In a hurry this morning, looks like the rain has moved on. Off to Nanaimo for a couple of days.

Here's next installment.

  “Oh no, that just won’t work, this week you and Ken will help me get your food and camp supplies together, we can all head out Friday morning and overnight in Ft. St. James.  The Ranger tells me there is an old bunkhouse at the end of the road where we can stay until your camp is ready, he will have a ‘cat’ plow the road out for us.” Was the reply, he then went on, “I’ve made a list of everything you’ll need from the Regional Cache, you can get that all together today then get your groceries and pack them up after that.”   He passed a folder across his desk, and said, “Here’s your list and the application, map and aerial photos, you should have a look while we’re waiting for Milford, the new guy. You can use my office, I have a meeting to go to.” He grabbed his coffee cup and headed down the hall.

  Harv and Jerry stared at the folder lying in front of them, then Jerry said, “Well I guess we better have a look and see what we have.”

  They opened the file studied the application then unfolded the topographical map that was included.  The termination of the logging road and the cabin Gordon had mentioned were marked on the map and the boundaries of the area of application had been drawn in red.  Harv picked up a ruler and measured the distance from the cabin to the east boundary (closest boundary), a quick calculation set it at five miles down the lake plus another mile inland from the shore.  He looked at Jerry and said, “Well there goes any chance of working from the cabin, that’s over an hour each way just to access the closest point and even if we leave in the dark and come back in the dark it doesn’t leave many hours for cruising.”

  Jerry just nodded then said, “Look the application is tied to an old Special Timber License corner that starts here by the cabin and goes west for two miles, there is nothing surveyed any closer. And I’ve had to ‘tie’ into STL’s before and they are usually poorly marked.”

  “And it looks like the STL has been partly logged so there may be nothing.” Harv added.

  Jerry nodded and said, “Look here, this application is dated June 29^th, so where has it been all this time?”

  Harv just shrugged and said,  “If you like I’ll draw the boundaries out on the photos, I can use some of the land marks as reference points, it’ll be close enough.”

  “Sure, that’ll give me a chance to find and talk to my new compassman.” Jerry replied, then added, “I don’t think Ken is too happy, but he’s a good guy, he’ll be okay.”

  “Yeah, I know, we’ve always got along fine, it was just the surprise and doing it in front of us. I’ll go see where he went and get him to help with the photos.”

  Harv found Ken in one of the other offices and asked him to help with the photos, Ken followed without comment and within the hour the paper work was done.  As they were finishing, Harv cleared his throat and said, “Hey Ken, I know that was a bit of a shock a little while ago, it was to me too.  I just want you to know that I appreciate you have as much experience as I do, but there was only one opening and I guess I got lucky.” Ken said nothing but just looked Harv steadily in the eye. Harv continued,  “I’m not going to talk about this again, but I want you to know I’m glad we’re together, I know that we can be the best cruising pair they’ve ever had.” He held out his hand.

  Ken hesitated then briefly grasped the proffered hand and said, “Fine by me, you’re the boss.”

  Harv flushed slightly, started to reply, and then simply said, “Okay, I’ve got the warehouse list, lets go.”