We are about 350km from our destination tonight in Fort Providence, NWT. Sam has taken the wheel and we are back on pavement for now. It should be back and forth between pavement and gravel for the remainder of the day.
We stopped for lunch at Little Buffalo Territorial Park and made our second meal. Delicious Chili (I had precooked and frozen about 6 days worth of double portions). Sam was quite impressed with my culinary skills and licked the bowl clean. The weather was amazing today, warm sunlight and about -8, clear blue sky with just a whisper of clouds. Absolutely picture perfect!!
The Jeep is still running great and the roof rack issues have all being resolved. The re-organization of the food was a huge help in cutting down the time it took to make lunch.
One of our first observations thus far has been the huge variation in vegetation. We noticed it yesterday and even more today. We will be driving through typical northern coniferous forest of shorter trees. Then it will abruptly turn into a long stand of birch. Then into marshy bushes.
Last night we drove through Moose Island and there was some huge (for the area) trees. It was dark at this point and it felt like we were driving down a tunnel, quite and eerie feeling.
It is really curious about the change in vegetation with no discernable difference in terrain. Anyone have any guesses?
Pete, Aldo Leopold would be proud of you!!
ReplyDeleteToo funny - did you know I'd take a stab at this? must have... Anyone pls correct me if you know otherwise!! Without knowing much about the area or size of these stands - birch could be a sign of past disturbance (wind / fire / logging if it occurs / road maintenance). Marshy bushes - like alder? in lower-lying areas? Could be disturbance again, younger than the birch. or could be organics building up in the gullies (colder climate, less decomp) actually making it a bit marshy. I'll get my rear up there one day and check it out!
CUT DOWN A TREE.
ReplyDeleteSeriously. In the name of Science. Do you have a saw??
(...I wouldn't bother doing this if it's birch or poplar, but otherwise...!!)
Find one less than 10cm diameter, an average joe, and cut it as close to the base as possible (dig down if snow, or measure how deep the snow goes from where you cut it) Take about a 2" cookie from the stem. Make sure you GPS where you got the tree and approximate the height. If you don't know the species take a detailed pic of the needles near the tip of the branch. If you do this in, like, 3-5 diff places along the way (more if you want!) before you run out of trees, you'll have a neat picture of what the forest does as you go N... and after that, some pretty unique beverage coasters ;)
Hey guys,
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear everything is going good, I think more people should be adventurous and do crazy shit like this.I'm keeping track nightly of your progress so if you stop better tell someone or buffalo 911 will heading to your last location. Tell Sam 1609 aux blower maybe waiting for him when he returns what a pain in my ass!. Take care be safe Shawn P&H
I was cold while pumping gas this morning at 6:30am and started to complain until I thought of you two snuggling in sleeping bags in a tent lastnight! BBBBRRRRR Stay warm, be safe and enjoy the journey!!! :) Dawn
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