Mike Pearson's Adventures on a Pale Blue Dot

"> Here are a few blasting videos that I recovered from an old disc. There are more images that just need to be recover and processed...it'll just take time. The link is at the bottom...  The first video is at the Cut 10 area, beside the highway. We put the excavator bucket over the shot to keep the blast mats from flying into the air...and into the fiber-optic line...or over the bluff and down 100 feet. The other shots are a Eagleridge (Cut 4 )...one of the small ones is a bit of a dud...where the shock-tube got broken when the blast mats were put on. It's called a "cut-off".....not dangerous...just a piss-off ( it takes a ton of time to re-attach everything...and put the mats back on. The larger Cut 4 shots...are only matted on the Upper Levels Highway side...to control the amount of fly-rock coming over that way. The highway was closed by our traffic control people also, as an extra precaution. Some of the larger shots ( which I hope to post...

I've been wanting to write this story for ages. It's about the road construction workers response to an early morning forest fire that was accidentally? set by a fellow that lived in the bush beside the jobsite. Before I get into that, I'd like to thank my photographer/writer friend Deyna . He recovered the lost video footage from an old disc and made it usable for this blog entry. Here is a photo of Deyna when I asked for his help.. But then ...things got better when I told him how much I was willing to pay Then I added the fact that the people involved in the fire response...would really appreciate his efforts....well...that changed everything..  Deyna was so thrilled with the deal that he told his buddy Jack, the great news...Jack was over the moon with delight at his friends good fortune.. The story...for real this time.  When we started the work on the new section of highway, there were several people living in the forest..."off the grid."  Som...

I thought I lost these images in a hard drive melt down. I found them again, tucked away in a corner of the back-up portable system. I had some of the photos on discs...these are a few new ones from the treasure chest. Even though it is old news, it's better to have the images out in the fresh air. This is in the area of Robson and Jervis streets, Vancouver BC... Feb 2010. A mix of protesters and Blac Bloc face off with a first wave of police response...and then the heavy artillery reinforcements come in. There was a third wave response waiting in the wings after that.

This is mainly a photo essay of the Cut 4 section/Segment 1, of the Sea to Sky project in West Vancouver BC. There isn't too much drama here. Cut 4 was the first major cut of the new section of highway. This is where our blasting team started to grow and begin to really gell. These entries won't really interest anyone, but the people who were there and maybe a few construction geeks. It's a good record of the work done. The first set of aerial pics are taken part way through the job. The birds eye shots will help to orient the viewer to the location of the photos and stories. These are all photos that I took...usually with Robin MacGregor flying the helicopter in the aerial shots. Several different cameras were used, hence the different quality in some photos. The untouched Eagleridge Bluffs.... The very first Tamrock Ranger 800 Rock Drill delivered from Traxxon...this is in Segment 2 Protester vehicle getting towed away The first bit of Drilli...