And before I continue...
I must apologize for the size
of this update.
It's big.
I found it quite difficult
to pare it down as it is.
Hoo boy. Hang on, let me go make a sandwich or something.
Now some people think of the "North"
as something like this:
Yep. Nailed it.
I took that photo on a run I took
when it was about -25C/-13F.
I only have one question:
Why?
I slipped the face covering down off
my nose, but otherwise... That's what you do.
Or, you know, you just stay inside.
Tom Cochrane, a rock singer
(if you didn't know) was born there.
I only know Life Is A Highway...the civil engineer's anthem.
It covers approximately 60% of Canada's
land area, which, when you consider that
Canada is the 2nd largest country in
the world, is a heck of a lot of trees!)
Just think of all the paper airplanes we could make!
Oh. While I'm at it, I'll apologize now.
Most of the photos in this update
were taken before digital photos existed.
Did you have the whole setup where you duck your head under the little shroud?
Where was I....
Right! Lynn Lake.
The town I wasn't going
to talk about much.
People would walk up to the bank,
drop off the keys to their house and home
and simply walk away.
When we arrived, the population was
somewhere in the neighborhood of 500.
Wow. You should write the tourist brochures for this place.
I spent most of the night
consoling a distraught, crying wife.
I felt like crying, myself.
Yep, put that one right on the front as the main slogan.
But in all seriousness, I'm glad you guys made it through this.
We survived on frozen and canned goods.
(And in the summer, a fresh fruit truck would
come to town and do a booming business.)
There was no recreation and no theatre.
No library.
There was a post office.
And a hardware store.
A "grocery" store and hotel (see above)
and a gas station.
That was about it.
This is like the Canadian version of being exiled to Siberia. Who did you tick off?
We had a saying...
Lynn Lake isn't Hell...
But you can see it from there.
I can attest that it's loud. And sounds just like
a shot fired from a rifle.
The whooshing sound was the crack racing
across the lake.
Not dangerous... but damned unnerving!
Um...yeah! That's crazy!
After "living" there for almost four years...
we of course moved... farther North!
Well, no one ever accused you of being the sharpest tool in the shed.
You can fly Winnipeg to Singapore
for about the same price.
I mean no offense to the good citizens of Churchill, but I'd probably choose Singapore.
Churchill differed quite a bit from
Lynn Lake in some very good ways.
There were restaurants!
Anywhere from 2-3 to half a dozen
(depending on the season... more on that, too.)
There was a theatre, a library, a bowling alley, a pool!
A museum, gift shop(s), a deli, a bakery.
A veritable urban mecca of dizzying activity!
But who does that??
Spring is when flowers bloom!
Summer is hot!
Fall is cool and leaves changing!
Winter is cold!
(YMMV)
I mean, yeah, pretty much.
Whoa.
I just totally nerded out there, didn't I?
Happens to the best of us.
Standing beside these massive
chunks of ice is like walking into
a freezer.
The temperature outside can be
a nice comfy 20C/70F, but come
within a few feet of a large bergie bit
and the temperature drops down to...
Well, freezing.
Wow. Similar to when special effects shows use the flame shooters and you can feel the heat coming off them.
And if you close your eyes...
it sounds just like you're standing in
the middle of a summer rain shower.
Except the sun is warming you and
you are not getting wet.
That sounds like a neat experience!
What a cool shape!
It's amazing to see brown,
monochromatic ground
suddenly transformed into... this:
Most Canadians wouldn't know
a Whiskey Jack if it pecked them!)
Buncha loonies.
The sun was shining and the
temperature hovered around 20C/70F.
I arrived at home and told my DW
that we should take advantage
of the day and go for a walk.
She immediately agreed and
said "Gimme one sec to change my top."
In under 5 minutes she was ready.
We opened the door and stepped out into...
A cold and blustery 3C/37F.
The wind had shifted just enough
so that instead of blowing across
the warm land, it was now coming
in off the frigid Bay.
A 17C/33F degree temperature drop
in about five minutes.
Holy crap! That's crazy! It sounds like something out of a Harry Potter novel.
July and August are whale months.
Makes sense.
At any given moment, you can easily see,
from shore, dozens of whales at once.
Indeed, if you were to fly into Churchill
during the summer, your pilot will almost
certainly fly the "Whale one" approach.
This is an unofficial maneuver that takes
the plane up and down the Churchill River
before landing, thus giving passengers
on both sides of the aircraft an opportunity
to see thousands of whales at once.
That's awesome!
So cool!
Our guide lowered a hydrophone
into the water and the speakers
were immediately filled with
whistles, mews, chirps, squeals and trills.
Even cooler!
Ok, now I'm just jealous.
Working the night shift in the summer
is an experience.
You watch as the Sun sets in the Northwest…
And you can see the Sun’s glow as it travels
along the horizon Northwest to Northeast for
the next five and a half hours.
I don't think I could get used to that. The winters would be even worse.
They lay dormant in a "waking hibernation"
during the summer and do not eat
until winter when they are able to
hunt their main prey, seals.
I did not know that.
Living in a town where at any moment
you can come face to face with a 1,300lb bear
makes life a bit more... interesting.
Whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. Except bears, because bears will kill you.
In Churchill, you quickly learn never to
walk around a house unless you've given
it a wide berth, lest you come nose to nose
with an apex predator.
You only make that mistake once!
I did have, on more than one occasion,
the experience of seeing a bear being
"escorted" out of town by Natural Resources officers.
(Escorted meaning they fire cracker shells at their
feet to encourage them to leave.)
If I had a dollar for every time that happened to me...
He told me that he had a young
polar bear in the back seat and
it had started to wake up!
Reminds me of that 911 call where the guy hit the deer and put it in the back of his truck.
It was -30C/-22F out.
But the wind was blowing at 70mph.
That meant it felt like it was -55C/-67F.
I can't even fathom what that feels like.
Lovely! I will never experience this, because I wouldn't go outside.
(I regret that this poor specimen
is the only photo I have of Northern Lights.
One of those "I have tons of time!" victims.)
Ok, that I would go outside for. Someday I will witness this.
People are rare up north.
Can't imagine why.
Cute little fellas!
I have far more tales of the North
than I could possibly say in an update.
If we ever meet, feel free to ask me.
I will try and make sure I do so when I'm paying you back for the dinners I owe you!