Ups and Downs of Camp (So Far).
An upside: Being in the field is great. The places I’ve been so far are likely places where no one has ever stepped. The views I’ve seen haven’t been seen by many people. There’s no garbage around. No burnt out cars, tires or paint buckets every couple hundred meters, almost everything is untouched.
A downside: No trails! Walking through untouched woods isn’t easy. Some days covering only 2-3 km in 8 hours is very hard work. I’m never going to look at alders (a type of tangly leafy tree) the same way! I’ve already been on some ridiculous slopes (going both up and down) with 50 or 60 pounds of gear on my back. Seems my GPS doesn’t take into account elevation differences.
An upside: Taking a helicopter to work every morning. Not only is it by far the best way to commute to work, but on foggy days (ie: today) you get a day to relax and do trivial work around camp!
A downside: Stouts. Their mouths are essentially giant needles designed for piercing the skin of bears, moose and getting through bug jackets, sweatshirts, jeans and hats. As if that weren’t bad enough, they’re smart. They almost exclusively bite you where you can’t see them, like on the backs of your shoulders, and directly on your elbows. I’d post pictures of my shoulders right now if they didn’t look so terrible. I’ve literally 50 red itchy bumps on each shoulder that i received from stouts while I was wearing a long sleeve shirt and a bug jacket and the stouts still got through. You can feel it when they bite in too. Hopefully I’ll become immune to them soon!
An upside: A friend who sits on deck chair for some after dinner socializing, leans a little to the left, and cracks a leg of the chair off. The (former) chair leg is broken into about 100 pieces. Then 10 minutes later, after acquiring a “sturdy” fold up chair, leans on the left again to demonstrate being cramped up in an airplane seat and snaps off the leg of that chair!
A downside: The outhouse and everything else concerned with personal hygiene. Enough said.
An upside: Three actual prepared and cooked meals a day is amazing! The variety and quality of food has been excellent! Although nowadays, lunch usually consists of a peanut butter and jam sandwich in the middle of the field.
A downside: Weather, bears and forest fires breathing down our necks. Probably the only stressful parts of being in a camp are these. The weather seems to turn from good to bad to good in a matter of minutes and when it gets bad and thundery there’s that whole forest fire thing to worry about. Luckily forestry is monitoring everything all the time and are pretty on top of things! The bears are more of a nuisance than anything. A scary nuisance.
An upside: The people. Everyone here is friendly, and hilarious. Where else could you sit around a table and watch youtube videos with your boss?
A downside: Being away from friends and family. It goes without saying and it’s pretty obvious.
An upside: Being outside, and in the middle of nowhere, in the woods at 8 am everyday is so great.
Did I mention the stouts? *scratches shoulders
