July 8, 2016 Farewell Canadian Rockies

July 8, 2016 Farewell Canadian Rockies

We awoke again to rain.  A good steady heavy rain pelting our tents.  Anders said as he listened to the rain before crawling out to take down his tent, he had figured the chance of three days of straight rain.  Predictably the odds were only a 3 percent chance of rain for three straight days. Yes, and we got it.

We packed our tents in rain.  It was great having my new anniversary present, an REI tent which allowed me to leave the rain fly up and take down the inner tent.  Great feature and a great tent for this trip.  (Al and I celebrated our 44^th anniversary July 1^st while I was up north here.)  We had a tarp each night stretched between trees and our truck’s tail gate which always proved great.  This was especially true this morning as we could lay our gear out of the rain while we loaded the truck.

Again we were so appreciative of the little wooden pavilion where we could cook, eat, sit in front of the fire in the little wood stove, and dry gear.
Last night Berto climbed the wall because we were so soaked that we hung gear from the rafters.  Boots sat around the stove drying and clothes hung on the wall drying until the rain grew heavier and blew in. 

With the rain pelting we soon developed two streams pouring under the wall into the center and out again.  All is wet with moisture thick in the air.
 

The moisture so thick in the air along the flooded river.

With our gear packed, 

we enjoyed our last field breakfast to the melody of the Testa River. I took one last photo  before our drive over the Canadian Rockies.  The clouds hung low on the mountains, the valleys were filled with clouds and the clouds floated gently over the mountains. Feathers swirling and swirling.  Tepee Mountains is not visible.  We think about how fortunate we were to have had the window in the rain yesterday to climb the Tepee ridge.

 

Drenched from our climb up Teepee Ridge

As we drove out of the campground a “Yeah! Team!” rang out.

I posed the question to everyone, "What made you most happy or pleased with this trip?"

Anders replied first. “We did it.  We actually completed it.  The chances of hitting all six sites and getting something with so little knowledge was about 50-50.  We had no information for area ABC (Alberta Central) and ABN (Alberta North) and BCN (British Columbia North), nothing.  A 50-50 chance of doing it.”

Berto: “I enjoy solving field problems.  I enjoy going through the glory of nice days and surviving the miserable ones with your friends while doing science.”

Heather: “We spend so much time looking at the theoretical and abstract. It’s a special opportunity getting to be in the landscape.  To see the ground where you have worked.  It's special to be a part of the longest cosmogenic transect.  It is a treat to be the people to go out and make the observations that other people will use.  To see the real glacial features.  To see the real and not just read about and study the charts of others.”
 

Having enjoyed the thoughtful comments of the other crew members I replied, “I feel honored to have been asked to be the outreach educator for this research, to actually see the glacial features, to listen to the process of selecting sites, to be a part of collecting samples. To actually see science in the field, to be a part of glacial science research. ”

We have a five hour drive ahead of us back to St. John where we will fly to Vancouver.  I will fly to O’Hare.  Anders and Heather fly to Portland and Corvallis.  Berto will drive the Expedition back to Edmonton.  He will ship the six boxes of samples to Corvallis.  Each sample collected is about 2 kilograms sandstone or granite or about 4.4 pounds.  With  6 boxes of 71 samples, about 150 kilograms (over 300 pounds) of rock will be shipped.

70km is the speed limit through the town of Prophets River.  We saw a police truck sitting off on a side road.  There is nothing left of Prophets River.  The prefabs are empty as is the gas station café.  Nonetheless there sits the police enforcing the speed limit.  The town of Steamboat up the road is also totally empty, but it also had a speed limit.  The Alcan Highway clear and wide heads north and south.  It would be so easy to not slow down.  There is no indication for such a need, except the little sign. In a world of such enormous scale, the small is so deceptive.  What do I take away from the Canadian Rockies at 59 degrees north?  Scale.  I have seen many ranges of mountain, deserts and plains.  I have never seen such an enormous world of peak after peak.

Stops on the Alcan in Northern British Columbia

Anther little restaurant and gas station

Isolated sheds

Work crews pulled off to the side of the Alcan.

We have been in bear country, with warnings for vigilance everywhere.   We have been careful, always calling out to announce our presence even when walking from campsite to truck, having a shot gun 

Hiking out with  our shotgun.

with us on our treks, and carrying our bear spray throughout camp. Campsites up here are very clean.  We picked up out of the dirt every bit of food that we dropped.  The bear proof garbage can easily kept me out. We are now driving south and there to our right, I see a little black bear; oh so fitting.

I caught a picture of our sixth and last bear sighting.