Sunday, a brilliant day, Autumn sunshine and I'm heading North, back to the meadows. I've supplies, bananas, oranges, some olives, grapes, trail mix, not hearty but this isn't a pleasure trip.
And past Cooper creek it begins, the wobble on the passenger front tire. Get gas. Look at the tire - it appears the lug nuts have come loose again. Only now they're not tightening, not loosening, merely spinning. 2/5, maybe 3 out of the 5.
This is a problem. The Jeep, I know, precarious condition at best, but to attempt to travel up the mountain - 12 KM rough roads, 6 KM in 4 WD, well, I don't want to be walking down again.
And I would be walking down again.
Tighten as best I can and return to Nelson, I can have a mechanic look at it on Thursday. This is the quickest. And so again I'm couch surfing, bored, I should not be, there's no excuse, I have much to do but my mind is still at the top of the mountain, digging, what I have to do - writing, painting, etc - can be done indoors when the cool weather comes.
It's the rush to make hay at the end of summer.
On that note I mentioned a prospector who came in a few weeks ago, breathless about some pegmatites he found above the dark sky preserve. And I'm on the MTO looking up some land use around Ymir when zooming in I notice it. He's claimed at least 10, 000 hectares in the district I used to go for my black tourmaline and aquamarine.
Looking at costs...$20, 000 per year. Minimum. He's a variety of claims up there, but this is an expensive gamble. All these claims laid in the past 3 weeks. From approximately the night he showed up drunk in the restaurant talking about all the pegmatites he found. I look him up - exploration geologist for a gold mining company based out of Vancouver.
Hmmmm.
Somehow I'm a little annoyed.
Anyways, Jeep fixed with luck tomorrow. And I've managed to squeeze in an appointment with the Dentist, so - days not entirely wasted. This weekend, the last at the restaurant, then the deep clean - how many days? 2? 3? We'll see. Then it's off, spend the last snow-free weeks digging at the summit...
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Update. Talked to Mechanic. Jeep won't be getting fixed. Will be lucky if it survives to Balfour for my last few days of work. Time, now, to find another...