The purpose of that trip was to organize the logistics of our recent CANDAC charter flight to Eureka. It all started like this...
It was a humid day in Toronto, and I had just returned from a weekend in Myrtle Beach, where the ocean kills the humidity and leaves one feeling refreshed. I had a day to gather some final materials, load our gear onto pallets and get them shipped to Yellowknife. Plans were successful, and the pallets were packed and shipped the next day. Two weeks later, on the Friday night before I was set to deploy to Yellowknife, I received an email from my boss, communicating that the shipping company had "lost" one of my pallets, and I was to figure out where it went and get it on the charter flight on Monday. Needless to say I didn't sleep well that night! Saturday was spent on the horn with the shipping coordinator at UofT as well as the shipping company's office in Yellowknife. The lost freight was located, but visual confirmation was still required, and I couldn't do that until we landed in Yellowknife on Sunday.
Padre and I had a mini Fathers Day celebration Saturday night, culminating in a 03:00 wake up Sunday morning still feeling the effects from dinner the night before. Packed my bag, loaded up the car, took pop out to breakfast before he dropped me at the airport. Seeing the city at 04:00 on Sunday morning was a different experience. We were at a restaurant to have breakfast and coffee; the other patrons were there to sober up from the bar they had left that night. Interesting experience.
Arrived at the airport, met up with our new Assistant Operator, Peter, and we were off like a herd of turtles for Edmonton. This was Peter's first trip to the Arctic, let alone anywhere north of Northern Alberta. He was excited and it was energizing to see someone as excited as he was. After a brief layover in Edmonton we were off to The Land of the Midnight Sun to get Cinderella to the Ball. We landed, collected the rental truck and made waves toward where I suspected our freight was located. Given that it was Sunday, most businesses were closed for the day. However, our contacts at Discovery Mining Services knew we were coming into town today and needed to organize our freight. Managed to visually confirm that all the freight was in-fact there, and nothing was lost, only mislabeled. Very relieved, I was. There wasn't much more that could be done that day, other than procure a few more items on the Last Minute List. Checked into the hotel, had dinner at the Wildcat Cafe in Old Town Yellowknife, and toured Peter around Yellowknife. The sun was still going strong by 22:00 which made it easy to show him the sights. Finally grabbed some rack around 22:30 and I was out like a light switch.
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| Peter (tall guy) |
The next morning we went back to Discovery Mining Services to meet up with our contact there to confirm plans for the charter flight and to organize the logistics of the freight. All was going well; freight was brought over to the hangar, passengers (pax) were packed and ready to fly. Everything had been going smoothly, up until 15:00, when the charter airline pulls me aside and says that we have a problem; big weather problems up-island. It seems as though there was a storm that had settled into Resolute Bay (the second fuel cache along the trip, and last point of contact before Eureka). We deliberated and made the decision to delay the charter flight that day and try again in the morning. That's the reality of traveling in the Arctic, weather plays a major factor, especially as climates change as you progress further north.
So, the blessing in disguise was that we were now afforded an extra day/night in Yellowknife! I took the pax back to the hotel, they arranged new rooms for themselves, and I took off to the airport to get myself a new flight back to Toronto later in the week. Somewhere between when I left the electronically gated parking lot at the airport, and when I returned to my hotel, a city-wide power outage occurred. My cell phone was dead, and I couldn't charge it (and I left my solar powered cell phone charger in Toronto - stupid move Michael). We spent about two hours waiting for the power to come back on and trying to figure out what to do for dinner. Given that the electricity was off everywhere, most restaurants had ceased serving food and may be shutting down for the night. Fortunately the power came back on and we decided to go to Bullocks Bistro in Old Town for some of the best fish n' chips in the world. The Bullocks Experience includes great fish, warm beer, and a lot of attitude from the staff; but that is part of the adventure! Three hours later we left, full, quenched, and pissed off - the perfect way to leave Bullocks! My pax were less than impressed with the level of service, but I reassured them that they had the genuine Bullocks Experience. It was then back to the hotel for the night, and await the status call from the airline dispatcher...commencing at 05:00.
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| Had to sign the table |
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| Wayne, Mel, and Peter off to Eureka |
For lunch that day I was fortunate enough to reconnect with a long-lost friend from my 2006 summer contract at the Tundra Ecosystem Research Station on Daring Lake, NWT. Rosie Strong was our cook for the two week duration of the camp. She introduced me to the deliciousness that is spanikopita, and I have never forgotten her, or her cooking! It had been eight years since we last saw each other, but we picked up right where we left off. She has been living in Yellowknife for twenty-three years with her husband Gary out on Pontoon Lake, a nearby lake approximately 20kms from town. We had lunch at a small restaurant in Old Town called the Wildcat Cafe; delicious bison burger.
After lunch, I took some time to be a tourist. Toured the Gallery of the Midnight Sun, and the Old Town Glass Works; both local shops with local art, as well as around town taking in the sites.
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| Yellowknife River |
It was then time for me to check-in to my next hotel, the Super 8. It turned out that my online reservation made via hotels.com was never received, nor did they have any open rooms for me. After about twenty minutes the general manager was called in to sort through this dilemma, and a room just "magically appeared" for me for the night. A logistic mistake, perhaps a trend on this trip?!
After what felt like a good nights sleep, I was back at the airport ready to depart for Calgary with furtherance to Toronto later that evening. The flight to Calgary went smoothly and landed early. My four hour layover was spent wandering the Calgary airport, eating at Chili's, and avoiding the World Cup games on TV. Approximately thirty minutes before boarding, the airline announced that the flight to Toronto was overbooked, and they were looking for three volunteers to take a later flight. Given that I had a flexible schedule, I volunteered for the later flight. Ten minutes later, the attendant told me that I would be going to Toronto on my scheduled flight because of the bag I checked; it would have been too difficult to pull my bag off I suppose. When it was time to board the plane, there was a longer lineup than I normally like. Many people rushing to get to their seats first. I waited a bit, and let the lemmings jump over the ledge first. Once I made it onto the plane and was walking to my seat, I saw Peter Mansbridge, the CBC news anchor, sitting to my right. As it turned out, he was four rows in front of me. Small world. I decided I would follow Mr. Mansbridge on Twitter just to see if he had anything to say before/after the flight. Three and a half hours, one movie and three TV shows later we landed in Toronto. At this point, the pilots informed us that there had been a security breach within Pearson airport, and they were not allowed to let any passengers off the plane. Well doesn't my Twitter feed light up with onsite, first person account updates from Mr. Peter Mansbridge. Eventually I join the conversation and am tweeting back and forth with him, as well as numerous of his other followers. The latest news from the pilots was that there was a security breach that caused the airport to go into a Lockdown Mode, and the SWAT team was brought in to check every person/plane/bag within the airport. After an hour of sitting on the plane, we were finally released...as was every other plane. There was now a mass influx of passenger volume rushing for the baggage claim area. It took almost an hour to collect my bag. In between arriving at baggage claim and finally getting my bag, I happened to find myself standing next to a man I've looked up to for years when I was playing football, Geroy Simon, the current CFL's All Time Leading Receiver. I said hello and introduced myself, had a short conversation with him and his agent, and directed them to where their baggage carousel was. That experience completely turned around what had been a very arduous day. Right after that I received a tweet from a reporter working for ABC News in New York City, asking me questions about what was going on at Pearson. He conducted a brief interview over twitter and informed me that the security breach involved a man leaving the terminal to have a cigarette, returning into the secure area without being screened again, and boarding his flight to Brazil. By the time the passenger was located, his flight was seven hours towards Brazil. The plane eventually was turned around and brought back to Toronto. Unsure what happened to that passenger, but he certainly inconvenienced a lot of people.
I finally made it home at 02:30 Thursday morning. It was a whirlwind trip, but the fun is all in the adventure of the unknown!
Happy Trails everyone.
