Life in a little log cabin: Working for Mark

Well, it's that time of year again. The time where I become Mark's field assistant and head out into the wide world to look at plants. It's a great excuse to explore somewhere new and enjoy the world. This year we headed to Chetwynd and Tumbler Ridge area in North-eastern BC.

Taking the NEW highway across to Mackenzie. What a beautiful looking road.

The new highway still isn't so bad.... Look how much room we have. At least compared with the old highway....

(The old highway.... or rather the way Google maps would have you go. We tried this in 2010.... not so good for the truck's paint job).

The locals walking down the highway. We saw a lot of wildlife on our drive.... 100's of rabbits; a black bear; a fox; an elk; three adult moose and best of all - twin baby moose! That's right, one of the mamas had not one, but two babies with her. Super cool.

This drive is pretty sweet! Great way to spend an evening.

Work Day 1

I was just sitting in the truck, ready to go to the site, when another one of the hotel guests walked across the parking lot.

At the site, ready to work. I've got my plant book, GPS, camera, bear spray, knife, pocket knife, watch, hand lens, whistle, hat, glasses, gators, hat.... just need my high vis shirt and the spot.

The view from Site 1. Life's pretty good.

Work Day 2

Look where we are. You're going to pay me to hike along this ridge with a gorgeous view of the lake? OK!

We love our job!

Reminds me of growing up in Georgian Bay. We had a great time hiking around there, didn't we, B?

Good feeling gone!

We had to bushwack 1.4 km from the lake into the bush through Devil's Club, stinging nettle, gooseberries, raspberries and other prickly no-fun plants. Oh, did I mention that the 1.4 km was uphill the whole way. At some points I had my hands on the ground in order to climb, it was that steep. And the brush was so tall that we played Marco Polo just to keep track of one another - and to keep the bears away.

On the way back down (we took a slightly different way, but it was no gentler), we followed a game trail which came upon this mud wallow. Looks like the moose have fun here.

So glad to see the UTV at the end of the day. Let's get back to the truck now.

Some tracks we saw on the way out. Not often you see bear, wolf and moose tracks together. :)

Work Day 3

Why do pipelines get the best views?

Mark working hard. Yes, he is surveying all the plants that are in the 'field' that the truck is parked in. You never know where you might find a rare species that could shut down the whole operation.