Fall is on it's way!

So we are winding things down. Fall is coming. The leaves are turning. It's getting cooler. We had a small reprieve of a few of the nicest days all summer, but not anymore! I'm very excited to see the leaves turn though, hopefully I will be able to get some nice pics of that. The work has been good though. Only a few more days left. 5 more sleeps to be precise!

The other day it was neat, we were walking and ran into a grizzly bear. It was the perfect situation though, he ran away and I managed to snap a picture. It was an amazing thing to see. He wasn't really big, but I'm glad I was with someone at the time.


The other neat thing (and less dangerous) that we got to see were some really big springs coming out of the side of a mountain. They were not warm but they weren't ice cold. We're still hoping to get to some really good hot springs before we leave. Here is a picture of me with the enormous mounds deposited by the springs themselves.


And of course, I have the obligatory shot of me looking like a dork with a set of caribou antlers. It was neat to find them both together!


Anyways, I should head to bed. I will be home on the 25th for good so I hope to see you all very soon.

Mel

50 days and counting...but only 8 more sleeps left!

Well, I know it’s been a long time since I’ve made a post. There was this guy in my camp…and he was such a distraction. Actually, it was a very welcome distraction having Micheal in our camp. I wish that he would have had a bit more opportunity to relax, but he will be back in Edmonton tomorrow (the 1^st) so he will have lots of opportunity to sleep in.

We spent a lot of time working on getting our drilling program going and we were lucky enough to get out hiking around for a day to work on prospecting. The weather was fantastic the whole time Micheal was here, I think somehow that our best week of summer arrived with him. I was sad to see him go, but I am very close to being back for my break so that makes it a lot easier. Here is a neat picture of him helping put up our core logging shack. It's really too bad that it only took 3 hrs for it to blow down the hill. Got to do it all over again the next day!

So everything is going along well here with our prospecting and drilling. Lots of activity here, it has become quite the bustling little city. We finally got our helicopter fixed. For a while it looked like quite the airport with all the helicopters lying around. There are 4 helicopters in this picture (courtesy of Eric) if you look really closely.

So core logging has been a bit of a break from walking up and down mountains all day. It’s a bit of a battle with the ground squirrels though, they like to eat our core boxes. Little buggers! Here is a picture of a little ‘family’ I saw. Pa on the left, Ma in the middle, and the little guy on the right. They were pretty cute. Today, one of them tried to nibble on my toe. Getting pretty bold…

Well, I’m tuckered. But I’ll try to be a bit better about updating…it’s just so tough when sleep is such a precious commodity!
Take care,

Mel

Minor difficulties...

So the weather has started to get a bit nicer here. I have had 2 whole days in a row with no rain. The work has been going well, we have had a few bumps in the road but overall it’s been working out fine.

First off, our helicopter broke. The other day our A-Star (which is infinitely better than our underpowered Long Ranger) was taking off from camp to go get the 3^rd crew (out of 4) and the engine died. So, it happened at the best possible time in the best possible place – on the ground, in camp. But it still meant that we had 8 people in the field that needed to get home. We were lucky that there is a NWT Geological Survey Camp nearby so we were able to borrow their heli to pick up our crews. It was still 9:30 by the time they were getting back.

So, we had to wait to get another heli, our underpowered Long Ranger came back. How sad. Then the fun part was, the Pilot and Engineer ordered oil for the heli and it never came and it never came…Then the other morning we rushed to be ready and we were 10 minutes early for the 7am flight and the Pilot said that we should go back to bed. No oil = no flying. Apparently the oil had been shipped by the helicopter company to the hangar, but never made it on the plane. Whoopsie. So we had a day in camp to plan. Brad, our data/computer/safety guy took a picture of the ‘most expensive paperweight ever’:

Note the file folder under the skid. Apparently we will be getting a new engine on Tuesday so they will just do a switch and hopefully we will be up and running in the A-Star shortly after.

Other than that, we have been seeing lots of wildlife. From the helicopter the other day, one crew saw a big grizzly with a freshly killed bull caribou. We had our wolves hanging out in the one area we were going back to quite often. The wolves liked to howl in the morning, which was quite a creepy way to start the day. I’ve been nearly run over by a number of caribou in the last week. I think they are nearly blind. It meant that I was able to get some very cool pictures though. Here is my favourite one of a wee caribou who spotted me:

Keep in mind that it is quite zoomed in, I’m not actually getting too close to most of the wildlife.

I’m quite excited because in 4 days Micheal is going to be in my camp. He was nice enough (crazy enough) to decide to spend his short break in our camp. I don’t get my actual break for quite a while yet, so I’m pretty sure this will save my sanity. He won’t have much more time in the field, so he will likely be home in Edmonton at the start of August. That way, he can go back to watering the plants and picking the snails out of the fish tank (thanks Nat and Dad!).

Well, take care everyone and see you soon,

Mel

Soggy Camp Willowhandle

So, we have had about 12 days with rain. Some days were partly sunny, so it hasn't been too bad. It's better than too hot anyways!

Camp is in full swing now. We aren't at capacity, but we must be close. We have about 4 helicopter loads of people every day heading out. It is my job to figure out who, what, and where for all of those trips. It feels like Edmonton International around here sometimes!

The mapping is going okay - that's my job. I work around our one permit area that we are going to be drilling. I am trying to figure out where we should be drilling - with a lot of help thank goodness! I also supervise a crew of soil samplers (sometimes as many as five guys) who are working on sampling around areas of mineralization. They have a pretty hard job, but they are pretty darn upbeat about it. They have to dig up to 50-60 samples a day, which can be pretty tough with rocky ground and bad bugs.

The fog has kept us from leaving a few mornings, but sometimes it has some pretty results. Here is some harmless fog from the other morning:



There was this one solitary loon hanging out on the lake, it was just so pretty. I love listening to them at night:


So, we have also had a lot of wildlife sightings both in and out of camp. The other night we were working away when we heard what sounded like cow bells. Then...20 horses walked into camp. Our camp manager was a little bit stunned to see those guys! It was a group of outfitters bringing their horses through. They stayed for a night and continued on the next day. Here is a pic of our camp being invaded, note the muddy mess that it is:


And in the field, we can't seem to see enough Caribou. Herds of 100 or more come through all the time. It's kind of crazy. With the caribou of course, comes the wolves. The other day, we had 3 wolves hanging around and we had one come within 2 feet of one of our samplers! The wolf didn't seem fazed by the bear bangers we shot or at us yelling. Another one came up close to my group as well, I got a couple of pictures but I didn't have time to set up a very good shot:


I kinda had to brighten the picture a bit, I think the rain streaks are kind of neat in it.

So, it's been okay here but we could definetly use some sun! I hear it's pretty hot down south so hopefully you guys can send us some of that soon.

Take care!
Mel

Mel found some spare time!

I know it has been a long time since I've posted, but it has been incredibly busy for me. We've been working very long days. Our first flights out are usually at 7am and usually we are back at a decent time, but a few days it's been 6:30-7pm. Then we work in the office for the rest of the night. The field work is great and we are getting caught up in the office so I think soon I will be able to institute a 'no work past 9pm' rule for myself!

The weather was great for a while, we definetely enjoyed it while it lasted. We have been seeing a LOT of wildlife. The neatest day was when a wolf walked RIGHT by us. That was really cool, but then it got even better. There were actually 3 caribou right around the hillside from us, and the wolf started chasing them! He wasn't fast enough to catch them but we could watch him stalking the caribou, it was amazing. Like the Discovery Channel but right in our own backyard!

Here's a picture of the wolf, his eyes were really yellow.


We also celebrated the solstice in camp on the 21st. We were lucky enough to get flown up to the top of a mountain over camp to watch the midnight sun. The crowd enjoyed some activities such as fossil hunting and chucking rocks down the mountain:


Trust me, throwing rocks down big hills doesn't get old and the middle of nowhere is a great place to try it out. We settled down to watch the midnight sun:


It was a nice break and it was neat to say that I've now seen the midnight sun during the Solstice. I hope everyone takes a look at the video that Mike posted - it's pretty cool. And hopefully my parents are having a good time in Mayo, I wish I could be there. Thankfully Mike will be 'taking them for lunch' tomorrow. Hopefully we will be able to post some pictures of that soon.

Take care!

Well Hi There.

Here is a second video for you all to watch. Another chopper video. This one is a bit linger than the one below, but has a bit of nice scenery and music added. It is a down-sampled version to fit on the web, but be sure to ask about the high definition version this fall. Most of the footage here is from our search mission for some hot springs rumored to be in the area.

Cheers,

Mike.

Hello Again,

It has been few days since the last post, but I am back and I have more photos to share. Everything is going well out here at Blende. The drill is spinning and we are getting lots of core to keep us busy. The weather has been wonderful and sunny for about two weeks, and we are getting a bit of rain today, which is a bit of a nice change but I hope it does not stay. Just like last year there are marmots and ground squirrels around, only this year they have taken a liking to the plywood in camp instead of just the old core boxes at the old camp. There have been a few caribou around the area, which is nice to see as we only had a single caribou sighting last year.

We are off of the pad that is in the picture, and onto a sweeter looking spot... stayed tuned to see some photos when I get some. Have great time wherever you are!

Mike.

The drill sitting up on a ridge East of camp. The second drill set up. This pad had a 1500m vertical lift.

Emily, our geotech/geology summer student logging some of the core.

Jordan, one of the core splitting boys... splitting core.

The core splitter

Mike, our camp maintenance/core splitter dude