Narrow Lake and Core

Well, this is post is a bit overdue, but that would be because I had a rather busy weekend, the details of which I will relate in due time.

There is (or rather, was) an old camp site on the shore of Narrow Lake, near the Kaslo Showing. I don't recall what there was in the way of infrastructure there, there may have been a shack tent frame or two, as well as an outhouse and six core racks. It's rather a moot point now, as last summer there was a fire which swept through the area, and burnt everything.

These fires were hot: there are no remnants of any of the (wooden) core boxes used to store the core, only charred fragments of the pressure-treated 4" x 4"s used to make the core racks, and many of the pieces of re-bar used in the racks were warped from the heat. We even found a glass vial that had melted in the heat.

So, what this means is that where previously six racks of core (very similar to those shown in some of the pictures from my previous post) stood, now there were six piles of rock, with bits of charred wood and pieces of rebar. This core is no longer of any use to us, because we can't verify which hole and at what depth any of it is from.

I figured I'd take advantage of this opportunity, so I found some old core boxes drillers had left at one site, brought them out there, and filled them up with some of the larger, nice-looking pieces of core. Why, you might ask? As a present. I'm bringing this core down for my mother, as a nice border for some of her gardens in our backyard. Gardening is something she has become quite involved with for the last few years, and she's always happy when I bring her attractive rocks to put in them. In total I'll have in the range of 50-55' of core to bring her, which should serve nicely to border a small garden. Fortunately, to the best of my knowledge, she doesn't read this blog, and so it will remain a surprise until the 16th, when she is coming up to Saskatoon for the day with my grandmother to watch my dad who will be racing at SIR.

Without further adieu, pictures!

Here is my buddy Rich, who I met through our mutual involvement in Scouting. We hired him on as a summer student this field season, and he did very well. Ky may know him, as he would've been a year ahead of her through basically all of her schooling.


This is a close-up of a burnt rack.


As you can see, this is a Cat with a backhoe mounted on it, standing over another pile of rock. I expect by now it will have bulldozed the remains of the rock and the core racks, as part of our site reclamation.


You can see on one of the quads there the bundle of core boxes I brought in to haul out selected core.



Now, I realize not everyone finds rocks as interesting as I do, so here are a few pictures of Narrow Lake. You will see it is rather aptly named.






Next up: My crazy weekend, and an updated picture of my beard!