6th October - Points North, SK

There were a couple of very sore heads this morning (not me though who is almost half way through her four week alcohol free challenge – go Tan). It was a late rise and then Brendo (who has poor piss fitness we discovered) had to go back to bed, just feeling too seedy. Dan struggled through feeling marginally better. It appears I was the hardest working person for the day updating the geological spreadsheets for the boys… hehe.

Yesterday, Wes’s generator in the helicopter died so the boys called on the other helicopter and pilot from Stony Rapids to come down and help out. Jim arrived, along with his 14 seater helicopter (huge) and we were all mesmerized. Poor old Wes and his helicopter now considered not worthy of any attention once this new toy was here. This baby costs just shy of $3,000 an hour to run and we all knew as soon as we saw it that we somehow, had to get a ride in it as a once in a lifetime experience, as it would only be at Points North for probably one day.

Now, to say Jim likes a chat is the understatement of the century. We wandered if the man had any human contact in the month that he had been at Stony Rapids. Jim arrived back from part of his days work at around 3.30 pm. We spoke to him and he was leaving in about ten minutes to do some pickups, drop offs and slinging and we WERE getting on that helicopter. We went and got some warm clothing plus a bag of stuff to see us through the night if in the worse case scenario happened and we couldn’t fly back to Points North. I didn’t like to ask what that worse case scenario might have been.
A quick helicopter safety induction, we buckled in and took off on our next adventure. Dan got the front seat. This helicopter only has two blades (compared to the other one that has three) and is much more powerful. In no time at all we lifted off. Whilst the helicopter itself is noisier and not as smooth as the other one it was still awesome, particularly when Jim flew really low at around 100 feet. We picked up Derek and Matt who were doing some GPS work. Unfortunately no one seemed to know where the next set of holes were and we spent some more time in the air aimlessly looking around with Brendo giving comments from the super coach in the back seat. We weren’t complaining! At the next stop we all got out to meet Bobby and Travis, the linecutters for around 30 minutes whilst Jim did some slinging. Due to the more dangerous work involved in slinging, the helicopter pilot is not allowed any additional passengers than those involved directly in the slinging.
Thirty minutes passes quickly, all seven off us piled in and we headed back to Raven Camp stopping for a while to hover over some drill sites so Dan could take some perspective photo’s for the corporate website. At Raven, we dropped off three of the passengers and picked up Lindsay and headed back to Points North. I took the front seat for this trip. It was awesome, albeit a little scary when Jim showed some of his maneouvers like tilting the helicopter almost on its side whilst flying (I had to hang onto the window for fear of grabbing some of the instrumentation - the second joystick was right between my legs). It was awesome.
We got back to Raven and promptly had to put on some music “Paint it Black” by the Rolling Stones. It did used to be the theme music to Tour of Duty and this particular type of helicopter was used in the Vietnam War (a Bell 205 - Hughie Hogg or Iriquois). Brendo did his best machine gun hanging out of the side of the helicopter impersonation. An absolutely awesome day!!

15th July, Raven Camp – Wolf Lake, SK

Brendo and I went to Points North this morning to pick up the slings for the chopper. Points North is a series of warehouses and has an airstrip which services the local area. We checked out his shed for logging and then we saw a chopper that took a fall a while back. Not that nice seeing it after the chopper ride yesterday, but we have a good pilot, a good machine and a good conditions. Mark used the slings that morning to take timber out to the drill site. Slinging a 8 by 8 inch 10 foot long piece of timber looked quite difficult.

That afternoon, we got back into the chopper and went out to Wolf Lake to peg some more holes. We landed in a clearing formerly used for helicopter access but some of the trees had grown. Guess what – we chopped them down!! Brendo nearly messed up when the tree fell towards the chopper. We called him all sorts of names but everything was fine.
We searched the bush for old drill sites from the 70’s and I was amazed when we found collars on how quickly the trees had regenerated, After establishing some of the old lines we were happy that we could peg the holes confidently in a few days. On the way home we headed further east over the Wollaston Bay lodge. This lodge had four float planes, lots of motel style accommodation and lots of boats. Mostly catering for the expensive American fishing market. As we flew over, a float plane took off which was really good. The chatter in the head sets was great to listen to as well.

On return, I went through the core splitting procedures with Michel which is very different from back home.
That night we went fishing, surprise, surprise. Heather, a girl Tan and I met in Vancouver come up. So us fisherman and Heather went out. We found white rum, Zooper Doopers (icy poles) and dry ginger to be a good mix. Sweet, savoury and cold. Heather fell over in the water and caught a few fish. Horn got snagged and swam out to retrieve his lure. I ended up walking up my waist in the water looking for some of our lures we lost. I found three. Steve caught another belter!

14th July, Raven Camp – Wolf Lake, SK

My role here apart from been the fish supplier is to fill in for people while they on breaks. It is a good way to check out other projects and see a bit more of the country. Today, I was hanging out with Brendo to check out his Wolf Lake exploration project. We got to the old camp and waited. Mark, the chopper pilot flew in, idled and we boarded the chopper under the rotating blades and within 20 seconds we were in the air. The chopper in this area is a powerful tool. With the swamps, lakes, rivers and poor vehicular access the only way we can get to area is by helicopter. We followed the road down south, just past where we put the boat in only three nights before and then headed west. We found the old camp where the wooden drill core boxes were stacked. We unpacked some old core and took some photos of the rocks. Mark, the chopper pilot, is great bloke, and was willing to lend a hand. He took me through all the compartments in the chopper and was really informative. Brendo and I gave Mark and Matt (one of the helpers) some impromptu geology lessons which was really good.

We had some lunch on the side of the lake and then proceeded to go fishing. What? Well it is a non-accessible lake so we packed the rods into the chopper. We had a few casts and I got snagged. I didn’t want to lose another lure so I waded out into the thigh depth water in my jocks to retrieve it.

Afterwards, we flew to where the line cutters were working and saw a bald eagle and it’s nest in the highest tree on the highest hill in the area. It flew off and the wingspan was huge. The line cutters cut lines (tracks) through the bush and then hand dig the ground and level it so the drill can sit cleanly on timbers. By the way, the drill is flown in place in three sections and the crews flown in and out each day in the chopper. It’s a good gig! We flew to the next lot of holes and I navigated from the front seat. Once you get out of the trees you can see the lakes and work out where you have to go. We checked out two landing spots and picked one. When we landed the chopper sunk a bit into the muskeg. Matt, Brendo and I jumped out with the axe and Mark hovered 20m above us while we cut down some trees for him to land on. I love this exploration caper.
We did some walking through the bush added pegged a few new hole locations with the GPS. Co-ordinates of the proposed holes are plugged into this machine and then you walk through the bush using satellite navigation to find the spot. The best thing about this is, once you have found the spot you can cut heaps of tree down. So we did and had lots of fun doing it!! On the way back I asked if we could go via Kewen Lake to check out where the deep spots were. It was a 5 minute detour but well worthwhile. Under the bridge on the other side of the rapids it looked deep and like walleye territory. I took a lot of photos in our air reconnaissance mission.

Where we fish at Kewen Lake!! Big pike territory!!