Well hello again. I am happy to say that we are now getting core out of the ground here at the Blende! It is not coming fast but it is coming nonetheless. We even got the second driller into camp this evening; now we have a full drill crew. We are finding very interesting rocks spinning out of the ground, just what we wanted to see. I have been learning lots about logging core as well as drill programs in general. The work for my master’s is well under way with many samples, photographs and pages of notes being taken. The weather has been in the crapper for a few days now, but it is starting to turn around slowly and soon we should be getting more than eight hours of sun at a time…hopefully.

I have attached two photos of the whirlybirds that we have been using for both the Blende as well as the Recce Crew (Melissa’s crew). The blue one is the Bell 206 Long Ranger and the yellow is a Bell 204 (like the ones they used in Vietnam), it is a sweet machine. The downwash comes off the rotors of the 204 at 75 mph… it blows stuff around pretty good.

I hope everyone is well and having a great summer in their respected places.

micheal.


-Bell 204-


-Bell 206-

June 25, 2006

It has been sunny for three whole days… absolutely unreal! Work is getting a bit more normal now that we have the helicopter here everyday. There are some big mountains around here that are tough to walk around. The other day we got dropped off by the helicopter and marched down the mountain to a creek. When we turned around there were two caribou following us! Two mornings ago our dog in camp, Pork Chop, was barking up a storm. There was a wolf trying to pass near camp, which Pork Chop wasn’t happy about. Other animals that we have seen are a bunch of sheep, a couple of goats (I think) and about 10,000 mosquitoes.
We’ve covered a lot of ground here and I’ve been learning lots. Like sphalerite can be green, red, yellow, white and never brown around here (sorry non-geos). I’ve learned about the joy of soil sampling in places where there is more rock than soil.
My crew is actually really good: there’s Eileen (the cook) and Pork Chop (the dog), they are both very good at their jobs. Bronwen is doing her master’s on this area and she’s a very sunny person who sneaks bacon to Pork Chop (as funny as that sounds). Margo is from Terrace, B.C. and is a geology student at UVic. She’s a tree-planter and always the first to get her nose on the outcrop. Colleen is from Victoria and is in geology at UBC. She’s definitely the giggler in this group and smart to boot. This is our motley, smelly group at Camp Gayna – be sure to stop by for our Sunday night movie (providing the generator doesn’t crater) or dessert.

June 26, 2006

Today we got to fly to a different property today. We basically (the two of us) got dropped off with a map we’d never seen before and no clues on what to look for. Real prospecting! It was fun, but crazy. It rained on and off today and was quite windy. When we got back to camp we found that our office had moved about three feet in one direction. What was even funnier was the fact that our outhouse had blown over. Well… maybe not over so much as away. I guess I can add outhouse construction on to my resume now. Although, we are a little worried that it may fall in the hole. It just has to last ten more days.
Bye for now, and please appreciate your showers, clean laundry and flush toilets!

Melissa

So I’ve been in our ‘fly camp’ for a week now. When we landed it was sunny and beautiful – which was great for setting up camp. It is in a very nice spot with some exceptional scenery (see June 21 post). Unfortunately, it clouded up that evening and for a solid week it has rained. Luckily my tent has stayed dry. The rocks are quite cool here and I’ve already collected way too many! It’s been difficult to get the helicopter out here so we’ve had to do a lot of hiking. Yesterday we left camp at 9 and got back at 8, but I’m paying for it today. I am contemplating taking a bath in my Rubbermaid container tonight; I think it’s time I do something before I knock somebody out with the smell. The food here has been awesome. Last night was fettuccini alfredo with salmon and no bake cheesecake. Our cook Eileen has a dog too which helps to announce any local wildlife (she worked at Committee Bay last year so Lauren and Tracye should remember her). So far we’ve seen lots of ground squirrels, a couple of goats, lots of sheep and one caribou. On about the 7th of July we should be moving camp so I’ll be able to contact people. I’ll have a couple of days off and hopefully spend them in Mayo with some extended family. Anyways, I’ll try and post more often now that they actually have internet in Mike’s camp as opposed to half way up the mountain. Hi Mom, Dad, the Boys and Bay. I hope you’re all well and talk to you soon.

Melissa

P.S.- I was not able to watch the final hockey game, I hope someone can save me a newspaper from it. Mike called me by satellite phone to break the news to me ~sniff~.

-Blende Camp-


-Gayna River Camp-


Happy Solstice everyone,

I hope everyone enjoyed the longest day of the year today. It is definitely a long day up here it is 10:30 pm here and the sun is still going strong, come to think of it the sun has not get weak since I have been here. Today is day 16 since I left Edmonton and it feels like I have just left. The drill has not even started to turn yet; everything that could have been broken on it was I think. Hopefully it will be a go tomorrow and we can all start to do what we come out here to do. Right now it is just “camp improvement”.
Melissa is doing good out at Gayna River, I chatted with her the other night. Other than the 12x14 floors for 14x16 tents and the bit of water that they found in their tents, it sounds as if everything is going well… I think it sounds worse than it really is. The photographs that I posted tonite are of Gayna River Camp (Melissa) at top and Blende Camp (Micheal) at bottom. The Blende camp may be hard to see, but it is the bottom of the valley. Melissa sent back some photos that she took on the flight over to Gayna River and there are some spectacular mountains, some of the most beautiful that I have seen, I hope I can see them for myself sometime.
Well, off to bed for me and hopefully tomorrow I will be looking at rocks that no human has ever set eyes on. That is if the drill decides it is going to work.

Cheers,
mike.

Here is a photo of Melissa and myself on a ridge during the traverse we did together while she was at Blende Camp.

mike.

Hello All,

I am finally contributing to this blog that we have set up. The plan was to keep it up to date with the internet access from camp this summer, it is a go now but the satellite only got operational yesterday. It worked just in time to catch the last five minutes of the Oilers 4-0 win in game five. Happy Happy.

Anywho, my trip from Edmonton to Whitehorse was uneventful, I got into town at 11:00 pm, at which point i was taken to the hotel bar to meet the rest of the crew that was in town already. The next couple of days were spent in Whitehorse shopping for last minute stuff for camp, like camp chairs and coolers and fridges … and really anything else you can think of. I know how to navigate Whitehorse now anyway. So from Whitehorse we drove up to Mayo, where the helicopter flies into camp from. Mayo was yet another non-stop adventure, as we had to get all of the stuff we brought flown into camp, which was a full day affair, plus some. We missed the turnoff to the staging area so we did not get everything flown out and had to stay an extra night in Mayo, at the Bedrock in. The only restaurant in town closes at 10 pm so it was a mad rush to get back in time to get food. Luckily the pilot has a helicopter so he got into the restaurant and said we were coming and they kept it open late for us.

Finally we got into camp, which in my judgment is pretty luxurious for a bush camp. We have running water, showers, washer and dryer, wood buildings (each with a diesel stove), full kitchen w/ deck, full electricity, and internet … It is pretty comfortable. I am in the Blende camp, about an hour helicopter flight from the Gayna River Camp which Melissa is at. Melissa and her crew stopped by for a day and a half before they went over to their camp at Gayna. We went on a traverse together for the full day that Melissa was around. It was nice to spend the day together, since we won’t see each other much over the summer. Melissa is at Gayna River now and the word is everything is swell, I saw some photos and they are in a beautiful spot.

As for actually working out here, the driller just showed up today, so the drill could be set up. We are still missing parts for the drill and a second driller, so hopefully those show up and we can actually get some rock to look at. The project is already ten days behind schedule. In the meantime we are making the camp sweet and I have been checking out some of the surrounding geology while we wait for the drill to start turning.

That is the first installment of my rants throughout the summer so stay tuned later and read about the events at Blende Camp. There should be updates from Gayna Camp and Melissa’s adventure’s too as the summer progresses. I will also try and find out how to post photos on the blog so you can see where we are.

Cheers,
mike.

Hi,

So, I'm in Lethbridge now - a slight detour on my journey to the Yukon. Tomorrow we fly out of Lethbridge, 5 hr. layover in Cowtown, stop in Edmonton (for 45 min) and then on to Whitehorse.

Sounds like the camp is having lots of fun. The Sat phones are only working periodically and the generator doesn't have enough power for the camp and all the equipment. Not to mention the drillers have been delayed for a day. Oh well - as my boss said "Situation Normal...AFU"

Still nothing interesting to report. I'm working on my thesis and trying to stay busy...but that's difficult. Hopefully I get to watch the game tonight but the people I'm staying with aren't hockey people so this might be difficult...

Go Oilers Go!
Melissa

Mel:
Hullo,

This is my first blog. I feel so trendy, it makes me cringe a little...

I'm currently in Cranbrook, getting started in the office and starting to get familiar with the properties/geology/procedure. My first day of work was yesterday. I was happy to have a big task to work on – one that was pretty straight forward but time consuming. All I had to do was transfer data from old maps to the new maps by hand.

It sounds like I won’t be in Mike’s camp for very long, maybe a couple days and then I will be heading out to a fly camp. I will be part of an all-girl crew, which is new for me. We will be in a pretty cushy camp for most of the time – even in the fly camp we will supposedly have a cook.

My hotel is quite nice, although it is on the second floor (no elevator) and my bags feel like they have rocks in them (no John Moroskat, I didn't bring any with me). It has a fairly nice view.

From what I've heard Mike made it to Whitehorse and should have been in Mayo today. They were slinging in loads by helicopter to the camp. Other than that I have no idea what he's up to, I'm not sure he would know how to contact me and vice versa.

I head to Lethbridge tomorrow, then fly to Whitehorse on Sunday. Hopefully Mike will have something more interesting to post.

I apologize for the lack of photos...but I've tried to add them a few different ways now and it just won't work. We'll figure it out though :)

Have fun and see you all soon...
Mel