field report

Camp 1 has been a success. We've had four days looking at rocks that I find utterly baffling. But that's the point; understanding begins with confusion. To compensate for my lack of comprehension, I've sampled just about everything in sight. It's going to be a long winter of looking at this stuff.

The weather's been highly erratic. It showers every day, but we also get a lot of nice sun. We hiked up into alpine on Sunday, through a burn above a logged area. The logging roads are brilliant; only built within the last couple of years, so they haven't had time to wash out, and they're not in use except for us and stoned tree planters. The only problem is that they're not on any maps (except Google Earth). They'll probably be on the airphotos I've ordered (more than $200 worth) since they were flown last summer.

We've seen a few black bear, no grizzlies. There's a young one we've seen twice at the same location on the highway from Revelstoke to Mica Creek, and from high up on a logging road on the mountain above our campsite, we saw two bear walking away from our camp. Thoughts of "Oh shit, they'll have wrecked the kitchen, and will be back for more" went through our heads as we quickly drove down to camp... but they hadn't touched a thing. In fact their tracks didn't even go into the kitchen area. If they smelled our food, the smell of humans was a stronger deterrent. And we did stink. Anyway we drove along the road honking and yelling to drive them away and reinforce their fear of us. Didn't see hide nor hair of them again.

Day before yesterday, at around 4:30 pm, we were working our way down a long roadcut beside a logging road, and just as we found the coolest thing I'd seen all camp, it started to pour. The rain ruined the outcrop, making photos useless. We planned to go back to it yesterday morning on the way back to town, but it was raining again. Anyway, we'll get to see it tomorrow if the weather holds. For geologists: it's a boudin of amphibolite, which has been refolded within a larger boudin of psammite. Amazing structure. I'll post a photo when I get back to town.

We're just going back to the field for another four day camp today, and then back in Revelstoke
on Monday, to pick up Dr. Phil Simony (my second supervisor) who wants to have a good day of fieldwork with us on Tuesday. That night we'll drive all the way back to Calgary, because I have to fill out three bloody hours worth of OH&S paperwork, a protocol the university has just decided to enforce for field groups (apparently there's been some sort of incident with another grad student this summer, but I have no idea who or what happened).

Okay, that's all for now. I don't know how much longer we'll be able to sit in the Best Western parking lot stealing their wireless internet.

Cheers!