Field Work and Midweek Ride

I've been low on chargeable work for the last few weeks (although this is dramatically coming to an end the same week I move into my new condo, have my g-mom and sister visiting and the week before the BCBR). One of my girlfriends at work was looking for someone to set up 2 evaporation stations at the Nickel Plate Mine near Hedley, BC. Hedley is about 4.5 hours east of Vancouver on Highway 3A and is the place with my favorite rock outcrop in the province on Stemwinder Mountain. Lovely layered sedimentary units, intermediate intrusions and skarn metasomatism. So I volunteered. The plan was to leave early in the morning, drive to site, set up the stations, and drive home. There was plenty of space in the rented truck (I've only had a car for one year out of the last 14) so I brought the Trek.

View to the west of Hedley and Stemwinder Mountain from the Mascot Gold Mine Instructions for the scenic route to the mine from the valley bottom highway visible in the previous picture: For the adventurous soul with a good car: On Highway 3A.....blah blah local geograhpy you don't know...This road is a single lane, dirt, steep, winding road not for the faint of heart, but with spectacular views. Stay on the main road, past the tailings facility and turn into the gate at the NPM mill facility.
I didn't get to the mill facility because of this. Who doesn't like mass wasting events?
I had to backtrack and take the long way around to the mine. Once on site, the set up went well with only a couple of hiccups (literally, airlocks in the lines between the evap pans and the water level logger). Got off site around 6 pm and went for a short 30 km road ride near Penticton. This areais the main produce and wine region in BC. It's also host to a large international ironman tri (read lots of good road biking) and Skaha, a great climbing area.

Spent the night in Penticton. It was raining when I got back to Vancouver Thursday morning. The June Monsoon is right on schedule.