan? Build a skate park of course. The team while I was a Points made a temporary skate park out of ply and core boxes. Derek was keen for me to give it a go so here we were having an afternoon skate. A few tricks in I decided to do a half cab heel flip, too easy, but I ended up pole axing myself like an icy pole stick. No blood but sore. Brad came down from Points and we nailed a few more tricks like a no footer and a 180 backside air off the smaller quarter pipe. Something I didn’t imagine I would be doing at work. I keep on pinching myself that I am getting paid to this as well.
8th August, Raven, SK
Busy day, sorting out rig stuff.
That afternoon, Derek and Heather (both geos) and I decided to take the quads on the ski-doo trails out to Lake Wollaston. Allegedly the tracks take you all the way out there. We hooked along and the trails became more overgrown and swampy. I was constantly pushing the quads out of the deep moss and muskeg. At one stage I was in past my knee in peat moss.
We traversed into deeper, more swampy and more overgrown area near the rim of the lake. It was that tight my fishing rod perched on the front of the bike hit a tree and broke 30cm below the ferrule. Oh well, such is life. After deciding to turn around which was a mission in itself we got out the mud hole and back to park land style tracks.
The quad bikes are fun but once again I was wet and covered in mud. We ended up fishing in the lake near the old camp and I caught one pike. The temporary fix up job on my rod was ordinary but it was still successful.
Up at 3:50am to check an end of hole.
That afternoon, Derek and Heather (both geos) and I decided to take the quads on the ski-doo trails out to Lake Wollaston. Allegedly the tracks take you all the way out there. We hooked along and the trails became more overgrown and swampy. I was constantly pushing the quads out of the deep moss and muskeg. At one stage I was in past my knee in peat moss.
We traversed into deeper, more swampy and more overgrown area near the rim of the lake. It was that tight my fishing rod perched on the front of the bike hit a tree and broke 30cm below the ferrule. Oh well, such is life. After deciding to turn around which was a mission in itself we got out the mud hole and back to park land style tracks.
The quad bikes are fun but once again I was wet and covered in mud. We ended up fishing in the lake near the old camp and I caught one pike. The temporary fix up job on my rod was ordinary but it was still successful.Up at 3:50am to check an end of hole.
7th August, Raven, SK
Woke up a little tired this morning. Steve went up to Stony Rapids, Leo flew out so now it is Tom and I. It is awfully quiet here now. August is wedding time in Canada so most of the drill crews have gone on break too. A good time to catch up on stuff and do those jobs that are always put on the back burner. Tom and I familiarized ourselves with the next lot of holes and had some great chats. He is a good bloke.
Duzza and I cleaned up the trees and mess that we left a week previous and I started compiling procedures. All in all a productive day.
Duzza and I cleaned up the trees and mess that we left a week previous and I started compiling procedures. All in all a productive day.
6th August, Points North, SK
Watching a commercial jet plane, and two sea planes in the air within 1km of each other revealed to me that Points is a busy little place. Not to mention the helicopter traffic. Our chopper pad is only 50m from the end of the runway and watching the plane scoot in at high speed from such a short distance is something I wouldn’t get to experience at home.
On the way to West Bear we had a safety meeting at 2200’. Certainly a different location in comparison to other meetings I have been in. We discussed slinging and it made the flight go quickly.
We absolutely nailed it today and worked hard. It was great to get the job done and packed away. We found a little field mouse which we caught and re-caught and caught again. Something to keep us occupied. It’s the little things. In a way it was good to get the job done. On the way home we traveled east a bit to see the distance to the main road. About 13kms through swampy country. The sun on the lakes through the clouds was great. 
That night I moved back to Raven camp. Matt, one of the helpers brought in some rum for Brendo so we gave it a tipple. We ended up going for a drive down to the Wollaston Landing where a barge takes cars etc. to the township of Wollaston. 
We kicked the footy on the road and had some relaxing drinks. When we got back to camp we decided to stir up the helpers. It was fun. As we were talking to them, we saw the northern light. Waves and ribbons of green traversed the sky. A group of us went out to the old core storage area away from the light. Seeing the northern lights on such a cool crisp night is a sight to behold, made better with the sighting of three shooting stars.
Ended up getting to bed on at 3:20am when it was starting to get light again was probably not the best idea on a school night, but it doesn’t matter because seeing the northern lights is fantastic. Pity my digital camera didn’t take the photos to well. (You will have to squint!!)
On the way to West Bear we had a safety meeting at 2200’. Certainly a different location in comparison to other meetings I have been in. We discussed slinging and it made the flight go quickly.
We absolutely nailed it today and worked hard. It was great to get the job done and packed away. We found a little field mouse which we caught and re-caught and caught again. Something to keep us occupied. It’s the little things. In a way it was good to get the job done. On the way home we traveled east a bit to see the distance to the main road. About 13kms through swampy country. The sun on the lakes through the clouds was great. That night I moved back to Raven camp. Matt, one of the helpers brought in some rum for Brendo so we gave it a tipple. We ended up going for a drive down to the Wollaston Landing where a barge takes cars etc. to the township of Wollaston. We kicked the footy on the road and had some relaxing drinks. When we got back to camp we decided to stir up the helpers. It was fun. As we were talking to them, we saw the northern light. Waves and ribbons of green traversed the sky. A group of us went out to the old core storage area away from the light. Seeing the northern lights on such a cool crisp night is a sight to behold, made better with the sighting of three shooting stars.Ended up getting to bed on at 3:20am when it was starting to get light again was probably not the best idea on a school night, but it doesn’t matter because seeing the northern lights is fantastic. Pity my digital camera didn’t take the photos to well. (You will have to squint!!)5th August, Points North, SK
This morning was my morning to model the rack of moose. I look pretty good in my gumboots and Minor Bay fishing cap – it’s the mo that maketh the man. We were talking to this kiwi chopper pilot who has been here for a month and in the last 13 days he has been in the air for only a few hours. This huge Terraspec airborne EM? Survey equipment and Atitibi helicopter has been parked up for days. Seeing this machine get off the ground was good for the pilot as he finally gets to do some work. The geophysical equipment keeps on breaking down therefore it is a long drawn out (and expensive) process. 
We kept on powering through the work at West Bear. Wes is getting the hang of our Aussie slang too. On the way back, we just landed and another chopper pulled in. It’s pretty good seeing these machines work.
We kept on powering through the work at West Bear. Wes is getting the hang of our Aussie slang too. On the way back, we just landed and another chopper pulled in. It’s pretty good seeing these machines work.4th August, Points North, SK
Another big day out at West Bear. Wes, our chopper pilot, decided to show off his new fashion accessory – a random moose antler. Once we were out there he slung some more samples. The morning was quite nice. The little generator was going powering Corey’s speakers with his iPod. Sitting there marking out samples listening to tunes with no way of getting out of there other than walking or flying was unique. As usual, that afternoon we had a bit of rain come through, and with Brad and Corey’s help we made an awesome “humpy”. It didn’t help that we saw Pegga’s email of an Australian aboriginal days previous discussing the merits of a good humpy!! Brendo seemed really at home in the humpy too!! 
The rain cleared by the afternoon and we got some good aerial shots of the Points North. It’s not to big! The sunset was again, a sterling effort, with red ripples in the sky.
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