VoiceLog 2026-09-28_143800_keyboard-clicking-one-of-the-last-jobs-i
_Source: 20260928143800_VoiceLog-20260928-143758.wav_
_Recorded: 2026-09-28 14:38:00_
_Transcribed: 2026-09-28T14:43:05_
Story
(keyboard clicking) - One of the last jobs I had was in Canada, was kind of interesting. I hauled explosives into the Northwest Territories for seismic crews. I was stationed in Peace River, Alberta, and I went North from there to Hay River. This was the start of the many trips that I made to this one camp. Left Peace River, went North, and turned off the highway and went to a lake called Lake Zama. And supposedly I was supposed to, there's supposed to be a road slope out across Lake Zama, which is a big lake.
And the camp I was looking for was at the other side. But when I got to Lake Zama, there was a little settlement there, no cars, everybody had dog teams. and there was probably eight or nine houses in the group. And there was a Hudson Bay Trading Post, which this is in the early 1960s. And it was more like a Hudson Bay Trading Post in the 1930s. Their main customers were the trappers who brought their furs in and traded them for goods.
And at the time, I went into the Hudson Bay Store. It was like evening. They were still open. There was a bunch of people sitting around and I was actually lost. I couldn't find the road across the lake. And they said there was no road across the lake. So, and also while I was in the store, they had a pair of what they called Matlucks. They were very fancy moccasins and they were $2. And I was going to buy them, but I thought, no, I won't.
Anyway, I decided I have to make my way back to the highway and phone them and get instructions from my boss. In them days, we didn't have cell phones. We didn't have no way of communications. I had to drive 20, 30 miles back to get to a telephone, pay phone to talk to them. When I finally got back there, they said, "Oh, I had wrong direction." They had made a new road in. You had to drive 20 miles more down the highway and there'll be a left-hand turn there.
I can't remember what the instructions, but anyway, I found it. And it was actually just a cut line. It wasn't a road. It was just that somebody had taken a bulldozer and bulldozed the trees out of the way. And being it was the winter time, the road, the ground was frozen. So it was like a four or five mile an hour road. And I had to go back in there 40 miles, I think. So anyway, I started in. I know I'm on the right road.
And about 20 miles in, I come to a great big opening and there was roads going every which way from this opening. And somebody had put a big sign up at the end and I could see it was signed for directions. So I drove over to read the directions. And it said, "Are you lost? Keep going because you're sure making good time." So anyway, I decided where the sign was. I used that road and I found my way into the place okay, delivered the load, stayed over.
They fed me supper when I got there and they gave me a bed to sleep overnight and I headed back out the next morning to go home. After that trip, I probably made seven or eight trips back to that camp. I was working for explosive limited, mostly hollow and dynamite and dynamite related items like blasting caps and so on and so forth. Some of the stuff like brand was something that wasn't dangerous or anything. You use it as a packing.
There were several interesting incidents that winter when I worked out of the Peace River going north. I'll probably share a couple of them later on.
_PRISM refractions and Sherlock notes may be appended to this item in later turns._