Check out our ride!

For the last week we have been working on putting together a geological map of the property using old maps and new field data that we are collecting. It’s been going well, but it’s tough to cover a lot of ground on foot and we don’t normally have a helicopter in camp. Today we lucked out though, the second drill was flown into camp today and so we were able to get a ride out to start our traverse. Normally, we have a Bell 206 (Long Ranger) Helicopter that comes into camp but today…the BIG Heli came to town. The beauuutiful Bell 204 – think about the big Helicopters with the sliding door that you see in Vietnam war movies, although this one is painted like a large dragonfly or bumblebee.




We got picked up in style and because I was ‘navigating’ I got to sit up front. The only rule was – I had to not touch the controls. This heli has dual controls so there is a joystick and foot pedals on my side, moving in unison with the pilot. It was really in my best interests to obey that rule.



Mike and Margo had fun sitting in the back, where they had enough space to have their own dance party. I guess it’s quite a novelty to have to WALK over to open the door to get out. Talk about powerful! Absolutely effortless to get this heli over the mountain. Unfortunately our flight was altogether too short, and in no time (maybe 5 min) we were put down at our starting spot.



Then we were on our own to get back to camp. It was a pretty good day, we covered a lot of ground. I’ve been pretty sick with a cold so I did my best keeping up to Micheal. He’s been on a diet of Kit Kats and Chocolate pudding for a couple months and still manages to bound up hills. We rolled back into camp at about 8:30, so we’re both beat. It will be an easier day tomorrow, so I’ll get to recover. Mike on the other hand will have to manage core from 2 drills. I guess he’ll need to get back on that Kit Kat and pudding diet right away.

Melissa