Kearl Laek

Had the usual 1 hour bus ride in Monday at about 6pm. The darkness shrouded the trees, the cold chased all wild life to refuge and the motor broke the silence of the true north lands, It is getting cold up here.

Kearl Lake

The bus trip of about seventy kilometres this past late fall had a spectacular view of bears. We saw a sow with two big cubs, a sow with three very small cubs and probably two single large boars. The small cubs will probably not make the winter for they are just not big enough. The high density of bears was due to the northern wild fires that burned all summer long in the Athabasca sand hills.

Kearl Lake

It is a twenty two kilometre bus ride to work. This road is almost magical. Tiger lillies, about a thousand strong grew along this route. They are an endangered plant species and are the emblem on the Saskatchewan flag. Road repairs and widening left only about fifty remaining. An owl couple had their nest along the route. Sand hill cranes browsed along the road. Deer, moose and bears all were seen routinely. A magical part of our world in the middle of an oil sands project.