FROM HERE TO THERE...

Made another quick trip up to Marten River, just north of North Bay. The site is moving along and nearing completion. Here is a power pole with some bear claw marks in it.

Out of the field has risen a CAPMoN station.

It was a brutal drive back to Toronto, North Bay was clear when we left, but by the time we hit South River we were into snow, then snow-ice pellets, then ice pellets-freezing rain, then freezing rain, then freezing rain-rain, finally rain just south of Barrie.

Heading back to Toronto today we made a scheduled stop in Edmonton, although when we booked, we didn't actually read the small print where it said 1-stop. It was chilly in Edmonton, because it was a short stop-over we stayed on the plane, big mistake when they open the rear door to re-load the kitchen and the -19 degC wind blows through.

Climbed up the hill at the site to see what the weather was like, this is looking south-east, the skies were threatening but never opened up.

Ominous skies.

We were able to catch the afternoon ferry back to Swartz Bay.

Some of the evening skies along the way to Mayne Island. From there we had to transfer ferries.

Waiting at the Mayne Island ferry dock.

The mornings look promising weather wise, but by mid-day the overcast skies have moved in and the showers start off and on. Today was only about 5 degrees C. So far there has been 214 mm of rain at our Saturna Island site in the first 23 days of November. A couple of pictures from the cottage this morning.

Looking towards the cottage from the road above.

Sitting in the cottage on Saturna Island and have been up since 4:30 PST. That would be 7:30 EST and 9:00 Newfoundland time. It rained most of the night, but it seems to have stopped for now. The good news is we have power on the island and we were able to get over on the ferry. If it was last week, they had canceled ferry service for a bit and the power was out for one day.

After a brief stay at the Hotel Tanabe, it was back to the airport for a trip out to the soggy coast. We were delayed at the gate waiting for them to remove someone's bag, for some reason the airport seemed busier than usual. There was a traffic jam of planes waiting to come in to the gates.

Then we had further delays when we had to go for de-icing.

A close-up of the robot-like sprayer.

The de-icing truck.

When we pulled out of the clouds after take-off, there was another plane at a higher altitude.

Looking south as we made the approach into Vancouver.

We were delayed in Toronto almost an hour and therefore missed out scheduled connecting flight to Victoria. So instead of the usual Dash-8 over to the Island, we were rescheduled on a an A319, it was the same size plane I took from St.Johns to Toronto. Here is the Vancouver Airport.

The view looking south.

One of the ferries heading back to the mainland.

After a quick stop in Sidney for lunch and groceries, it was onto the ferry over to Saturna Island.

After we pushed off from the dock, the skies cleared and we had a sunny trip over to the island.

The sun was brief, but still good to see.

Looks like somebody didn't read the sign.

This may be the only sunset I see on this trip.

Stayed the night in Gander last night, when I was checking into the hotel there was a brief time where I couldn't remember which city I was in, I definitely think I'm traveling too much. My hotel was Sinbad's.

It was a nice sunny morning, but very windy. This is the outside of the Gander Airport.

Walking out to the airplane that would take us to St. John's. This the Beechcraft 1900 Turboprop.

Some of the clouds after taking off from Gander.

The turbulence on the descent into St. John's was interesting, since I could see out the front of the plane, I could see the runway in clear view as we approached. Then at the last second a cross wind caught the plane and the runway disappeared, but before we touched down they straightened it out and we landed without incident.

There was a bit of sun this morning trying to peek through the overcast skies. That combined with the fog in the bay made for some nice scenery.

It looks like there is fall colours on the trees, but it is only the sun which makes it look like that.

The only hotel in town this time of year. At breakfast this morning, Danny Williams was sitting a couple of tables over from us. Danny Williams is the Premier of Newfoundland. No one really knew why he was in town, he came in last night and left first thing in the morning.

After arriving in town we found out there had been a tragedy at the hydro plant. The hydro plant is the main employer in town, it is where our site is located.

Apparently over the weekend there was a double-shooting, which they were calling a murder-suicide. It was a couple who lived together and who both worked at the generating station. In a town of 500 hundred people, everyone know each other, so it wasn't the best of circumstances to be there. The crew that does our sample changes are the Security people at the plant. In the end we were unable to train most of them due to the funeral.

Starting the air tower installation. The high gravel outcrops in the rear are the sides of the dam.

Trying to square up the tower.

Air tower installation complete, for the most part.

A view of the dam from up top.

Looking back down towards the town.

Out in Newfoundland this week for an instrument installation. It was a flight into St John's and then a puddle jumper over to Gander. I had a good view out the front window when we were coming in for the landing.

In case you ever wondered what the dashboard of a Beechcraft 1900D Turboprop looked like.

From there it is about a 2 hour drive to Head of Bay d'Espoir.

I was down in Nova Scotia this week at our site in Kejimkujik National Park. It was a pretty wet week, within a 24 hour period we received 62 mm of rain. This is just the start of a busy month of travel.