14/06/2010

I arrived back at the hotel where the boys were staying (I even paid for the night) after spending most of the morning with Megan. I said farewell to her and got some shit done (no pun intended (only ill get this)) in town before the boys and I headed to join the rest of the tree planting crew 4 hours away down a dirt road into the middle of nowhere.

I slept for most of the journey and when we arrived at camp it was raining and very muddy. It really was a shit show. It was good to meet some new tree planters and catch up with some old ones. Back to Planting!!! L

13/06/2010

After the epic hike up the mountain yesterday all of our legs were ruined, so i suppose you can understand why we slept in till 11am. We packed up our gear and left it at the shelter and headed further up the mountain to toboggan falls which was quite an amazing sight, the waterfall cascades down a 45 degree slope for about 300 meters or so.

After we decided to hike to a peak to get a view of the surrounding mountains, it was a difficult and even dangerous hike up as most of it was shale rock and at times very windy.

We made it to the top no problems where I took a panoramic and several pics of us as proof we did it, it really was an incredible view from where we were.

We hiked back down to the shelter to have lunch and pick up our gear for the trek back down, we didn’t leave the shelter till 3pm and it was 22km to the trail head.

It was a tedious walk down but we didn’t want to be caught out in the dark, even though it did rain, didn’t stop for any breaks and our feet were caning we made it back to the car at 8pm.

We drove the hour back to Jasper where we rushed having showers before grabbing some pizza as most places were closed. Sunday nights in Jasper is local night were all the locals drink at the Athabasca Hotel bar, it was a pretty crazy night as one of the girls working at the pizza shop we ate at earlier and I hooked up. Megan was crazy and although she talked a lot was a pretty sound girl… I went back to hers to “watch some cartoons”.

360 Pano at a peak near Mount Robson

12/06/2010

After a heavy nights drinking last night and not getting back to the hotel till 4am we hungoverly packed up out gear to leave at 9.30, get some food and hit the road.

Chris spent the early hours of the morning wrapped around the shared bathroom toilet throwing up meanwhile the rest of us crashed in the cramped bedroom where Alex and I were sleeping on the ground.

It was a bit of a slow start to the morning due to all the alcohol consumed last night but we got things organized and headed to the base of Mount Robson where we had to purchase the nights camping ground at the 22km mark and watch a crummy 13 minute video where we left after 2 minutes cause we didn’t want to spoil the sights that we would see on the hike anyway.

The hike at first was relatively easy leaving the start point at just after 11am and not too steep although at times it did pick up and with the weight of our things in our packs it was quite tiresome.

From the turquoise blue fresh water lakes, the gigantic crazy waterfalls, the amazing glaciers and of course the huge snowcapped peak of Mount Robson, this hike certainly was worth it although physically demanding.

The pictures Ill put up with this will certainly not justify the views we were seeing but trust me when I say it really was spectacular.

At about the 20km mark the boys wanted to get to the top of a peak to get a nice view, I did too but without having to climb the crazy cliffs and steep inclines to get there.

We found one peak that looked doable but we had to cross a bunch of glacier freezing shallow water rivers having to take our boots off to cross them only to find the last river too deep to cross. At this point we had to turn around spoiling the boy’s plans and I suppose mine too only to have to cross the rivers again without boots. The water was unbearably cold to a point where our feet were hurting from the chill.

Another 2km walk to the campground and some more amazing views along the way including the thundering crashes of avalanches on the other side of the mountain we made it to the campground we paid for. There were quite a few people here all camped out (Mostly Eastern European’s and Germans) with a cabin to chill out in.

It really was a hell of a walk and after eating our cold baked beans, tuna, bread and a shot of rum we headed off to bed.

The hike Up

Me on a bridge up to Mount Robson

4 Day break between tree planting contracts

11/06/2010

Me and the boys headed to Jasper for the short 3 day break between contracts and moving camps to Alberta. We left shortly after cleaning up camp at Tachick camping grounds near Vanderhoof where our base camp was for a few shifts. The road trip towards Jasper in Cole’s car was pretty cramped as we had quite a lot of gear but the views we got on the way into and through the Rockies were pretty spectacular especially passing by Mount Robson, the tallest mountain in BC.

We stopped off for a short hike through an ancient forest with some humungous trees apparently 2000 years old for an hour or so to stretch our legs and get some air (Cole’s car doesn’t smell great at the best of times but with four sweaty tree planters inside… you get the idea). Anyways it was a nice little break in the road trip.

We arrived at the tourist office in Jasper looking for a trek we could do nearby to get to a peak of a mountain and get a nice panoramic view, unfortunately the woman helping us told us there was a late start to the spring and a lot of the routes were inaccessible because of snow, this was a little disappointing as we really wanted to do a hike as the camping is cheap.

We went in search of some accommodation but the cheapest we could find was a nearby hotel for $80 a night for 2 people (so, f’ing expensive) but we managed to squeeze the four of us in the shoebox of a room that had a shared bathroom down the hall.

We went on a night out drinking in the evening going to a place that brewed their own beers, it again was a little pricy but the beers were very tasty and brewed in the area.

Jasper is a small touristy town with only 5000 permanent residents and I should have expected the prices to be steep but just not that steep, and although I have been making very good money planting, I am just wanting to make my money last as long as it can when im traveling to and around my next destination.

The night out was good fun, we went to several bars meeting with some randoms and also played a bit of pool.

During the course of the evening the boys and I agreed on hiking up to the 22km + trail to Mount Robson the following day from the base 1 hours drive from Jasper.

Mount Robson

Ancient Tree 2000yo

Tree Planting Canada 2010

For the past month I have been tree planting in and around Prince george in British Colombia in Canada, I did this last year as I was told that the pay for seasonal work.

Last year I was on Katies crew of 12 people and as it was my rookie year the pay was alright, but not great. This year however and as my planting skills have improved my daily pay has skyrocketed from averaging $100 - $150 a day last year to upwards of $250 a day working with Babs crew of about 12 people. Three of the guys i worked with last year Chris, Cole and Alex came back this year that certainly made coming back easier. The work is incredibly tedious and stressful on your body because your working as hard as you can all day to plant the trees and make good money, its generally 4 days on and 1 day off and the days you plant the one thing we all look forward to is whats for dinner. Dinner is cooked by our camp cook Judy who makes excellent food and there is always more than enough to go around.