Hello Fort Mac

It’s Friday: Day 2 of being on site.  I suppose since I haven’t blogged since Vancouver, I should start there. Apologies in advance for a long blog.

I left Vancouver Monday morning, picked up my new hardhat and the company truck, and started off down the road.  The truck was nice, but much larger than I’m used to.  I drive a sporty little Mazda3, and this was a giant Chevy Silverado.  I got used to it by the time I’d driven out of the parking lot though, and it turned out to be a rather comfortable ride.  I can’t say much about the drive on Monday, except I saw a black bear near the side of the road.  It was just small, so I bet it was a baby.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures. 

Here is a terrible self portrait of me in front of the company truck

I arrived in Jasper Monday night.  It was exactly how I thought it would be: a little tourist-y mountain town with spectacular views and fresh mountain air.  My Dad told me to promise him that when I got there, I would look up.  He meant that I must have a look at the stars at that elevation, and away from the city lights I’ve been amongst for so many years.  Unfortunately, these are some of the longest days of the year! It was 11pm, and the sun had barely gone down.  If I was going to get a good night’s sleep, I’d have to save the star-gazing for another night.  I did wake up in the middle of the night and try looking outside, but the clouds had formed a cover.  Bummer.

It sure was beautiful on the way to Jasper

On Tuesday morning, I woke up early and started out on the road again, knowing there was a Tim Hortons in the next town about an hour away.  I loooooove my Timmies! I had only driven a few kilometers when I saw them.  Three sets of antlers were crossing the river.  Of course I had to pull over and check it out.  They say you shouldn’t get too close to the wildlife because you might stress them out, or sometimes put yourself in danger.  I wasn’t too close to I got out of the truck and brought my camera.  The next thing I knew, three beautiful elk were climbing onto my side of the riverbank, shaking themselves off and walking right towards me!  They munched on the grass and came very close.  I suppose they see enthusiastic tourists like me all the time, so they acted very tame.  I got lots of pictures, of course.




Wait a minute... are those antlers swimming across the river?

Here are two of the three elk

I tried to keep my distance to avoid stressing them out, but they came right up to me!

The rest of the drive on Tuesday wasn’t nearly as interesting.  I headed towards Edmonton, bypassed it, and continued northeast towards Fort Mac.  After Jasper, the landscape changes drastically into flat, grassy prairies.  Beyond that, the landscape was still fairly flat, but covered with thin, white-barked, leafy and sometimes burnt trees.  I found out later that these trees are called Aspen trees.  They smell fantastic, except of course when they’re burnt.  I suppose forest fires are rather common in those areas. 

Crispy trees

Tuesday evening I arrived in Fort Mac.  Luckily, my employers put me up in the Quality Hotel which is quite a nice hotel, it turns out.  I didn’t do much else that night except relax and have dinner.

On Wednesday, I had my H2SAlive training all day.  Evidently, hydrogen sulphide (H₂S) is very common in oil sands projects and landfills.  It can knock you down and stop your breathing at certain concentrations, and it a killer for workers on these sorts of sites.  We were taught how to avoid it, detect it, and rescue others when they encounter it.  It was pretty interesting, actually. 

After my H2SAlive, I drove to site.  Tom met me at the gate, and I was glad to see someone whose name I knew.  It turned out, he didn’t look at all like how I had pictured him… but then again how many times are you right when you’ve only talked over email?  Tom is fabulous, that’s all I’ll say.  Oh, and we saw a coyote.  That was pretty cool.

Thursday was my first day on site.  I met many of the people who I’ll be working with, all of which are really great.  It’s not very often that you immediately get along with everyone in a workplace, but I think I’ll fit in just fine.  As with most first days, I was confused a good portion of the day.  But that’s all part of the learning process, right? I think the highlight of that day was first thing in the morning.  Two moose – a momma and a baby – were walking around on site.  They were too far away to take any pictures, but they sure were funny-looking creatures, even from afar.  The mom had spindly little legs and a huge upper body, and the calf bounded along energetically behind her.  That was the first moose I’d ever seen.

Today was much better than yesterday.  I was understanding a lot more, and actually contributing in some way.  I think I had better mention the weather today, though, since it was different from the hot and sunny weather we’ve had for the rest of the week.  We showed up on site at 6:45am for our morning safety meeting, and by 7:30 it was dark out again - the rainclouds had moved in quickly, blocking out the sun.  Thunder and lightning crashed through the clouds and raindrops the size of gumballs poured down.  Our dirt roads quickly turned into mud so deep that even the largest rock trucks and dozers couldn’t drive in it.  Progress was shut down numerous times throughout the day, and almost everyone went home by 1pm.  I stayed until 5, but I work in the office so weather doesn’t affect my work as much.  If you’re wondering, the moose were spotted on site again this morning.  I think they hang around every morning, then go back into the forest when we turn on our noisy trucks.

The Project Manager is away for the weekend, attending a wedding, so I’m left alone to figure out my job for the next few days.  I should be fine since there are lots of people I can ask, including the PM on his cell phone.  I should be fine.

As I write, I’m in my room in camp.  It’s small, but comfortable and clean.  It’s very stormy outside.  The thunder and lightning are about 7 seconds apart.  I was trying to read, but kept finding myself listening and counting the seconds.  Each thunder clap sounds as though the sky is made of wood and that wood is breaking, tearing open and the rain is rushing out.  The water is hitting the roof of our portable homes hard, and I can see from the view out my window that the water levels in the ditches are rising quickly.  Even living on the west coast, I don’t think I’ve seen this much rain before.  It’s running off the roof in a giant sheet, so it looks like I’m viewing the outside from the backside of a waterfall.  It’s great!

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