Made it to Windermere and enjoyed myself immensely getting about 150 lbs of gear through the front door. Why is it that I always pack way too much or not enough. I figure that by the time I finally get it right, I will be in an old age home and it will not matter because I will be locked in anyway. Went out for supper and saw why this area is so popular. I camped in a tent in the rain about 30 plus years ago around here somewhere and was never too excited about coming back. I am not sure why that is because it is really beautiful. The mountains all have whitecaps on them and the area seems to be full of Albertans (personal observation). There are all the usual brand new Vancouver Canucks Fans freshly jumped onto that band wagon so I have not removed my Oilers hat since Vancouver made the final. That makes it pretty hard to sleep . Oh the insane banter !! Anyways on to the brigade. I met up with the executive yesterday and we all did many tasks. Thankfully they found something that was up to my speed for me to do.Ironing. Yup, You read that right. Ironing flags. After that task was out of the way we made Easel Signs. I Had Home Hardware cut up 3/8 plywood and hinged it to create easels. These will have turn signs on them which will be used along the roads, for access points for the ground crews and will be setup by the Advance crew. That took me until supper time when I was introduced to the superb dinner created by the woman of the brigade. It was very good indeed. Roast Beef on the BBQ. Mandarin slices,yogurt and cranberries with greens, great potato salad and corn on the cob. Belly up boys because I hear that you only eat like this once in a while. Bannock Bread seems to get mentioned an awful lot.I overheard a few remarks like " Remember that greased bannock we had at such and such in 08 "or " in 2008 we had great bannock at ? "
Maybe I will learn how to make pemmican? How hard can it be? greasy lard, dried jerky type beef pounded to a powder on a rock and then mixed together and folded into cakes. Sounds delicious.
I am off to paint easels for signs and see the rest of the Brigade. The No Way Corvee team was already in the lake yesterday practicing dumps. See If you can figure out why their name is what it is ?
I hear they are a rowdy group who all worked at Fort William in Thunder Bay as interpreters and actors. This should be a panic. There are many folks already walking around in period costumes. I will try to get some photos of some of these folks.The AGM is tonight. Everyone should be here by then.
By the way..keeping a blog is fun but I just realized that this little entry took me over an hour with editing etc. When I have no power on the trail I will probably not be updating that often.
David Thompson Columbia Brigade-2011 A member of the NALS TEAM North American Land Surveyors Koo Koo Sint and Paddle Song are the names of our canoes
1 comment:
Hey Dwaine,
I know it will be tougher to keep "those cards and letters" coming once you're on the trip, but do try. I'm finding it interesting reading already.
Just to prove I read it it all, here's a summary of what I understand so far: you've ironed some plywood and painted some flags. Jolly good, old boy! Keep up the good work!
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