Snowshoes and Packboards - continued
6.
The following morning the temperature had risen to minus twenty and a light snow was falling. However the wind had virtually stopped and in comparison to the previous few days it was almost spring like.
Milford was now adequately trained and toughened enough that he and Jerry were able to maintain a similar pace to the other two. They settled down to the routine and unexciting chore of strip cruising.
This meant that every tree in each half chain by two and a half chain plot had to be tallied and recorded by specie and estimated diameter. In at least every two plots four randomly selected trees had to have the diameter accurately measured using a special tape, the height measured using an abney level and the age determined using an increment borer. Also with the borer the last ten years of growth was measured and recorded. It was slow tedious work. For the compassman it meant he had to travel in a straight line, breaking trail all day, for the cruiser it meant going back and forth in each plot counting and recording the trees, breaking his own trails, not able to travel at any rapid speed.
The only time they got a break from breaking trail was on the journey back to camp each night when they could follow down the base line trail.
Now that it had warmed up and their productivity was acceptable; both pairs took the time to take lunch breaks of a half to a full hour. Usually at these times they would also take a few extra heights, diameters and ages.
They tried to maintain a rate of one hundred and twenty chains per day. This objective was affected by temperature, terrain, snow conditions, open ground and the amount of windfall on their routes. Timber size and age also had an affect, as normally in smaller and younger stands, there were more trees to tally and their proximity to each other made both the compassing and the counting more difficult. They knew that each day that they got further from camp it would be harder to keep up the desired pace.
The first few days of steady cruising they worked well into the day and arrived back in camp near dark. The snow kept falling intermittently so it did not become a factor.
After another three days went by the decision was made that on the following morning one pair would go to town for more supplies while the other two would stay and cruise. Jerry and Milford got the lucky straw.
They figured that by the time they walked down the lake, got the jeep going, made the trip into town and purchased the supplies that they could not get back the same day.
Jerry and Milford left before seven am and just after seven Harv and Ken headed back out onto the trail. The temperature was now up to fifteen below, by ten am it was minus ten and the snow started falling in earnest.
As luck would have it that day the cruise line brought them onto a patch of immature tees no larger than three to four inches in diameter and about fifteen feet in height. This made the tallying easy but slowed their progress. The snow fell through the day and the two times they had to pass through the immature trees the going was miserable due to the snow being knocked onto their heads and shoulders by their own passage.
When they got back to the baseline in the late afternoon their clothes were wet through to the skin and the return trail had several inches of new snow; they headed back to camp after only a hundred chains completed.
In the mean time, Jerry and Milford were at the old shack in less than two hours, but when they went to start the jeep it wouldn’t start. Jerry made a smoke pot from an old coffee tin and using chips and sawdust from the wood box got a smoldering fire under the jeep’s oil pan, then took the battery into the cabin, started a fire and proceeded to warm the battery. Shortly before noon the jeep motor reluctantly turned over then fired and in a few moments was running smoothly. They pulled into ‘The Fort’ in the early afternoon. Jerry reported in at the Ranger Office, picked up an envelope of mail, then went to the local store and shopped for the new supplies. By the time they headed back up the ‘North” road, the snow that had been falling steadily had turned into a storm. Driving conditions deteriated as darkness started to fall but they finally pulled up at the cabin again about seven o’clock. They had no bedding or cooking utensils as everything was at the camp, so after getting a roaring fire going they heated a couple of tins of soup in the tins then stretched out on the cots fully clothed.
They were heading up the lake, toboggan in tow before six the next morning.
However it had snowed hard well into the night; a few flakes were still coming down; there was a foot of fresh snow on the ice and the going was slow. It was over three hours before they reached the camp.
After the night that they had just put in and the three hours of breaking trail, Jerry decided to stay in camp and have dinner ready for the other two when they got back that evening. He noted that because of the banked snow around the tent that the new snow was lying on the fly and not sliding, this meant shoveling all around the tent to create a place for the new snow to slide to. Once this new task had been taken care of they made lunch and as they were sitting Jerry opened the mail envelope.
Included with a smattering of personal mail was a radiogram to the Ranger asking him to get word to Jerry that a position had become available in one of the Ranger Districts and he should report to Prince George by the twentieth of February!
Jerry wasn’t quite sure what the date was so he searched around and found the grocery bill from the day before. It read February 16. Harv and Ken arrived about five, their smiles at seeing the camp lit up and smelling wood smoke quickly faded when Jerry broke the news.
Finally Harv said; “Well anyway congratulations Jerry, good news for you. But what are you going to do about Milford?”
“I’ve been thinking about that and I think he should stay on with you two, it should help a bit. Also do you want to stay here right now or should we all go in, you could take a break and then come back.”
After the recent ordeal, it was not a hard decision. No one had bathed since their arrival, the long days and lack of sleep was starting to wear them all down, not a hard decision at all.
The next morning they were on the baseline trail by seven and neither crew arrived back at camp until after six.
The day following that, February nineteenth they all headed down the trail to the lake. The temperature was a balmy twelve below with just a light snow falling.
Jerry’s jeep started with no trouble, they jump started the second one and by mid afternoon they reached the outskirts of Prince George.
7.
Only Jerry and Harv went into the office the following morning. It was quickly confirmed that after a two-day layoff Harv, Ken and Milford would return and finish the cruise. This would not be as fast as with two crews but would be faster than just the usual pair. One man could take all the samples and spell off the one compassing from breaking trail all day.
The short holiday passed quickly and two mornings later the trio were pulling out just before eight in the morning. The temperature had warmed up to just below freezing. By the time they were going through Fort St. James large raindrops were hitting the windshield. They had taken packed lunches and shortly after noon were at the shack inside the jeep. The rain had slackened to a drizzle but the air was quite warm.
After lunch, they strapped on their snowshoes and headed up the lake, each with a light pack of a few extra supplies. The first half mile was quite good snow shoeing as the snow was packing well, but the rain started coming harder and in a short time they were alternating as the lead man every ten minutes or so. A layer of slush was building up under the surface of the snow and in a very short time their snow shoes were starting to build a cake of half frozen slush along the bottom side. It took two and a half hours to reach the exit point from the lake.
Conditions were much better once under the trees; although large chunks of snow were starting to tumble from the branches above, some of them hitting heads or shoulders quite solidly. They arrived at the camp around four and found the fly that stretched out past the tent had collapsed on one corner from the weight of falling snow chunks. This was quickly repaired; they got a fire going and settled down to put in a long evening.
The next morning they were on the trail at the usual time, the moose had again visited their packed trail and had destroyed it worst than the first time. They again took turns leading and because of new snow and the fact that it was just about freezing the trail packed in quickly and the third man had easy going.
The new snow and the warm temperature however soon impacted on their speed when once again they were running the strip lines. The third man system however, compensated somewhat and in spite of being further out on the trail they managed that day to exceed the hundred and twenty chain goal by twenty chains.
That night the temperature cooled again, the thermometer reading minus fifteen the next morning. They were almost ecstatic over that. The snow would be crusty and the packed trail would be hard. It would still be cool enough so they wouldn’t get wet from the inside out because of sweat.
Everyday for the next week they exceeded their goal and on one notable day actually completed over two hundred chains, which is what they would average during the summer. This fete was aided by the condition of the base line trail and they could on the trip out and back go along at a trot.
Finally after almost a month the last day of cruising rolled around, with it also came a windstorm starting at suppertime only this time it brought ‘chinook’ conditions with it.
By morning the thermometer was registering thirty-eight degrees and the wind was still blowing.
The trail was still in good shape but the conditions off the trail were just the opposite. The snow was heavy and soft. There were icy puddles in many of the depressions. However they were determined to finish that day and finally got back to the base line just before six and started the five miles back to camp.
It took two hours and if had not been for a packed trail to follow they may well had to make an overnight camp.
The ‘chinook’ continued although the wind slackened somewhat.
The next morning as they started to break camp they realized that they had a dilemma, with the snow conditions so badly deterating, they would not be able to make a round trip and back to the cabin a second time by night fall. They finally decided to leave the tent up with the stove, some food and their sleeping bags. That would all go in the last trip.
They each made two trips out to the lake, by the time they started the second trip the trail was breaking down and it took a full hour to plow through the slushy mess.
Finally they loaded the toboggan and headed out. There was no actual snow; just a wet slush that even on their snowshoes was over their ankles. The rawhide on their snowshoes already wet from packing out started stretching and with the weight of wet slush lying on top of the webbing they soon became more of a hindrance than an asset.
They tried taking their snowshoes off but the layer of wet slush and water on the ice underneath provided no traction, they put the snowshoes back on. It took over three hours to reach the shack.
After a brief rest, they unloaded the toboggan and their packs into the vehicles, then with no choice other than spending a sleepless night in the shack they headed back up the lake.
Four hours later they stumbled into camp, dog-tired. They were all wet from the inside out and the outside in and even though by comparison the air was warm, they started the fire and stoked it up so that they could dry out as much as possible.
They decided to get up early so that if it cooled during the night they would be able to take advantage of any frost that might occur.
By six the next morning the camp was down and they were on the trail. It had cooled to just freezing so conditions were slightly improved for snowshoeing. But the trail condition from the day before was still bad and being heavily loaded it took almost an hour to do the mile. Conditions on the lake were actually worse as there was now a thin layer of ice over the slush that they broke through at every step.
They finally arrived at the shack around eleven, transferred everything into the jeeps and were on the road in an hour.
8.
The next morning all three reported into the office, the fieldwork was finished for now but the compilation; volume calculation and mapping would take another three days. Once that was completed a boundary would have to be blazed around the final perimeter but that would have to wait until after the snow was gone.
Harv went to Gordon Wolcott’s office first to let him know they were back and to see what was happening with Milford.
Gordon was his usually breezy self and his opening comment was, “Well finally got tired of holidaying eh? I suppose now you want some more time off.” Happily he smiled and laughed as he said those words.
He said he would go down the hall and fill all three of them in on what was going to happen.
When they got to the room where Ken was showing Milford how to do the paper work, Gordon joked and laughed for a couple of minutes the said, “Okay Ken you will be taking over from Jerry as cruiser and Milford you will be going with Ken as his compassman. Harv, we’ll find you a new man when the paper work here is done.”
Milford looked up and said, “I would like to have my time off starting tomorrow plus my overtime.”
“That’s not how it works son.” Said Gordon, “First there is no overtime, just time off for weekends worked and the paper work has to be done first.”
Milford got red in the face, started to say something then changed his mind.
Gordon said, “Okay guys, fly at it maybe we can do lunch together.”
When he left Harv walked over to Ken shook hands and said, “Well that was good news, good for you. But I gotta tell you I hope it’s you that gets to blaze the boundaries.”
Ken laughed, said nothing but there was no hiding the look of relief over the promotion.
When lunchtime rolled around, Milford said that he had an errand to run. The other two went down the hall, collected Gordon and took him out and stuck him with their lunch bill.
A few moments after lunch, Gordon got a phone call from Milford saying that he wouldn’t be back as he was quitting.
Now it was a four-day compilation job then off to the next job.
END
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