Grande Cache

What a day is all I can say.  With yesterday a holiday and the morning drizzling we stood at the picnic table looking at our skimpy provisions of only a little cereal and not enough milk.  Quite quickly all agreed to head to town for a carry out breakfast. We found egg sandwiches and even the classic 2 eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast available for carry out at A&W.

With such fortifications, we headed for the mountains just outside of town.  The plan was to head to the mountains and ridges to collect on bedrock surfaces. We first drove up Muskeg Ridge, scanning the bedrock, which was a good sign.    We drove up and down logging roads tramping in logged areas as well as into the forests.  We were all armed with our bear spray, calling out periodically to prevent a surprise arrival.  There were cobbles in the till but the sandstone bedrock had produced lots of fine sediment, or the till.  The layer of till was thick, not providing the large boulders.  With no boulders in site we left for a ridge of Flood Mountain.  As we were getting ready to checkout a hillside rain struck.  Time to don our rain gear and head out across a bog and up a hillside. We found several boulders. While crossing a bog I saw more Linneas.  Such a treat.

Off next to Grande Mountain.  Hopes were high to find some good boulders.  At this point we had five samples.  Little did we anticipate the adventure that awaited us.  Last night as we watched the sun set we had seen lights on the top of Grande Mountain.  Today we were driving to its top on its back side on a road now labeled for all terrain vehicles.  It was washed out mountain surface road from the start.  One could only guess the last time it was graded.  The shoulders were washed out with ditches and boulders and no place to pull over.  The grade was steep with sharp switchbacks.  The walls of the mountain were crumbling.  We saw an old mine shaft and seams of coal.  Bedrock cropped right through the road surface and Berto had to carefully maneuver around these outcrops.  This road made the Cow dung reservoir road to the Hanksville Burpee quarry look like a thoroughfare.  Finally we reached a point with the grade so steep and the bedrock so prominent like steel ridges; we could go no further and had to creep back down to a fortunate turn off of an old road long abandoned.  There we left the Ford Explorer and headed up the steep grade to walk the last two and a half miles to the top on foot.  The rain in the morning had filled the ruts and potholes with water.  Fortunately it was sandier than clay, although it was quite greasy.  Beds of lupines flanked the shady side of the road.  Near the top, Alpine flowers now filled the shoulders.  Boulders were found thickly covered with lichen.  We sampled boulders that were on top of the slope and not on the side where the mountain would have sheltered. We spread out, some to the shoulders were and some to prospect.  Jorie and I armed with our bear spray and calling out announcing our arrival headed for the summit.  Clouds were threatening rain and we all kept our eye on the sky.  This was not place to be if rain were to come.  The view was spectacular as we proceeded up Grande.  The meadows spread to the side of the little road.  Forget-me-nots in their rich, rich blue spread across the wind swept Alpine meadows.  I took pictures of several plants I had not seen before for future identification.  At the top we only found weathered sandstone bedrock.  No boulders.  We returned to the others and reported the lack of boulders on top.  As Heather finished her notes at the last site, Anders and Berto headed back up to grab the 4 small cobbles of Gog, a Cambrian quartzite. Time to head back to the Explorer.

Slowly slowly, Berto crept down the mountain in 4 low dodging the outcrops and avoiding the washouts.  The 15% grade made it impossible for him to see the road immediately in front.  Anders stuck his head out of the window to give him directions.

The lack of till or sediment on top was probably a result of very thin ice flowing over the mountain top, thus hot being produced.  The boulders were riding on thin ice resulting in a localized distribution near the summit but not at the summit.  As we were on our way, Anders asked, “What did we learn today?”  Heather responded, “Stick to the field plan.  We went and did what we came to do and it worked.”  

Tonight Heather and Anders arranged the samples from the last three days consecutively according to their sequential number of when collected.  The 39 samples were backed in three Roughneck tubs.  To keep the specimens from slipping sheets are stuffed in the top.  Britta will now drive these back to Edmonton where they then will be shipped to Oregon State University.  First load on their way.

Yes, on Mount Grande we found our “grande cache” of specimens.  Today produced 21 samples.  17 samples from Mount Grande of which 4 are cobblers of Gog found on bedrock up on Grande.  Mount Grande made for a grand day of collecting.

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!

Booulder Tools

                                                            Heather chipping away.

                                                        Note the gloves.  very important.

                                                       A nice piece is breaking loose.

                                                       The big chisel being used here.  2 to 2.5 cm. thick pieces are ideal.

                                              Every little chip is collected to get about 2 to 2.5 pounds
                                            of sample from each boulder.

                                             Thickness of pieces are recorded.  If too thick they will be trimmed.

The tools for collecting samples from boulders are both simple and modern. Google Earth is used to actually see some of the boulders.  BRMB Navigator and Alberta Recreational Access Internet Tool have proved an essential mapping resource.   Another amazing resource is Macrostrat.org an online geologic map developed by a geologist at Wisconsin University. Lastly, the good old fashioned phone book and face to face resourcing.  All boulders are GPS located.

Now for the hardcore tools.  First leather gloves are important for protecting hands from the sharp quartzite shards.  Then there are the chisels.  The chisels are carbide tipped granite stone carver’s tools.  These chisels are ordered from New Hampshire in sizes big and small.  The big is about inch and a half in diameter and the smaller an inch in diameter.  Like other geologists who use the rock hammers and picks of Rockford, Illinois’ Estwing Company, glaciologists also rely on Estwing.  They use Estwing’s two and three pound sledge hammers (little blue and big blue).  These sledge hammers are in their packs with the chisels as well as the 2.5 pound samples collected.  With each site having ten samples the weigh soon mounts up.  Samples are stored in Zip-loc gallon freezer bags and labeled.  Six 18 gallon Rough Neck plastic containers are along to store and ship the samples back to Oregon State University.