dSo if you thought I've had some wierd adventures already out here. Our Journey to Kananaskis and the set up of Camp is the longest most confusing adventure I've had.
It all started Wednesday night, I was cleaning my stuff up at the end of the day outside my car which was parked at the compound. Cal came up and asked me if i could take people with me in my car down to Kananaskis. I said I had room for their bodies but not their gear. So after some ambiguity about not knowing if I am driving people down the next day, I find out I am. So I throw some of my gear on the gear bus so that It will be there when I get there and so I had room for the other guys stuff. Next morning I head to the Hotel, they load up the bus except for those going down to kananaskis and 4 people who were 'let go'. Once we get everything sorted out and about to leave, My car has absolutely no room left in it. The trunk is bursting and their isn't much room in the inside either. We then head out and make it to MEC in edmonton, now this is where I panicked. I'm about to go to MEC and I have no room in my car and Nathan's truck (we were traveling together) was also loaded. It ended up not being that bad as was I bought wasn't that big. We then headed out of Edmonton but first stopped at the Great Canadian Liquor Store for two reasons, first it's cheap, really really cheap, and second and most important, they have Great Western! So the original plan was to buy about 12 of whatever I felt like, But then once we got there. A 6 of GOLD was under 6$, 12 Bottles was 15$ and 12 Cans was 13$. So I ended up getting 6 gold 12 light and 12 Pil, I'm set for at least 2 days. So once be bought this we had to put it somewhere, We made room in Nathan's truck and once we realized that we could fit more in the truck, the guys I was driving down went in and bought even more.
We then headed for Calgary and I had my watchful eye on the fuel level. With the back of the car so loaded down I was really paranoid about the the rate at which it was going down. I was hoping to make it to Olds. Once we hit Red Deer and my fuel gauge was beyond empty, the gauge clicks off at 36 liters while filling, It's a 45 liter tank! So the gauge reads beyond empty when I will have at least another 9 liters (150km) in the tank. We then ended up making it to calgary where once we were heading down Deerfoot it really started to rain, not being able to see further than 2 meters so that was really fun trying to not loose Nathan who seemed to just speed up in the Rain. We eventually get to Okatoaks and Nathan has to fill up again and we pass 'Big Rock' (The big rock that the beer is named after) and it's so cool. We keep on driving following the directions we got and we end up at a bridge across the Old Man River at 10 at night, one problem, the bridge has a locked gate. So we sit around waiting for the camp to arrive, we then get cold and make a fire on the side of the road, at Midnight Luke shows up with 2 more people in his car which has lost drive and reverse and only has 1st and 2nd. So at this point we decide to set up some tipi's with tarps to sleep under because all of our gear was on the gear bus that didn't arrive, nathan and I did have our tents but didn't set them up as his was at the front of his loaded truck box along with his food. So the only food we can get to is some beer, so we drink around the fire then end up going to sleep. Although i was basically sleeping on the ground in my jacket which then got wet so eventually i got up sat by the fire then slept in Nathan's truck, Nathan joined me in the truck about 10 min later because same thing happened to him. So it was a more interesting night then the night up in slave even.
The next morning was really fun as we finally found some food and after waiting till 11ish we drove back down the road to a fire warden station where we used the payphone there to call our boss who told us that the bus would be there in about an hour. 3.5 hours later the crew shows up, but still without our gear. what happened is that on thursday the bus blew a tire outside edmonton, after getting it fixed they made it into Calgary at about 10 and decided to sleep there, then the next morning the bus in the convoy blew it's engine about 20km out of Calgary, so it was quite an adventure for them too.
Well, we've now planted here for 4 days and I'm on my first day off in a long while. Here are some good pictures to keep you all entertained.
