Tag Archives: Fort McMurray

Day 8–Fruit Loops

Along with the eggs, sausage, bacon, more sausage, and more bacon, the dining room also has a selection of cereals available for breakfast.

I had fruit loops this morning. Got a problem with that?

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Day 6–Prime Rib & Handy Hints

Usually the dining rooms are about half-full at any given time. There’s always a place to sit with plenty of room. Today both dining rooms were packed. Workers housed in one of the neighbouring camps got booted over to Wapasu East. It was extra busy. I thought it was extra busy just because it was prime rib night.

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The prime rib was actually quite good. I asked for medium rare and got a medium rare cut. It was a bit surprising. The Yorkshire pudding was acceptable as were the peas and mashed potatoes. The carrots were so-so, as were the mussels. Not bad, just not as good as the rest of the meal. Note: the horseradish is pointless, I don’t know why I keep getting it with beef dishes, it has no kick, and no real flavour. 

I ate in dining room 1 today. Dining room 1 has the normal menu, but also caters to people with special dietary requirements. Look, they have diabetic friendly desserts…

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Handy Hints

If you’re coming to Wapasu Lodge for the first time, or coming to any work camp for the first time, here are a few tips that might make things go smoother for you:

  • Bring laundry detergent. I prefer doing laundry as opposed to packing for a week to 10 days. I like Tide pods, they’re easy to manage and less messy.
  • Bring a pillow. Seriously. The pillows here suck.
  • Towels are provided, and they’re adequate, but you might want to bring your own. Don’t forget soap. There’s no soap here.
  • A few ziplock/tupperware/rubbermaid containers for packing lunches. The ziplock containers with the screw top lids would be good for packing soup for lunches. The containers provided in the bag-up room suck and they’ll leak all over everything. Ask me how I know. 
  • Workout gear. There’s a cardio gym, weight room and a yoga room. Use them. 
  • If you’re a coffee snob, like me, bring your coffee stuff. We’re working construction, the coffee sucks. Always has, always will.

If you’ve been in camp before, this stuff is all obvious. If you’re reading this while you’re in camp for the very first time this will all seem obvious later. 

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Day 6–Happy Wapasu Sunday

Late start, didn’t get out of bed till 4:11am. Although I passed on this lovely opportunity, the dining room had eggs Benedict for breakfast.

Brass Alley was lit up by a rainbow again this morning. I’ll bet the other end lands right at Kearl Lake!

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Day 5, Wapasu Notes

Off the bus I went straight to my room and changed into my workout gear and headed to the previously mentioned “Cardio Gym” to run a few clicks. Last time I went it was pretty quiet, but tonight the room was packed. I counted 16 pieces of cardio equipment being used by 14 people. That counts as packed. In case you’re wondering what my workout gear looks like, here it is…

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Yes, that’s my bag of laundry beside me, in case you’re curious.

Dinner

After the workout and cooldown (I sat on the bench outside for 10 minutes), it was time for dinner. The dining room was full, so I asked to share a table with another lone diner. Danny introduced himself and we got chatting. Originally from New Brunswick (just like grandpa), the operating engineer (OE) now calls Edmonton home. He said he usually works for Cenovus in the winter (certain types of work are best carried out in the winter months when the ground is frozen), and works at one of the other major jobsites in the spring and summer months. I mentioned this blog to him and he wanted me to stress to anyone coming out to Kearl Lake that it’s important to get out and do something in the evenings. Doesn’t have to be every evening. Doesn’t have to be something really involved. It might just be a walk, it might be a run. Maybe you’d just want to sit outside for 10 minutes. We both agreed if you stay in your room all the time, you will go crazy! Danny was an excellent dinner companion.

He’s also keen on starting a jiujitsu open mat at Wapasu. I’ve got my first participant (after me).

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We also both agreed the pork loin and potatoes were excellent this evening. We also agreed the best dessert in the dining room is ice cream.

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It felt good to walk straight out of the dining room holding my ice cream cone up proudly. Security wouldn’t dare stop me.

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Day 5–WEEKEND PARTY!

The weekend is here! Time to PARTY…and when I say party, I mean work. It’s 5:33am and I’m already on the bus to work. I did allow myself to sleep in an extra 5 minutes. I always sleep in on weekends.

It’s a beautiful morning here at camp, someone was even kind enough to turn on the rainbow this morning.

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Day 4–Notes on Dining

Dinner tonight was interesting. Tandoori chicken was on the menu. Bold and ambitious! The execution was a bit lacking though and the chicken turned out to be more like an Indian themed roast quarter-chicken, but it was still pretty good. Roast beef was a bit dry…not sure why I felt like I needed 2 meats, maybe it’s because I’m usually surrounded by vegetarians.

Tandoori chicken!?!

Tandoori chicken!?!

My co-worker suggested I mention the “No Removal of Food” policy. As the name suggests, no food may be removed from the dining rooms. It seems a bit odd that someone can’t take a snack back to their room to nibble on, but we’re in the middle of the wilderness, there are wild animals…including wild rodents. The more food we have lying around, the more problems we’ll have with rodents. I’m happy to follow the “No Removal of Food” policy. Chris did point out that people are allowed to leave the dining room with ice cream (there is an ice cream cooler in the main dining room). Chris believes this is because ice cream isn’t food…or the ice cream at camp isn’t food…

It’s 6:33pm and I’m going to bed. Getting up at 4am is tiring.

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Day 4, AM

4:05 am
I’m awake, but I’m not happy about it. The sun isn’t quite up yet, but it’s still light outside. If you’re coming to work at Kearl Lake from another country be aware: at summer solstice, there is approximately 18 hours of daylight, but at winter solstice, there is approximately 18 hours of darkness. You get used to both extremes. Born and raised in Edmonton, I’ve seen long nights in the winter (not as extreme as Kearl Lake). It gets a bit tiring, but it makes you better appreciate spring and summer.

Here’s a wonderful picture of the road signs to Wapasu and Kearl Lake. It was taken from the bus. I didn’t ask the 50 other passengers if I could stop the bus, get out, and take a proper photograph.

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Day 3–We Have a Winner At Dinner!

I visited the “Cardio Gym” tonight for a run on the treadmill. No pictures though, no one wants me taking pictures of them working out. Image

 

I needed to run. I think I’ve been overdoing it with the cookies in my lunch, and the sausage rolls, and the pastries, and more cookies.

Dinner

Wooooo! I ate light after my workout, just some vegetables and roast potatoes with caesar salad. The salad had a prepackaged dressing from Kraft, so nothing really special. The vegetables were actually pretty good, and it looks like they were prepared fresh, not cooked from frozen. There were squash strips in the mix as well as 2 different kinds of string beans. The potatoes were outstanding! Perfectly cooked and perfectly seasoned, not too greasy, not too soft, not too hard…just perfect!Image

 

Laundry Night

Doing laundry is easier than bringing extra clothes. Tonight it was do-or-die, if I didn’t do laundry tonight I wouldn’t have gonch for tomorrow. Image

Each floor has 5 washers and 5 dryers. They’re actually quite nice, they look fairly new. If you’re coming up to site, set a timer on the dryer, don’t go for the preset dry time. 

 

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Day 3–We Still Need Lions and Tigers

If I haven’t already made it clear, Wapasu Lodge is isolated, and remote, and in the wilderness. We have bear sightings…

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I see a caution sign up every few days. I guess we’re in their territory. If the bears become a problem, we have a few options: teach the bears yoga, have the bears play soccer, we could pray for the bears to go away, or as a last resort, we could send the jiujitsu guys to beat up the bear (I’m kidding, I love animals…except sock puppets). Bears can’t play guitar because they don’t have opposable thumbs. I guess a bear could join AA, if they had a problem…

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Day 3 AM, Wapasu Lodge–Notes

The point of all these inane blog posts is to convey to my friends and family what’s it’s like to work “up north”. An all inclusive lodge with exercise facilities, multiple dining rooms, games rooms and a guitar night sounds like some sort of luxury resort. I’m not staying at a luxury resort. I hope I’ve been able to properly communicate that.

Oh, and if you’re curious, here’s my breakfast…

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The Lounge

The lounge is where I hang out in the morning, waiting for Brass Alley to open. There are a number of card tables here, but I don’t think they’re used. Note the fireplace on the left. Makes it feel like a ski lodge in the Swiss Alps, except for the 5000+ construction workers.

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Fancy? Yes?

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