Wicket and I were up at 4 a.m., and on the road by 4:30, heading for LaRonge, about 4 1/2 hrs away. It was a nice morning, so figured I had better watch for wildlife, because they would likely starting to move about that time. Only wildlife I saw was a cow moose with 2 babies in an canola field. It would have been a beautiful picture, but of course, my camera was in one of my bags in the trunk of the car, so gave up on that idea. As we got to Bjorkdale, I saw a couple of cars on the road going into town and 3 people on the road, which made me a little nervous, wondering if it was someone going to try to stop the car, etc., but it was the Police taking pictures. A truck had missed the turn and sheered off a power pole. I couldn't see much, but did see that it was burned , but of course they didn't tell me anything . I found out later that it was Beaner Desrosier that had gone off the road, hit the power pole and sheered it right off. Someone came along and saw him in the truck and it was on fired. He was pulled out of the truck and soon after it blew up, lucky for him he got out alive.
We got to LaRonge at 8:30, stopped and had breakfast and then headed for JP's where I loaded my bags into his truck and left the car at his impound. He took us to the float plane to get us up to Halliday Camp, which is about 20 km west of McArthur Mine site. As we were coming up, we saw a number of small forest fires, and one big one. We arrived here at about 1 p.m. There are 26 men here in camp, but I have a helper, who is a 17 year old boy. He is very eager to learn and wants to learn enough about cooking so that he can be hired on as a cook instead of a helper. According to him, all I'm to do is cook, he does the cleaning, dishes, and makes all the salads, etc. but he does really appreciate it when I help him with dishes, and cleanup, which I do when I'm waiting for something to come out of the oven, or what ever. If I'm standing there waiting, I may as well help him, and he is more than willing to help out, if I need help, which is nice.
It is beautiful here, other than for the fact that a forest fire went through here a couple of years ago, and there are alot of dead trees here, but to look across the lake is just gorgeous. Today, I took a picture of the smoke rising from the big fire that is about 30 miles away from us, on the south side of the lake.
Things are a little different here compared to other camps. We are up at 5, but they don't come in for breakfast until 6:30, so it gives a little more time to get ready, which is nice, and also, the generator goes all night, so if i want to get up earlier, or wake up at least, either I can read for a while, or can get up and do something, and have it finished before the heat of the day, and then can take a little more time off during the day when it is so hot out. We do get a nice breeze off the lake, so that helps. It cools off quite a bit at night, so if I open all the doors and windows in the tent, when I come back at 7:30, by the time I'm ready to go to bed at 9:30, it's nice and cool in the tent and can have a good night sleep.
We got to LaRonge at 8:30, stopped and had breakfast and then headed for JP's where I loaded my bags into his truck and left the car at his impound. He took us to the float plane to get us up to Halliday Camp, which is about 20 km west of McArthur Mine site. As we were coming up, we saw a number of small forest fires, and one big one. We arrived here at about 1 p.m. There are 26 men here in camp, but I have a helper, who is a 17 year old boy. He is very eager to learn and wants to learn enough about cooking so that he can be hired on as a cook instead of a helper. According to him, all I'm to do is cook, he does the cleaning, dishes, and makes all the salads, etc. but he does really appreciate it when I help him with dishes, and cleanup, which I do when I'm waiting for something to come out of the oven, or what ever. If I'm standing there waiting, I may as well help him, and he is more than willing to help out, if I need help, which is nice.
It is beautiful here, other than for the fact that a forest fire went through here a couple of years ago, and there are alot of dead trees here, but to look across the lake is just gorgeous. Today, I took a picture of the smoke rising from the big fire that is about 30 miles away from us, on the south side of the lake.
Things are a little different here compared to other camps. We are up at 5, but they don't come in for breakfast until 6:30, so it gives a little more time to get ready, which is nice, and also, the generator goes all night, so if i want to get up earlier, or wake up at least, either I can read for a while, or can get up and do something, and have it finished before the heat of the day, and then can take a little more time off during the day when it is so hot out. We do get a nice breeze off the lake, so that helps. It cools off quite a bit at night, so if I open all the doors and windows in the tent, when I come back at 7:30, by the time I'm ready to go to bed at 9:30, it's nice and cool in the tent and can have a good night sleep.
