Here's an odd photo: Jackie, lost in Fort Assiniboine beside the world's largest wagon wheel, with an outhouse in the back of her truck.
One of Alberta's highways. In a few years, if the economic recession doesn't straighten out, a lot of North American highways are going to look like this.
A herd of bison. Buffalo burgers, anyone?
The Tim Horton's Childrens' Camp. We had some blocks up behind it. One of the ranchers basically told us that Tim Horton's was a communist organization that was using the children as a front to hide their nefarious activities. I was just disappointed that I couldn't get an extra-large cafe mocha.
Greg, setting up a cache for a couple of the planters.
Scooter, clearing out a roadway. This block was a lot worse than most, with over a hundred mature trees that had blown down across the road: it took six tanks of gas to clear the roads entirely for the trucks.
The planters said that the top of the block was a bit rocky.
Stephane, my former cook, coming for a visit.
A couple of rainbows over the dry tent. Take special note of the careful, symmetrical construction of this dry tent, and the logs and boxes that we used to anchor down each side of the tent, to protect it from windstorms. Not that we really needed to weigh it down much, of course, since it was sort of tucked in among the trees instead of being on an open landing. Or so we thought.
The road up to the blocks. We actually had to drive the trucks up a couple kilometers of the Trans-Canada Trail to get to work. It was strange coming across mountain bikers and hikers on the way to the block in the mornings. Sometimes, they stood and watched our planters and cheered them on.
A couple of Greg's trucks parked at the entrance to his block (which is hidden in the background).
A photo of the valley, taken from one of Greg's blocks. Actually, I took this because I liked the look of the rainstorm coming through the valley. Luckily, the rain missed our block.
I took this photo for Jim, my supervisor, who didn't actually see this block. Jim, I told you it had a bit of rock on it. It wasn't as bad as it looked though.
Another cache that Greg built for some tree boxes.
I included this photo for my dad. This was taken from Greg's block, facing northwest towards Exshaw. The Exshaw plant (where he used to work) is at the base of the mountain, sort of behind the straight strip of the TransCanada Highway that can be seen running through the valley. It was raining over there at the time, so it is impossible to actually see the plant.
Greg, cleaning up empty boxes.
Our main tree cache in camp.
This photo, taken from the TransCanada, shows several of the blocks that we planted. Next time that you're driving the TCH between Canmore and Cochrane (Alberta), take a look to the south when you are driving by the Stony Creek Casino. You'll see where we had our camp on the side of the mountain, right on one of the blocks in the area. They'll be a shade of light green by 2010, but the outlines of the blocks should still be pretty obvious for about the next decade, especially in the winters.
Oooh! Whose crew put up the dry tent? Didn't I say to use LOTS of heavy logs and rocks, because it ends up in the trees at least once every summer?
Shelley, opening the mess tent windows.
Another photo of Shelley.
Is this a photo of Greg? It looks like Captain Silvicool, the caped foreman?
This is what happens when I give the camera to Jackie for a few hours. She takes lots of photos of yellow flowers.
... and pink flowers.
... and purple flowers.
Kyla.
Fred.
Dylan.
Shauna.
Fraser.
Robyn.
Greg, teaching Shauna some new tricks.
Derek.
This is what part of camp would look like if you could levitate above it.
This kind of a view is not good - it distracts the planters from wanting to plant.
Another purple flower.
An owl. It's kind of rare to see them like this in daylight.
Nick, aka. Captain Caffeine.
Siera.
Tony, one of my foremen.
Matt. He just can't stop smiling.
Look at that pair. Yummy.
Burgers and ice cream makes everyone happy.
Sean, watering some of the trees.
I don't know what's in the woods, but it sure looks special with the sunlight shining on it that way.
Uh oh. A foot infection.
Another one of our larger caches, near the blocks outside of Sundre.
No exit? It looks more like "no entrance" to me.
Sarah.
Nate, giving Little Pete some guidance.
A herd of wild horses running across the block.
Jess, looking nervous. I think it's because Greg is about to throw part of a rotten deer carcass at her.
Another view from near the top of one of the blocks. You can just barely see the truck I was using for the day, looking pretty tiny down near the bottom of the block. You don't normally expect views like this when you're planting in Alberta - most of the time we see flat muddy ground with small ugly trees.