Bad Luck Comes In Threes
August 8, 2016 3:48 pm Leave your thoughts
So the last few weeks have consisted mostly of crossing inspections, and while I thoroughly enjoy doing them, they have presented their own set of problems. For example, the inspections that need to be completed are all in fairly remote areas where truck access isn’t always an option, and while I love to take out the ATV, I learned the hard way not to do so without a working winch, no matter how nice the trail should be. As it turns out, that will be the day that you find a sinkhole consisting of 4 feet of clay with the consistency of soup. Thank goodness for satellite phones, and thank goodness it was one of those rare days that I had a co-worker already on her way to the area.
I have also had my fair share of slips and falls into mud, swamps, and creeks while attempting to complete my data collection; there is rarely a day that I come home with dry socks.
The most interesting day of my summer so far gives merit to the old phrase “bad luck comes in threes.”
Number 1:
The day started out normally as I drove out to my work area, unloaded my quad, and headed out to do my crossing inspections. I was working about 7km away from my truck down a disused logging road where the last stretch had its crossings removed. All was going smoothly until I got to the second last crossing of the road. The stream was larger with steep banks and there was no way to continue by ATV, but not wanting to leave with only one crossing left to complete, I decided to walk to the final one. It was not a long walk, maybe half a km along a partially overgrown quad trail. As I neared the stream, the trail was overtaken with willow and alder shrubs, so I had to bulldoze my way through. No sooner had I entered the shrubs than I heard some very unhappy grunting and something else also bulldozing its way through the shrubs… in my direction. Having seen plenty of bear in the area (always from the wonderful comfort of my truck) I had been prepared and was walking with bear spray in hand, but thanks to the shrubs, visibility was next to nothing. I yelled at the bear and heard it stop for second. I took this time to back out of the shrubs to the clear portion of the trail, and had backed about 10-15 meters from the shrubs when a very irate mother grizzly came crashing through the shrubs where I had just come from. I yelled at her again (As a point of personal pride I would like to clarify that I did in fact yell, and NOT scream), and she stopped a little out of bear spray range. I am not sure what she was expecting to see as she exited the shrubs but I don’t think it was me, as she looked a little startled, stared me down just long enough for me to get a firm grasp on what being eaten alive must feel like, and then ran off to the side. I wasted little time in backing out of there with all the grace of a drunk swan. My last view as I rounded the corner was a cub staring at me from an impressive height in an aspen tree with its slightly calmed down mother standing beside it watching me go. Needless to say I was not an enjoyable walk back to my ATV.
Number 2:
At this point I desperately needed a break and since that had been the last crossing, I definitely considered my work on that road done. I went back to the truck to pick up my lunch and sit down for a breather. I blame still being a little shaky from my bear encounter for almost immediately locking my keys in my truck. Normally this isn’t a huge deal as there are spare keys in the office, but when you are nearly 2 hours from town, and almost 100km happens to be bush road, it’s a bit of a wasted day for someone to drive all the way out to deliver them. Luckily this was in the short time span that my aforementioned co-worker was also working in the area so I decided to just leave everything in the bush and catch a ride out with her and then back in the morning with my spare keys. Sounds simple right?
Number 3:
Before this foolproof plan could be complete, I needed to find my co-worker and let her know of my predicament. After figuring out what trail she was working down, I set off to find her… only to almost immediately sink my quad in a peat bog. No problem, I thought, I’ll just winch myself out. Well, halfway through this process is when my winch broke, causing all the problems a couple days later discussed in the first paragraph. So with a freshly broken winch and no other way out, I set off on foot to find my rescuer… only to miss her exit about 4 km down the trail. We proceeded to miss each other entirely and I had to walk the 4 km back to my unfortunate ATV, where luckily she had stopped to help… also to laugh a little bit, but mostly to help.
Altogether it was quite a grizzly experience! Hahahahahaaaaaaaaaa… Sorry.
Needless to say it was not a great day and I owe my co-worker big time as she managed to rescue me in both of my ATV situations. However I did get to see my first ever grizzly bear so that was pretty neat, even though the adrenaline made the memory a slightly fuzzy one. I didn’t have many photos of the experiences, for obvious reasons on the bear situation, and because I may have been too frustrated in the others, but in an effort to make this blog post slightly more visual, below are some photos taken during my time completing my inspections that showcase the beauty of my job. For more photos taken over the summer, visit my Instagram @therealfaronious. Enjoy!
