Weblog: Babine
<< Previous Entry | Next Entry >>
Babine is sweet! The logging camp here is much nicer than Munro, though not as developed as Ospika. The blocks we're cutting are really nice. The terrain is almost flat and extremely sparse. In addition, we don't need to cut herbacious stuff, so we're mostly running from alder clump to alder clump. We're not applying herbicide here, which means no carrying 3l of herbicide, no problems with herbicide lines, and no blue all over you at the end of the day. The blocks are pretty close to camp and we're still working 8 hours per day, so altogether this is the best brushing I've had all summer. Yesterday we finished a block that had been worked on for about 5 hours the before the break, and then finished two other small blocks in one day. I think we did around 45 hectares, which was unheard of at any of the other contracts. I'm now on Vinlix's crew (Vinlix=Vincent+Felix), so basically I'm back with the old crew, which couldn't make me happier. In every way I'm so glad I got sent to Babine.
I left Mackenzie on a Greyhound bus at 2:10pm on Saturday, and arrived at around 4:30 in PG. The bus to Smithers didn't leave until 11:15pm, so first I stopped by the library and picked up a bunch more CDs to record, then saw S.W.A.T. at the movie theatre (movie was good standard action fare). Then I sat at Wendy's and read and recorded MDs until the bus left. I arrived in Mackenzie at 4:45am. I don't sleep well on busses and I got very little sleep, so I found a spot in front of a store with an overhang (because it was raining) to sleep for a while, until the police woke me up at 6:30. I then moved over to Tim Hortons to wait, since I didn't want to disturb Ian (who is in charge at Babine since Tom is with the other crews) so early in the morning. It was a major pain to do all that with all my gear, since I could barely manage to carry it all at once. Luckily one of the guys showed up pretty soon for coffee and helped me move all my stuff to the hotel they were staying at (which was nearby), so finally I was rid of it and could explore the town. I had lunch with the old crew (Felix, Vincent, etc.) at a pub (where I had the only beer I've drank all summer) and then waited around until the trucks left.
We stayed the night at a resort on Babine Lake, then in the morning drove to the logging camp. The reason we didn't go straight to the camp is that we have to cross the lake on a barge, and the barge doesn't run on weekends. I wish BC Ferries was as efficient as that barge. It landed, immediately people started driving on, totally self-guided, and as soon as the barge landed on the other side we were off.
Smithers is a nice town, much nicer than Mackenzie or PG. The downtown is really pretty, with lots of trees and buildings with nice facades. There seem to be a lot of Dutch here, based on the names on the stores. It seems to be quite protestant here, even the fire hall looks like a church. The people are friendly and seem happy. I'd like to come back some day to explore the area more, because it's full of lakes and hiking opportunities.
Something I forgot to mention in the previous log was that one day we got back to Mackenzie and the power was out. I'd used up almost all my groceries and nothing at all was open, not even 7-Eleven. My dinner consisted of a bit of cereal, some lettuce, and a couple of slices of bread. Breakfast and lunch the next day was whatever I could pick up at 7-eleven (which is the only thing open that early).
For the last few weeks, the hornets have been quite bad. People are getting stung all the time, one guy almost every day. So far I've been lucky and haven't been stung, even though I've almost cut down nests a couple of times.
12 days left until I go home!
Posted on Tue, 12 Aug 2020 at Babine Camp, BC, CA (altitude 735m) (map/google earth)
Copyright 1995-2006 Emanuel Borsboom.
All content on this site is licensed under a
Creative Commons License,
unless otherwise specified.