Well, it's been a week since my last post and I apologize to my avid followers (never thought that would happen!) about not posting sooner, and a little more frequent. I have switched to the morning shift at work, so I am up by 4:30 every morning to make it to work by 6 by bike!
For all of you who emailed about the infamous trapper, who I went on a medevac to get: He's known as 'Pi' around these parts, he is 84 years old and has spent every winter except 1 in the bush for the last 76 years!! The poor guy had a stroke within the 3 days he was up there, and once back in Fort Smith, had another one the following day, so he was taken on another medevac flight to a hospital in Edmonton, AB. The last mention was that he had no feeling below the waist, so I am just wishing him well! Here is a link to the article which was in our local news paper the 'Slave River Journal' (http://srj.ca/index75.htm)
His dogs were returned, and unfortunately I was dealing with scheduled flights inbound at the time, or else I would have plenty of pictures of his 12 dogs being unloaded (they returned safe and sound!)
This weekend was quite a fun one, I was able to go on quite the hike down by the Slave River around 'The Rapids of the Drowned' which is 1 of 4 sets of rapids around the town of Forth Smith, which connects Lake Athabasca to the Arctic Ocean. The 4 sets of rapids were impassible by the early settlers which is why Fort Smith was established; essentially a portage point to cross, then an outpost (of the Hudson's Bay Company). It was previously the capital of the Northwest Territories up until the 1960s and I have been told by several it is the most scenic and picturesque town in the north, all the trees here are originals and can date back 1000 years, as most of the other towns have very few trees, and if they do, they are more recent growth.
It's quite amazing to see how rapidly the trees have changed from a glowing yellow from the Birch trees to more green from the lasting ever greens.
In the next few weeks to come, I will be trying my best to make it out to hike the other sets of rapids and the caves, which I am told are quite amazing to see!
They may not look like much, but when you get up close there is
quite a large drop in the two levels of water
quite a large drop in the two levels of water
My Roommates girlfriend was up visiting from Abbotsford, BC this weekend for Thanksgiving, we carried some of the Thanksgiving traditions from the South up here and had our own dinner. It was quite a last minute thing, and unfortunately wasn't able to get a turkey to thaw in time. (Who knew the stores only carried frozen solid birds!!) Well, being the problem solving pilots we are, we figured we could get away with 4 large chickens instead (pictures below) and just hope nobody asked why there were 8 small legs from 1 turkey!
We had one of the Aircraft Mechanics from Kenya named Sunny (fitting, no?) and Adam from Calgary who works in Operations over for a great dinner (... if I do say so, myself!)
This week I have been working mornings which has had me up well before the crack of dawn (and putting me to bed well before dusk!!) I much prefer the bike ride in the morning as opposed to the evening: The northern lights and millions of stars light up my path on my bike ride to work, which is quite nice! I haven't been able to get any pictures of the lights yet, they are still fairly faint. I'm told that as winter nears, they will become stronger and more vibrant, and more easily seen by my dinky camera.
Being at work a few hours before the sun actually rises has a few advantages (only a few!) The day goes by a lot quicker; most of the scheduled flights depart fairly early in the morning, meaning that the Jetstreams must be cleaned, taken out of the hanger and fueled, then brought down to the Terminal to be loaded and send off. By the time the last one is send off, there is time to take a quick break before the first one gets back from Yellowknife. With all the sending and greeting of aircrafts; there is plenty time spent outside, which has the most magnificent skies; whether its dawn, throughout the day or dusk. The sky turns almost every colour imaginable: Even in the middle of the day, the blue of the sky is so crisp as there is no pollution up here. (This is by far my favourite thing about being up here)
One downside to spending most of the day outside is that the temperature is starting to drop like a rock, it was about 15*C before the weekend, and has been hovering just around the freezing level. Below are a few photographs of a few frosty wings, which I had to brush off to send some early morning charters off.
Once all the scheduled Jetstream flights have been launched, we spend a few hours cleaning and preparing the single engine aircraft for various charters which they may have. Yesterday we had a funeral in a small town called Camsell Portage in Northern Saskatchewan, so the casket was sent off in the Otter, while the Cessna 206 and 210 were jam packed with a pastor and a group of ladies.
Camsell Portage, SK. Approximately an hour flight in the Cessna To drive there from Fort Smith I am told you have to drive down southwest to
Edmonton, east, then north. Seems a flying is a better option!
Edmonton, east, then north. Seems a flying is a better option!
Today was welcomed with rain, snow flakes, then more rain (... but SNOW!!! Already!!) It didn't stick to the ground, so I won't count it as our first snow fall! Until Next time...
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