I'm leaving Alberta for the weekend to head back home for a couple of days and meet up with 2 of my best friends at a rock show in Quebec. It's going to be amazing and I am super pumped. But also a but sad to be leaving all my new friends here in Grande Prairie. I know it's stupid to be sad, its only 5 days! But I know I'll miss everyone. I can already tell that when we all go our separate ways at the end of August it's going to be a tear fest. In a way I feel like I haven't stopped traveling because everyone here that I'm meeting is young and super interesting and fun. My work partner is Jesse, the same guy I drove out here with and we have totally bonded and are now pretty much inseparable! He likes 90's CD's (we have collected almost all of the Big Shiny Tunes from garage sales and thrift shops) and lets me take a site selfie at every site we go to. You all know selfies are the way to my heart! Also, I am sharing a house in GP with 3 other girls who are all amazing, super intelligent, funny, talented, and I love them. Pretty sure we'll be best friends forever.
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| Me and Jesse at one of our wetlands |
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| My roomies Rianne, Isobel, Allina and me out looking at plants |
We work hard all day out in the wilderness and then party and have fun every night. Our job is kinda similar to geocaching, except the only reward for finding your point is doing lots of work haha! But I love it, even the worst day so far (13 hours of work, getting the quad stuck at least 10 times) has been awesome and I'd do it all again. We basically go out to randomly placed GPS points, which are in the most interesting spots - on the side of steep riverbanks, in the middle of wetlands, farmers fields, or thick black spruce forests you can barely walk through. We make our way there using trucks, quads and our own two feet, and then we start our surveys of plants, trees, soil, birds and other animals. At the end of the day we usually chill out at our campsite and have a few beers, cook some delicious food on the campfire, go fishing, canoeing and all kinds of stuff like that. It's really awesome and I have just continued my level of extreme happiness that I had while traveling. Lovin life.
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| For birding we have to get to our sites a half an hour before the sunrise. It makes for some really early mornings... I'm talking wake ups at 2 am. Not fun. But, when you get to see the sunrise over a beautiful marsh, and hear the birds singing their first morning songs just as the dawn breaks, it's totally worth it. |
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| Sometimes we also get to see the moon setting in the early morning. This was the view from our campsite at Smith one day as we left to do our bird site. How gorgeous can you get? |
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| So anyone who read my blog about my motorbike accident in Thailand knows that I have a phobia of driving small motorized vehicles. So me and quads didn't get along really well at first (meaning I was scared shitless of driving them lol) But now after almost 2 months, I totally love them! Vrrrrooooom Vroooom!! |
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| The prospect of driving the quads on and off the truck was pretty scary at first, but now I can do it like a pro! Fears are being conquered people!! |
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| Me, Cody and Rianne at one of our first survey sites beside a beautiful lake. |
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| One of my birding points was at the top of a huge hill, but I had a nice valley view from the top! |
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| We have to check the depth of wetlands to make sure they are deep enough to come back for further samples... this one was definitely deep enough! |
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| We had to take an Argo into this site. The Argo is like a mini tank that can go through and over ANYTHING!!! So fun. |
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| One of our sites was surrounded by this cool swampy forest. |
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| A couple of Eared Grebes came to check me out in this wetland. |
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| Pretty sure I've seen a deer every single day. |
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| Bears are pretty common too! The urge to cuddle them is strong. |
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| Fun times at the campsite... Chris got this bike from our neighbours... we later found out they got it from a hooker. It was then named the prosti-cycle. |
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| After work play time at the jungle gym! |
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| We make sure to stop at all the historical points of interest, including 12 foot Davis, who apparently made tons of cash from gold found in 12 feet of land he owned. Good on ya 12 ft D! |
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| Beach hang outs! |
