Mel's Journey in to Camp

It was quite the hop-skip-and jump into camp. Last time I posted, I was in lovely Yellowknife waiting to leave for Norman Wells.

We left Yellowknife in a Cessna Grand Caravan - which was the smallest plane that I had been on at that point. Apparently we were on the "indirect route" to Norman Wells and had to make a few stops.

Here is a pic of the Grand Caravan:


Then we landed in Deline (Fort Franklin) on the shore of Great Bear Lake. It is only accessible by winter road or by air. There, we had to switch planes to get to Tulita (Fort Norman). Our next plane, was a Twin Otter, which was kinda fun.


We had to stop at Tulita on the banks of the Mackenzie River. Quite a pretty little town. Next (finally!) we were on our way to Norman Wells. We stayed overnight and had a chance to visit the local museum and see the local golf course (maybe 3 holes?). It was actually a really nice museum, mostly about the Canol Road. They also had a lot of beautiful locally made moccasins and other crafts. And then we were off to camp, in a Pilatus Porter, by far the smallest plane I've been in:


Here we are loading the plane. It was pretty darn cozy! It is the only one of it's kind that is still functioning in Canada. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing! It is highly useful because of it's landing distance, it can stop in 300 ft - a Twin Otter requires 1200 ft to stop. Our runway at camp is apparently 1250 ft...not a lot of room for error, and a long drop at the bottom. it was quite the stop anyways.

Here we are , just outside of Norman Wells, flying over the mighty Mackenzie, it's really impressive.


I thought it was neat that the pilot had to turn a crank to operate the flaps!


And finally, we made it to camp. Things have been coming together, but we're functioning pretty well. Our outhouses and showers don't have doors yet, and today when I finally got to take a shower (they just finished the plumbing) the hot water heater stopped working so I had a very 'refreshing shower'. It's a beautiful location though and there are some existing buildings that are pretty neat. Here is our lovely kitchen:


We have 2 really great cooks, and there are a lot of other great people working in the camp. Our view from camp is really impressive, we are right on a lake (read: mosquitoes) in a broad valley . There is a little canoe here that I will hopefully have a chance to take for a spin sometime soon.


So, take care everyone and I hope that you are all doing well!
Melissa