Hello Folks Just Got Home from The Bush

Hello All,
I just got home after spending 10 days in the bush of northern Alaska. I was at Livengood Camp conducting training for Diamond Drillers and Helpers for safe work on the big surface drills.
This camp was shut down back in 1976 after the pipeline work was completed. This camp housed 300 people during the pipeline days. The mining company who now has it leased has been refurbishing it for the drill crews and the support staff.
The camp was comfortable and pleasant except that there is no cell reception and very very slow Internet, if you can get connected at all.
Did I mention the mosquitoes? The millions of big blood thirsty mosquitoes? They are every where, there is no escaping them no matter where you try to hide. Mosquito dope is used by the gallon by everyone that even drives through the bush. I was attacked every morning while trying to shower. There is no reading the paper on the john, they will swarm you as you set trying to do your job.
One of the guys was using Deet to ward them off and it seemed to work well until his safety glasses fell off of his face. The deet had eaten clean through the ear pieces of his safety glasses. When we read the label on the bottle it said not for prolonged use - Ha Ha.

old camp not in use

Looking toward old camp

Looking toward the new section

Training room on the right

Class time

New core being put together

Safety briefing on site

small core rig

larger core rig

rig set up -, crew on site.

My room mate and I would breakout flashlights each evening (hard to tell evening when there is 24 hours of daylight) and hunt them down on our walls and snap them with tee shirts. This worked well until we went to sleep and they came back with reinforcements. We found out why there are only big people in the bush, the little ones get packed off never to be seen again. I am a big guy and I barely escaped with my life.