The Land of the Ten O'clock Sun
The reason why many moons have come and gone since my last post is that the past week has been a bit of a blur…or shall I say, Katimablur. It’s been only a week since the beginning of rotation camp, which took place at a well-landscaped bible camp on a lake near Prince George last Monday and Tuesday, and my new group has already settled into their new community as if they’d been here for years.
The various ailments afflicting this fine old house of ours – built in the 1930s like many of the other buildings that remain standing around town – have been looked after, making life for the nine of us considerably easier. Our heater broke down the day before they moved in, but fortunately we only had to live with sub-alpine cool air for two days before it was fixed by our handy landlord Doug.
On the downside, however, the drier no longer has a functioning timer, meaning one can leave their clothes in the dry cycle for hours if they don’t remember it’s down in the basement spinning away in perma-dry mode. So to prevent each others clothes from either shrinking into miniature versions of their former selves, or perhaps catching on fire if worst comes to worst, we’ve therefore resolved to buy an egg timer audible for miles around. Last but certainly not least, the toilet in the main bathroom is no longer out of order, a great relief in many more ways than one. Such is life in the crooked house on the crooked street amongst the crooked pines of the Caribou.
Given the rather intensive nature of orientation weekend I’ve been trying to get the group outdoors as much as possible, and it has lead to some rather interesting times. This afternoon, for example, we used an inflatable dingy to cross a five meter wide tributary from the local Jack of Clubs Lake in order to reach the former site of the Caribou Gold Quartz Mine. Our game of capture the flag proved to be more difficult to execute than imagined, given the marshy nature of the site littered with old mining equipment, dense shrubbery and even a few bear claws or wolverine talons that one of the girls found in the auburn clay. Nevertheless, it proved to be a good afternoon under the sun topped off with a satisfying burrito dinner back at the house.
Barkerville’s Theatre Royal opened tonight for the season, cause for great celebration and a dance at the Wells Community Hall complete with dignitaries from the Chinese government (Barkerville and the Gold Rush in general were heavily influenced by Chinese merchants, prospectors and other immigrants throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In fact, locals claim that it was gold from the Caribou that helped fuel the downfall of the Xing Dynasty). Unfortunately our group wasn’t able to take part in tonight’s festivities, but I’m sure there will be many more to come.
The participants start their work placements on Tuesday, one day before my first 48 hrs off in nine days and two days before a tentatively scheduled day hike up to Twin Sisters – one of seven peaks surrounding the District of Wells. Fortunately this will be done with one or two other guys my age who are working in Barkerville summer, and two allay any fears that I might be trekking into the vast wilderness on my own, we’ll be well equipped and they know the area quite well. One of them is attempting to complete the 7 Peak Challenge created by the owners of locally-famous Bear Paw Cafe; if one succeeds in climbing each of these peaks and bringing back one of the tokens stashed in bags at the top of each one, they’ll have their pictures hung on the walls of the popular eatery.
It’s about time that I head off to bed, so that will be it for now. It’s 1130pm and has only been dark for half an hour, so I suppose I couldn’t really have called it a day any earlier. Not quite the land of the midnight sun, but when the sunset (and a brilliant one, I might add) doesn’t reach its colourful peak until 930 or 10, it sure does feel like it.
The various ailments afflicting this fine old house of ours – built in the 1930s like many of the other buildings that remain standing around town – have been looked after, making life for the nine of us considerably easier. Our heater broke down the day before they moved in, but fortunately we only had to live with sub-alpine cool air for two days before it was fixed by our handy landlord Doug.
On the downside, however, the drier no longer has a functioning timer, meaning one can leave their clothes in the dry cycle for hours if they don’t remember it’s down in the basement spinning away in perma-dry mode. So to prevent each others clothes from either shrinking into miniature versions of their former selves, or perhaps catching on fire if worst comes to worst, we’ve therefore resolved to buy an egg timer audible for miles around. Last but certainly not least, the toilet in the main bathroom is no longer out of order, a great relief in many more ways than one. Such is life in the crooked house on the crooked street amongst the crooked pines of the Caribou.
Given the rather intensive nature of orientation weekend I’ve been trying to get the group outdoors as much as possible, and it has lead to some rather interesting times. This afternoon, for example, we used an inflatable dingy to cross a five meter wide tributary from the local Jack of Clubs Lake in order to reach the former site of the Caribou Gold Quartz Mine. Our game of capture the flag proved to be more difficult to execute than imagined, given the marshy nature of the site littered with old mining equipment, dense shrubbery and even a few bear claws or wolverine talons that one of the girls found in the auburn clay. Nevertheless, it proved to be a good afternoon under the sun topped off with a satisfying burrito dinner back at the house.
Barkerville’s Theatre Royal opened tonight for the season, cause for great celebration and a dance at the Wells Community Hall complete with dignitaries from the Chinese government (Barkerville and the Gold Rush in general were heavily influenced by Chinese merchants, prospectors and other immigrants throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In fact, locals claim that it was gold from the Caribou that helped fuel the downfall of the Xing Dynasty). Unfortunately our group wasn’t able to take part in tonight’s festivities, but I’m sure there will be many more to come.
The participants start their work placements on Tuesday, one day before my first 48 hrs off in nine days and two days before a tentatively scheduled day hike up to Twin Sisters – one of seven peaks surrounding the District of Wells. Fortunately this will be done with one or two other guys my age who are working in Barkerville summer, and two allay any fears that I might be trekking into the vast wilderness on my own, we’ll be well equipped and they know the area quite well. One of them is attempting to complete the 7 Peak Challenge created by the owners of locally-famous Bear Paw Cafe; if one succeeds in climbing each of these peaks and bringing back one of the tokens stashed in bags at the top of each one, they’ll have their pictures hung on the walls of the popular eatery.
It’s about time that I head off to bed, so that will be it for now. It’s 1130pm and has only been dark for half an hour, so I suppose I couldn’t really have called it a day any earlier. Not quite the land of the midnight sun, but when the sunset (and a brilliant one, I might add) doesn’t reach its colourful peak until 930 or 10, it sure does feel like it.
posted by Per at 2:32 a.m.
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