Seven Days in Saskatchewan

Wednesday

Approximate Distance Travelled: 174km
From the middle of nowhere to Regina. Woke up absolutely freezing cold, emerging from the tent to discover frost on the ground and huge mounds of snow across the field. Unable to find coffee, we spent several hours exploring the closest glacier processing plant. Hit up some tourist attractions for some off-season fun before rolling into Regina and booking into the hostel for a warm night's sleep.

 

I came into the front office and found it ransacked, as though clumsily and hurredly burglarized. Desks were piled high with papers, filing cabinets opened, files strewn across tables. An ancient photocopier sat quietly in a corner as I slowly examined the contents of the room.

 

Nancy Drew at the back door of the workshop/ parts department. An amazingly diverse array of tools and spare parts were jammed into shelves, on workbenches, and hanging from the ceilings.

 

A most bizarre sight greeted me inside the worker's changing room. Dusty, dirty clothing, stained with white powder, was suspended from the ceiling in neat rows. The room was eerily clinical and dirty at once, frozen in time after the last shift.

 

A single roof panel had fallen out, and now lay in the soft powder that covered the floor in a thick layer. The cavernous room stretched ahead, and I couldn't help but exclaim in amazement. Metal skeleton supported and structured the room, which seemed very silent and still.

 

The small, dusty operator's chair, located far in the back of the building, sat next to a dirty window through which I could seet the massive white pile outside. A dredge system had been set up to drag mounds of the white into a chute, into the mouth of the industrial processing plant.