Booners and berry creations

Thomas, Chris, Dan and I and bulging suitcases enroute to G.P. 

Just as I'm getting used to surprise weekend day(s) off, my exit is coming up. Usually the first one out, summer gems Thomas and Angie have already (and grudgingly, I think) left the north for school in southern locales.  Final night celebrations and ultimately tear-filled goodbyes around the fire, dessert table, sushi bar, and orgasmic Alberta pub served as a tiny tribute to true friends.  Their genuine East Coast hearts, smiles and kindness will be sorely missed.

Keen to show Dan a smattering of what I do, I packed him into my pickup for a journey down to one of my favourite areas, the Murray.  A Chetwynd resident for three years, Dan had yet to make the trip into Monkman Provincial Park to see Kineuso Falls.  Blown away by their late season volume, jealous of the river boaters at the base of the falls and curious about the fishing downstream assured me there'll be further visits.  

Dan's blueberry haul

While I zipped around the blocks checking for lammas growth, Dan grabbed an empty water bottle and collected as many blueberries as he could on the sandy pine flats.  Cleaned and sorted the following morning, he whipped up knock-out blueberry pancakes - nearly as good as my Saskatoon berry muffins.  

Saskatoon muffins turned out fabulous!

Rounding up another boat and another angler, The Mink made another appearance in a northern lake.  

Shaun captains while Colin fishes

A bit of running around on puzzle-like hydro roads eventually delivered us to Pete Lake, 38 kilometers up the Moberly.  Constrained my another engagement in town, it was a fast fish, but a good one!  Dan hooked up with a Rainbow but the wiley fella jumped the hook.  

Stern man Dan with the catch

I hooked into another, larger cousin of the escapee and was able to maneuver it into the waiting net.  My first trout as far as I know!

My Ragin Rainbow! 

Summer score: Sheri 8, Dan :0

Another season raises satisfaction questions

Questions and conversations of "what am I doing with myself?" and "is this industry still for me?" and "do I really want to sharing a holiday trailer with coworkers deep in the woods miles and miles from friends and loved ones?" and "are the novelty, majesty, passion waning?" have been festering this season. 

My current gig requires that I pack Big Blue with wool sweaters, thermals, crib board, a scantly used bar of soap and a coworker and I sharing a space that isn't much bigger than my uncle Frank's sailboat.  Fighting free growing blocks by day and a losing battle of furnace wars by night, personal satisfaction queries are intensifying.  

This is my fourth summer in Chetwynd, fifth in B.C. and sixth in the Peace.  A wanderer by (and of) nature, traveler by choice and up-to-now willing bush bunny, longer term factors are weighing in on potential future projections.  With only each other and, more often, our own echos for company, my fellow bush bunnies and rats are heaps of fun but I long for the warmth of lovely fella and riotous laugh of girlfriends.

Mercifully surrounded by friends, family and acquaintances who are equally unsorted, trading full-time jobs for a SCUBA tank and more interested in spending a beer together than texting, I'm comforted that feelings of searching, longing, AAHHhhhh are part of (eeekk!) being a grown up.

      

Anemone patens                                     Calypso bulbosa

It's May Long in the Peace.  Grab your toques and layer up with patience, determination and northern Git 'Er Dun.

Ribes triste?

It's been a while since I saw a wolf, but their sign is everywhere from tracks to scat to kills.

Coworker Colin and I saw another black bear and two of their grizzly cousins this shift by Tumbler Ridge.

 Typical offices 

The volume coming over Kineuso Falls, the Niagara of the North, is truly staggering at the moment.