Sunday, August 08, 2004

Oh yes, I'm back

It's obvious now, but I have returned from my foray into the wilderness. It was a pretty good job. Myself and another guy worked for 18 hours yesterday (including travel time). Some highlights:
-Huckleberry Mine is located 120 kilometres south of Houston, British Columbia.
-At the 115 kilomtre mark, our van got a flat tire! D'oh!
-Our job was to clean the hoods and vents in the camp kitchen.
-The vent system contains two large stacks, which suck grease and other crap from the fryers and grills, then sends them about fifty feet in the air and blows it outside.
-We duct-taped a large piece of plastic around the outside of the whole vent system in the kitchen, then sprayed degreaser (hello Easy-Off!) throughout both stacks. We had to attach rods to the spray unit in order to reach the very top of the stacks.
-We also set up our vacuum line undernear the plastic, and cut little holes to allow the run-off to drip into buckets, then sucked up the gross remains with our vac hose.
-It took about three hours to spray and rinse out both stacks, and let me tell you, it was SOME KIND OF DIRTY up there. Lots of chunks of caked-on grease... mmm! There were a couple of guys watching who said "I can't believe all that was up there!"
-Our intention was to spend the night there, and drive home today. We finished about 1 am, and decided to skip sleep and just drive home.
-There are four or five pretty large lakes near the camp. Can I say: Fog Deluxe? Don't mind if I do!
-The 120 kilometres from the mine to Houston took nearly two and a half hours! We couldn't drive any faster than 60 or 70 because of the fog, and mostly it was more like 30-40 kph. For those American readers who aren't familiar with the wonders of metric... 40 kph is around 20 mph. SOOOO SLLOOOOOWWWWW! But I couldnt see past six feet, and I didn't want another flat tire!
-We got back to Smithers at 4:40am. I missed church today because I was too stinkin' tired. I wonder if Brendan made it! He'll never let me hear the end of it!
-Oh yeah, and I saw a fox at the camp. He was rustling around near the kitchen, probably looking for a bite to eat.

So, if any of you are travelling through BC and want something of-the-wall and adventurous to do: phone the mine and ask for a tour. It is a pretty cool place. Lots of crazy-cool mining equipment, and really nice people too. Did I mention, great food? Oh yes indeed!