It's finally time!!!! :)

[DaveOrr]

Well the time is finally here to start actually doing real work.
Currently sitting in my Tajmahtent in the middle of the bush 8 miles up the lake from the launch.
Streaming tunes, surfing the web and drinking a rum!!   
Starting tomorrow I finish building my tent camp and build my dock. Once I have the boat mooring finished it's time for a temporary outhouse and then I need to lumber jack all of the dead wood around the property to make it fire safe.
Then it will be time to lay out the foundation and start the cabin building.   

[rick91351]

Well Dave I no longer drink rum, nor beer or even wine.  For I have found over the years strong drink is not for me.  So I lift my bold full flavor custom ground cup of Joe.  And say Here - Here, be safe.  By ye weary dead wood is a hard fall and dangerous.  I so wish you well as you commence your adventure.  I might suggest you try and keep a journal or journals and many photos even if you are not a writer.  ( All are some where  beneath the surface.  For we all have some thing to say. )  All adventures need to be recorded and told embellished and retold lest they not be an adventure but what we all each and everyone try and escape from.....  What use to set out on such an adventure and not share and make others envious and pry them out of there damned humdrum life.  May the sweat of your brow produce much fruit in so many areas of our life.  May you live life to the fullest.  So wish I were there!

Rick
       

[Adam Roby]

Wow, we have a real poet amongst our ranks... koodos, and I second the sentiment.

[Dave Sparks]

Live long and prosper! I have a client up in Yellowknife named Steve. Winter is coming so ration the Rum!  Good Luck!

[DaveOrr]

Well I haven't finished the tent camp yet but I did get the ramp installed and started working on the main dock section.
I also drilled a crap load of holes into the granite for mounting the land side of the ramp (which I didn't like and now have another set of holes waiting for anchors and ramp mounting) Also drilled a bunch of holes for anchors with large forged eye bolts for anchoring the floating potion of the dock to the land as well as holes for anchors and eye bolts into boulders that will become the anchors for the off shore end of the floating dock. I also added a couple of eye bolts for pulling the dock out of the water in the fall.

Today is was blowing like mad and raining until lunch so I slept in until then.   
Seems I may have been tuckered out as I got 15 hours of sack time last night.   

[DaveOrr]

Some pics from the site.

The view from the water.



My pre-cabin accomodations.



Dock ramp is in.



The main dock ready to flip over and install.
Heading out in the morning to take care of that.

[Dave Sparks]

How did you get those tent spikes in?  I have a picture of my Yellowknife client drilling to put his array in. The good news is you sure do not need much cement!  Have fun! Looks alot like Steve's place,  you see any pole mount solar on the horizon?

[DaveOrr]

Had about 6" of cover dirt for all but one peg.
The last one I drilled a 1/4" hole with a cement bit and my hammer drill.   

[DaveOrr]

Got out today (Canada Day) and with the help of a friend got the main dock and granite anchors installed.
Next time out the decking and cleats get installed.

[hpinson]

That looks like the sea-plane dock at Fort Simpson. 

[DaveOrr]

Got the decking put on the main dock today.   
Now I have a dock I can use.











Just need to finish installing the edging and rear chain plates that I'm waiting to be delivered.
Next time I'll be lumber jacking out a bunch of dead wood and clearing a trail from the lake to cabin site.

[rick91351]

WOW - Way  !!! 

Did you get in any fishing this trip?  What are your main catch there? 

[Dave Sparks]

How about a mooring for the boat when it gets really windy? The shore is always the enemy!

[DaveOrr]

WOW - Way  !!! 

Did you get in any fishing this trip?  What are your main catch there?

Got in a couple of hours and poked a couple of pike.
Pike, Whitefish and Lake Trout are the main fish in the lake.

How about a mooring for the boat when it gets really windy? The shore is always the enemy!

Got a set of mooring whips coming still.
Also the boat will be turned nose out when normally docked.

[hpinson]

Have you ever made it up to Great Bear Lake? 

[DaveOrr]

Have you ever made it up to Great Bear Lake?

Yep, I spent 15 summers guiding up there. 

[hpinson]

That is something.  Who did you guide for?

I feel lucky to have visited one summer and got to see a lot of the lake.  Boated up Great Bear River, rode on the Radium Franklin, fished off the docks across from Fort Franklin, where the barges loaded radium ore, spent a night on Manatou Island, visited and got a tour of the mine at Echo Bay, looked for and I think found the site of John Hornbys cabin, saw the North Shore west of Plummers.  Really the most amazing thing was looking down in 50 feet of crystal clear water and seeing all those monster lake trout. I was all of 17. What a place.

I heard that the docks at Great Bear River are so radioactive that you are not supposed to go near them. Is that true?

I had many slides, but I have no way to scan them -- here is one that I was able to convert - it is historic I guess now:

[DaveOrr]

I guided for Plummers.
Worked @ 3 of their locations on Great Bear over the years.
The main lodge (Great Bear Lake Lodge), their Neiland Bay lodge and most of my time was spent on Smith Arm working @ Trophy Lodge.

Couldn't say about the radioactivity.