Weblog: Arrived at Ospika Camp

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I did the whole packing routine a second time, this time aided by more bags. It was lightly raining when our convoy finally left UNBC at around 8:30, with our pickup taking the rear. After a short while driving, we made a stop because Steve's (one of the managers) pickup was wobbling, so he checked the wheel bolts. We continued for a couple of hours up to Windy Point, where we made another stop for Gas. Shortly thereafter, we got onto the logging roads. At first the convoy stuck pretty close, but when it stopped raining the dust became extreme and we separated. Sometimes there was as much as 10km between Tom's pickup (first) and ours (last).

The route to Ospika heads north along the west side of Williston Lake, all the way to the north end, and then goes about half-way down the lake on the east side, so it's a long drive, but the as-the-crow-flies distance covered isn't that great. The pickups are all equipped with radios, so we could hear when there was other traffic on the roads. This being Sunday, there was not much.

I'm told that Williston Lake is the largest man-made lake in North America. Apparently they're having problems with the dam, and if it breaks a community of 10,000 will be wiped off the map.

Our truck had a couple of problems along the way. We hit a big bump going too fast, and the fender was knocked off our trailer because the shocks couldn't handle the bump. Our trailer was one of the heaviest, so we transferred some fuel to another, mostly empty, trailer. Later, the trailer's brakes stopped working. At one point we also found that we had been driving for more than an hour with the back door open, but thankfully nothing was lost.

We finally arrived at the camp at around 7:00pm. The camp is operated by Slocan for its employees and contractors working in the area. From outside it's not much to look at, but it's quite comfortable and it'll be nice to spend the next month here. The only way into the buildings is through the "wet room", which is the only room that outside clothing is allowed in. Inside, there's a dining hall, TV room, games/weights room, computer/chess room, and sauna. Right now there isn't any logging going on, so we have the camp almost to ourselves.

On arrival, we were slit into two groups because the dining room can't hold all of us. My group was assigned rooms, while the other group went for a camp orientation meeting and then ate. There aren't a lot of non-smoking rooms here, but I'm glad that I got one of them. The rooms are fine. Lots of storage, a bed, a desk, and 70s decor. Dinner was excellent. There's a huge choice of foods, and you can eat at healthy (or unhealthy) as you like. It's all good, down home, cooking.

This is the most remote place I've ever been. It would be impossible to get this far away from everything on Vancouver Island without hitting the ocean.