I spent today with Jason as my Saskatchewan guide. Jason is a father of five with a kind heart and a dirty laugh, and a tendency to drink and smoke too much. In the morning, we went to his drill rig - it was shut down but all the kit was still there. The site was a giant mud puddle! We jumped from dried mud heap to dried mud heap whilst he showed me what was what, then on the way back to the car I sank almost up to my knees into a not-so-dry mud heap so it was next step laundrette.
In the afternoon, we drove west to Maple Creek then south to Cypress Hills. We could see the hills from 50km away! And as we drove towards the Provincial Park, there were more and more trees until we were in a forest of pine and aspen.
We pitched the tent and drove to a viewpoint and it seemed like we could see for hundreds of miles. We were on a hill looking out onto the prairies, the treeless expanse turning blue in the distance. Then we went for a little hike, walking up hills and riding down scree slopes on our arses - woohoo! By the time we got back to the truck, Jason had made his way through half a crate of beer so I drove his hulk of a vehicle around all evening and we went swimming in the lake and ate ice cream.
So I'm glad I took the day off riding to see a part of the province that isn't beside the highway. It was nice to see a different side to Saskatchewan.
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