3rd October – Raven Camp – SK

Big day today and no more chopper rides for a while. I organized the crew to finish the West Bear work while Tan and I got out of camp to pick up samples. Wes has been dropping our samples off on the side of the highway and today we had to meet him to get the remainder. We were still reminiscing on the wonderful display the night before.
We got to the drop off point and checked out the river only 200m to the south. Huge shoals of fish to 60cm were swimming away and making there way up stream. They were in their hundreds and later I found they were whitefish. We heard Wes coming so I emptied out the cargo net of samples and sent him on his way back. Tan was out working hard, driving the massive truck and lugging samples into the truck. This is a far cry from high heels and ironed clothing in her last job. She even got mud all over her!
After the work side was finished we pulled out Tan’s new rod and she casted (eventually) in the shoal of fish. To our surprise there were no bites as the fish were busy spawning.

This evening we went for a walk along some of the tracks around camp and through some lovely parkland. Here the reindeer lichen, a pale green moss, covers the ground and the trees are more established. It was a lovely walk in 2 degree weather with a fine misting of rain but we are getting used to it. Six months ago Tan wouldn’t leave the house if it was this cold!!

29th July, Raven Camp, SK

The lake behind the camp is very picturesque with “parkland” – areas of established trees with limited undergrowth with the exception of pale mosses. I wasn’t too keen on break dancing, so I asked if anyone was up for a walk around the lake. I filled my bag with bear spray and bear bangers and two geos, Heather and Christine, and I were off. It got a little swampy in places but I didn’t get my feet wet. The parkland was beautiful to walk through and then it stopped. The lake drained into a 150m wide swamp. We were over half way so we navigated through. When I stood in a hole above the knee, I realized that I wasn’t going to get out of this with dry feet. A few more steps and the other boot was wet. Oh well, I can soldier on now. The creek crossing was quite difficult. We traversed in water at around undie level. Not much fun. Once through the swamp, it got better and once again a glorious sun set with rays of light dazzling from the clouds. I won’t be walking around the lake again. My beard was given me the itches so I decided to trim it down to a goatie.

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.