Working Wild
July 16, 2014 2:06 pm Leave your thoughts
Today, I just about drove into the back of a moose while quadding; I guess he just didn’t hear me coming. This sighting puts the total to 5 moose, 8 bears, 2 elk, countless deer, and hundreds of tracks from other animals (including wolf, lynx, fox and coyote) that I have encountered. I was hoping to hold off on this blog post until I got an actual picture of an animal, but that hasn’t happened yet, so you’ll just have to trust that I’m not making these numbers up.
I realized I’ve been here for almost a month and I still haven’t told everyone what I do for work at Millar. The time to share is now, so get ready: I make GPS centerlines of roads. Pretty exciting, eh?
A lot of roads that we own were built before GPS was a common tool, and the roads were sketched out in agreements with the government on maps. When it came time to actually build these roads, they didn’t all end up exactly where they were supposed to be. It is my job to drive, quad or walk these roads with a fancy GPS unit and to mark out where they ended up, as well as to comment on the condition of these roads. Some of the work I have done is in areas that no one from Millar has been to for 5 or 10 years, making me the only one in the office with current knowledge of these places.
A beaver ruined my access.
It is important to know where these roads are and what condition they are in so that future activities in the area can be planned. These don’t just have to be forest industry activities either; we share many of our roads with the oil and gas industry, who have activities all over the Whitecourt area. Roads are traded between companies too, often to whoever uses the road the most or gains the most from holding the lease to the road.
All of this traveling about has allowed me to see all sorts of different scenery, and to get experience driving, quadding and, in some cases, walking through various conditions. I have been through a lot of muskeg, crossed creeks using all sorts of different methods, driven around sand dunes, climbed to the tops of hills overlooking everything around them, scrambled my way along dry stream beds in deep valleys and gotten really, really muddy.
There are so many beautiful sights in this region; I find myself stopping throughout the day for a few seconds here and there just to admire everything around me. It is such a shame, though, because many of these spots are so remote they will never be appreciated for what they are.
There are, however, places just as breathtaking right in town, that people have found, visit and appreciate. I just spent the other night sitting on the banks of the McLeod River, right before it joins up with the mighty Athabasca River, watching people float down the calmer McLeod. It is such a peaceful spot, and it made a wonderful end to a busy day. I can’t recommend going exploring enough, to see what’s just outside your back door: you never know what you might find.
When it rains, things get a little muddy.