EPISODE 555 PART 6 AUGUST 21 TO AUGUST 26, 1958 WORST JOB I EVER HAD

alan skeoch

March 18,2022

DEAR DIARY

WHOSE LOAD WAS HEAVIER?  MINE?

SO I THREW A TEMPER TANTRUM…NOT PROUD OF THE FACT I WAS LAUGHED AT

August 21, 1958

Robert’s hand is now discoloured which  is  a sure sign of infection.   First Aid  kit is little use at this point.  We must get him out.

So began the long hike to our canoe at the river and then motoring five miles upstream to our base camp where we sent an SOS

call.   Plane arrived  and  Robert Hopkins was no longer part of our crew.  Bob flew out with Robert to see he got proper medical aid.

I am not sure if Hunting Technical and Exploration Services (Huntech) has insurance coverage.  Apparently young people have less

value when compared with older persons with high saluting degrees.  Never gave that much thought. I am not valuable I guess. But that is just hearsay.  I do not want 

to test this hearsay talk from around the campfire.  Have no intention of cutting myself like Robert.  That is what everybody says before 

a catastrophe.

Walt and I spent day cutting line south 1,000 feet and  east 3,000 feet to a new anomaly.   With only three of us progress  is going to be slow.

We were startled to discover an old trappers shack deep in the bush.   About as primitive a building as can be imagined….Pyramid  shape.

The trapper must have used this  as a very temporary home because it was  really only a pile of logs leaning into each other.

  Sort of a place to crawl into when all-around is deep snow.   Just room for one man and a dog maybe.

Distance Travelled   7,400 feet

We came across this trappers shack in the middle of nowhere.   It must have been used  for overnight habitation.  Hardly liveable.

August 22, 1958

Bob Hilkar returned by float plane bringing good  news.  I passed  my Grade 13 departmental exams …enough to gain

entrance to University of Toronto.   All the money earned  on this job will just pay for my entrance fees.   Around $400.

  To tell the truth I am not sure why I am going to University.  Can I do the work?  And then what?  

NOTE: The President of Victoria College, University  of Toronto invited each new student into his office to ask them

why they chose the university.   I was speechless.  I had no idea.  Just moving along with the flow. Tongue tied.

How could Dr. Moore ever understand what a lifetime of prospecting would be life?  My real reason was to find a

girl my age to marry.  Now both those answers must seem stupid…but both true.  Quite a contort between

the trappers shack and Victoria.  

Walt, Bob and  I retraced our trail south to the farthest anomaly. Bad news!   Our cable joining the two Ronka coils broke which  meant

that all the walking to get to the site was wasted effort.  We returned to camp and  soldered he broken section back together.

Came across an abandoned beaver dam.   Looked like it have been abandoned for a long time but it still managed

to dam up a large basin of water.  Amazing little creatures.  Seems empty.  Trapped maybe…or hiding from our crew of three.

Distance travelled   25,000 feet

August 23,  1958

Another attempt to run the Ronka over the southern anomaly failed when the big cable got severed  where it joins  the console.

This  was not easy to repair.   The break in the cable meant we had to retrace out steps once more.  Hours and hours

of wasted time.  

Walt and I did manage to cut a little more of survey line to the east.

Distance covered:  25,000 feet walking and 7,500 feet of new line cut

August 24, 1958

Rain!  Wonderful rainstorm.  No work on the anomalies.   Our survey situation is getting serious though for we are running out of time.

We plan a big push tomorrow and  will try to finish the entire area in next couple of days.  Must do  so because a relief plane is

due on August 27 when our Base Camp on the Groundhog River will be abandoned and  a  new base camp built on Kapik  Lake

far to the west.  We will get there by air with all our gear.

We had a bit of a laugh in the evening when Walt salted all our tea thinking he was  adding sugar.

August 25,  1958

Somehow between 7 a.. and  7 p.m. we managed to finish the remaining two anomalies.  Not easy to do but then again nothing on

this  job has turned out to be easy to do.   In spite of it all we felt nostalgic  as we sat around the campfire knowing that this camp

would exist no longer.  No one said very much really.  We just sat there feeling we were leaving a home in spite of all the adversities.

Distance covered:  44,700 feet  (almost 9 miles)

August 26, 1958

If I had  to pinpoint the worst day  on the job it would be today, August 26, 1958, when we abandoned the eastern fly camp.  There were only 

three of  us now…Bob Hilkar, Walter Helstein and me.   When this  camp was  set up there were four of us and we made three trips

into the camp with gear and food from caches along the way.  Time was short.  Plane coming to Base Camp to evacuate so we 

  had to triage.  Only carry out the essentials such as the goddamn Ronka (apologies to Mr. Ronka) and piles of other things.  Much would be

abandoned such as all remaining food and extra tools.

 To get out was going to be difficult so we began to pile absolutely essential

gear in three piles…one for each  of us.  “Discard  everything you can, boys.” said Bob.  So we did…the discard pile contained  rope, food,

Robert’s backboard, books, some cooking gear, even spare clothing.  In spite of that the piles we had to carry were back breaking.

The tent in particular was a load in itself because it was still wet from the rains.

I  am not proud of my behaviour this day.  My load  was  so big that each step was a problem.  Would  I make it to the river?  I became 

convinced that my load was  much heavier than Bob Hilkar’s and I said so.  “My load  is unbearable while yours  is  light.”

“Why don’t we switch  loads then?”, said Bob.  We switched.   I was wrong…terribly wrong.  His goddamn load included the wet tent…heavier

than my load.  He was our point man so I could  not see his face but I felt he was grinning.  He knew how heavy the tent had become and

was glad to switch.  I  could hardly start to whine again so had to grin and bear the situation.  Forget about the word  grin.  The pain

was  excruciating.   The end result was  hard to believe.  My load had been tied  to a sturdy metal pack frame.  By the time we reached  the river

that pack frame had bent into a circle and had to be discarded.  The other pack  frames were also ruined.   Somehow we all lived through

the trek.   Bob Hilkar did not say much but the look in his eye was an ‘I told  you so’ look.   

Our bad day was  not over.   When  we finally reached Base Camp  #1, we found it to be a shambles.  The black bear had returned

only this time he ripped  his way into our sleeping tent.   Nothing to eat in there so his or her decision was  a  mystery.   Any food

left in the camp was gone except for the canned goods some of which had been crushed but not opened.

Distance covered     15,000 feet   (nearly three miles)