By Austin Johnson
I spent my first ever shift as a field tech in Grande Cache. As someone who spent the last summer on a lawn mower working for my hometown Parks and Recreation Department, it was a big change. I had to adapt.
Fresh out of the school year, my cardio was rusty. I was hoping to ease into dealing with a backpack that feels like it’s full of bricks, sites that have more blown down trees than standing, and the hikes that are somehow uphill both ways. But I did not get what I wanted, and I went through the gauntlet.
The mornings started with a Monster Energy and a dark sky looming overhead. Clouds filled the valleys and the bright green hills had turned perfectly white with snow. Throughout the shift the sky continued to open up. Snowstorms, hail and rain were the backdrops of the foothills. Frozen hands and wet boots were the signs of almost finishing a site.
When me and my partner arrived at a wellsite we had planned to park at, we saw something that changed how I felt about the shift: two woodland caribou grazing in the clearing, unbothered by the large white truck coming towards them. Suddenly the sore legs, mud soaked clothes, and washboard roads were all worth it.
Seeing caribou for the first time gave me a reason to push through the isolating feeling of being 800km away from home, and the loss of privacy that happens when you live in camping trailers with nine strangers.
Through all the brutal sites and horrendous weather, it turned out to be the small things that matter. Those tiny moments that you wouldn’t think twice about on a normal day, but in the field, finding and enjoying those moments are what gets you through the day.
I’d say that was a great shift.
