Canada Day

July 1, Happy Canada Day!  Today, we experimented and actually came up short.  In 1956, Stalker mapped boulder erratics in the area outside of Edson, Alberta.  These erratics are the northern most mapped erratics.  An erratic is a rock that was carried by a glacier from its original bedrock source and then was dropped.  With this knowledge we headed out looking for these erratics using these maps and Google Earth.  We drove out Route 47.  By 9:30 we had located our first boulder.  A no trespassing sign was clearly posted on the fence and at the entrance of the field.  We called at the house just down the road, but no one was home.  They must have been out celebrating Canada Day. So off to the next site of mapped boulders.  The area is full of access roads to the gas well pads.  From a gas pad we spread out into the woods scouting for boulders.  Quickly we were in a bog.   The trees were so thick, like planted corn.  We soon realized it was a no go and started back.  WAIT!  There on the ground were little pink flowers – a Linnea.  I had been on the lookout for them and a step further and several more nice patches.  What a treat.  I have not seen these since in Quetico, Canada in 1996.

We drove around several additional roads and found one boulder and sampled it. The next two boulders looked promising but in the end we decided not to take the samples.  The boulders looked in situ, in place, but when Heather took a rock hammer to the edges up around the boulder she found moss not dirt.  We spent the rest of the morning driving these back roads and rejecting boulder after boulder.  Invariably they had been moved.  

All of this area is hummocky.  In the rolling forest we found little depressions, kettles.  Other areas were sandy with road cuts through little hills of sand.  These little sand hills are remnant of glacial sand dunes.  In the grass covering this sand were occasional red lilies blooming in full glory.  

So the old sand dunes were not a good sign.  They indicated that this area would have been a lake of meltwater when the ice sheet was melting, with the sediment later blown around.

At 2:00 we headed to Obed for higher ground.  On the map we could see ridges.  We drove around a few more gas roads up on the ridge, but decided again there had been too much disturbance from the construction of power lines and these roads.  So at 3:00 we headed west towards Hinton and then up 40 to Grande Cache.  Today's area provided only one boulder for having spent all morning in bear country carrying our bear spray.

You might wonder why when erratics had been mapped, we were not able to collect any specimens.  Stalker was merely mapping the erratics.  The erratics simply needed to be visible, they did not need to meet the standards we require.  The boggy areas, low spots, and sand dunes indicate that the area once was a lake.  Lake deposits possibly covered the boulders once the ice melted so a true reading would not be gotten as to when the ice had melted.  We knew this was risky and that ridges and hard rock provide greater assurance that boulders have not been moved; however, you never know unless you check it out.  At the end of the day, we do have our one sample.   

Friends of Alberto invited us to their home to watch the Grande Cache fireworks.  When we walked into their backyard we were stunned.  The yard looked out onto a meadow that stretched about three miles to the mountains in the distance where the sun would  slowly set. There we visited around a campfire and waited.   Finally it was barely dark enough for the fireworks.  We then looked to the right to watch the lovely display.  The sleepy children were retrieved from their beds and held in arms to watch.  It was nearly midnight.  Happy Canada Day from Northern Alberta!