Saskatoons, Indian Paintbrush and Big Grizzly Bears
July 21, 2015 1:09 pm Leave your thoughts
To start, I’ve been working with Outland planting for the last couple weeks, so I took the lead on making sure that the work was up to snuff. Now, with this particular contract, there are lots of little blocks spread out over five different areas which adds a good start to the confusion and planning, a headache but manageable.
So a few days ago I had an experience I’ll never forget. The areas that the plant is in has nice and large rolling hills that give a great view of the surrounding landscape and lake. Big, white clouds billow off the hill tops just above the trees and feel close enough to grasp as they float across the sky. The block I was in had already been closed off and finished, so there was no one in the block but me. This particular block as it were, was situated on the summit of one such hill, and surrounded by thick and tall boreal forest and bordered by a deep gully that hid a small creek sheltered by massive white spruce and aspen and meandering between the slopes of the terrain. Also, just want to point out the area is host to a few grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, big cats and moose and deer. All sorts of creatures that could eat you whole.
Now, it had been quite hot all day up until that point, so the air was hot, humid and active. When I left my truck on the haul road, the skies were clear and a rich polarized (sunglasses) blue as I hiked in about 20 minutes to get to the denuded hill, through the steep gully I might add for some sympathy… I’d also like to point out that there was a slight haze lower down in elevation and to the north of where I was from the smoke of a raging inferno forest fire north of Slave Lake that was causing havoc up there for highway travelers (myself included).
Right, so, I got to the block and started my checking. Now, the previous day, I think 4 planters working the cut had stepped onto ground nest and had been stung. Not being present at the times of the viscous assaults, I wasn’t too sure where said nest were, so I was quite nervous about having a run-in with angry flying serrated hypodermic needles. Tread softly and quickly, I told myself, over the music being pumped out of my cruise vest pocket. I had a large area to cover, so I set off at a good pace.
About half way done, and no nests yet, I noticed that the winds became more persistent in trying to knock me off of the slash logs into the ‘lava’ and that the smoke was becoming quite thick, burning the back of my nose. I knew there were no fires near me, but standing a 100 meters from the tree line and it was difficult to pick out individual trees. I had to get the checks done, I was not coming back to this block for an hour or so more worth of work, so I pushed on.
I hadn’t noticed that the sky had become completely clouded over until I heard the deep grumblings of thunder. Great, it’s going to rain and I’m without a raincoat. Whatever, keep going and get it done. I had three more plots to throw, about 45 minutes with all the walking, and the thunder kept getting closer and more energetic, and every few minutes the sky and smoke around me would light up with a quick flash and then a second or two later, my bones rattled, but it wasn’t raining so I was happy. Down to two plots and it started to spit rain on me, crap! And then the brewing storm was directly above me, I couldn’t see it, everything around me was grey, or shadows, and the thunder was vibrating the ground beneath my boots, and then I realised, other than the slash piles that present through the cut, I was the tallest thing in the area, and I was at the back end of the block. Well, double crap. I booked it over to where I needed to throw my last plot, did that, and then packed my stuff and started making my way back, quickly I might add, to the truck.
I can tell you that it is a definite eerie sensation being in an open cut block, by myself, surrounded by smoke that obscures the world around you, in grizzly country, and with a thunderstorm hovering mere inches above your head just waiting to unleash the pacific ocean onto your head and drench everything on you. The entire time my head was on a swivel the entire time. Seriously, a single sound and my head would be 180° in the wrong direction, so much so that any owl would be proud.
On the way back to the truck, I was just coming the gully again and I stopped to take a picture which sadly didn’t turn out, and I turned around to continue, and right then, a buck walks out of the young aspen growth along the trail not ten feet from me. Neither of us knew the other was there, and our heads snapped up and had that momentary ‘what the…’ blank stares on both our faces. We looked at each other for a good three or four seconds, and as I tried to bring my camera to bare it snorted and ran back into the bush and was gone.
It was most certainly one of the most surreal experiences I’ve had, those few hours. Being isolated in the smoke on top of a bald hill, Zeus throwin lightning like a drunken game of lawn darts and who knows what creatures of the forest watching me bouncing around on the fallen trees like a foul who just figured out how to walk.
PS. For those who are interested, I post a lot of work photos on my Instagram see here:
https://instagram.com/ryan.wilkie.56/
And I also have a profile on NatGeo Yourshot where I post a lot of photos from the adventures that ensue from work and school as well. Feel free to take a look there.
http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/profile/662653/
Thanks for your continued attention and we’ll see you here again in a couple weeks.
