I was out to Edmonton the last week of January and headed to Flat Valley, SK for a couple of days. On the way back to Edmonton, we stopped in Glendon, AB to see the big pyrogy statue.
In the middle of town is the giant pyrogy on a fork statue.
It is located on Pyrogy Drive.
Unfortunately the restaurant was closed until the end of February.
I was out to Prince Albert, SK for a quick meeting on a couple of our new sites with Public Works and the engineering consultants. Flew out Tuesday morning, drove to PA and then back to Saskatoon for a return flight the next day. Ended the year with 38 flight segments and 39K qualifying flight miles, good for another year of Air Canada Elite 35K.
The early part of November was busy with work travel, part of the reason for the lack of updates during the month. I had a quick trip out to Nova Scotia on November 3rd for a meeting at Kejimkujik with a concrete contractor on the Monday.
Later that week I was out to Saskatchewan and a trip up to Pinehouse. The temperatures were okay but there was snow on the ground. Things have come to a crawl on getting this site up and running. Now looking at a February install at the earliest.
The following week I was up to Geraldton, ON and a site inspection. The weather was good when I landed in Thunder Bay so I stopped at the Terry Fox Memorial.
There was lots of snow in Geraldton and the temperatures were hovering near zero. The big snowman in Beardmore.
I spent the week in Park City, Utah for the NADP Fall meeting. The turnout wasn’t great as many of the usual participants are Federal employees from the EPA, USGS and NPS. Park City is about 40 miles east of Salt Lake City.
The fall colours were quite nice as you drove in from Salt Lake City. This was the view from my hotel room.
Park City hosted a number of events during the 2002 Winter Olympics, including, alpine, slalom, aerial, snowboarding and ski jumping.
Found my way back to Wood Buffalo National Park this past week. It was a long day of travel last Sunday, going from Toronto to Calgary to Yellowknife. Here is the view from the Maple Leaf Lounge, looking southwest towards the city and mountains.
The final leg was on Northwestern Air from Yellowknife to Fort Smith. Here is the Yellowknife baggage carousel. there was a large contingent of Japanese tourists on the flight from Calgary, they were on a northern lights tour.
We were staying in Fort Smith for the week.
The Northwest Territories licence plate.
The ravens are giant up there. This one was hanging around the truck.
There was no shortage of Wood Bison on the way to and from the site. Our site is approximately 100km from town.
Fort Smith is located on the Slave River.
The Pelican Rapids.
Wood Bison n the way to the park.
Wood Bison on the way back from the park. The most we saw going in one direction was six, chances were good that we saw the same ones on the way back. They don’t move very far during the course of the day.
Wood Buffalo National Park is the largest National Park in Canada and is home to a herd of 5000 plus free roaming Wood Bison. The park is also home to the last remaining wild migratory flock of whooping cranes left in the world.
A Wood Bison moving along the highway.
We also saw quite a few black bears through the week. The first day there were two that crossed the road on our way back to town. A couple of days later we saw a couple on the way out of town. This was the same guy, not as big as the first ones we saw.
Also located in the park is the Salt Plains.
The Salt Plains, extending over 200 square kilometres, are extremely rare, and one of the reasons Wood Buffalo Park was declared a World Heritage Site. Salt bubbles up in springs across the plains, in some places forming mounds up to two metres high. In spring the salt is dispersed across the landscape forming white patterns on the land. The salt is pure table salt, deposited many millions of years ago.
Just spectacular scenery up in this part of the country.
There were parts of the park that also experienced recent forest fire activity.
Leaving the park on the last day, there were some Wood bison near the park border.
The Wood bison is the largest North American mammal and can weigh up to a tonne.
The watch for buffalo sign on the road as you drive into the park.
It was a good week work wise, we completed what we had come up for and we saw an abundance of wildlife.
One last stop at Little Buffalo River Falls.
This is a Territorial Park close to Fort Smith.
A classic sign posted near the falls.
Back in town this fox came around when we were gassing up the truck.
It was very curious and had no fear of us.
Turned out to be ‘bust’. I was out to Pinehouse, Saskatchewan to our new site. We were there for what was to have been the final inspection before being turned over to us. Unfortunately it didn’t quite turn out that way, some mis-communication along the way resulted in an unnecessary trip. The big black raven in the photo below was probably some sort of sign. There should have been buildings sitting on the concrete pads and the electrical power service was to be complete. There was no service to the buildings or from the transformer to the meter. Also had a visit from the local RCMP regarding some shady contractors. As a result, it may require another trip out there before we can do the installation.
I was up at one of sites just northwest of Sault Ste Marie this week. There were three of us there doing a major upgrade. The other two drove up from Toronto and I flew in Monday afternoon. For the first time in my career with CAPMoN, my checked bag didn’t arrive with me. Fortunately there are multiple flights to the Sault, and my bag arrived on the next flight, 2.5 hours after mine landed. We were staying in camp. This is the cookhouse on the left and my room the door on the right.
The camp runs on diesel generators.
The early morning fog lifting off the lake.
The weather was hot, 37 humidex the one day, we had a good storm one night, but by the last night we had some time to explore.
One of the guys brought his fishing rod, and he was able to catch one brook trout.
Waiting for the sun to come up over the trees.
Spotted some Sandhill Cranes on the way out.
There was a pair of them.
We made a quick stop at the Chippewa Falls rest area.
Chippewa Falls is the half way point of the Trans Canada Highway.
The lower pool with Highway 17 in the background.
Lake Superior.
After breakfast we headed over to the Land Registry office in Kenora to find some land owner information. As we pulled up to one of the major streets there was some four legged pedestrians causing heads to turn. This pair of doe and buck started in between the crosswalk lines when they started to cross the street.
They stopped for a few leaves.
Checked out the Boston Pizza window.
And then headed back onto the street.
Made a few cars wait while they decided to cross again.
We drove over a 1000 km’s on northern Ontario back roads and didn’t see one sign of wildlife. Now realize you don’t have to leave the town, they’ll come to you.
Then they finished with some flowers from the bed in front of the ServiceOntario building.
My drive over two days. A. Winnipeg, B. Kenora, C. McIntosh, D. Quibell, E. Vermillion Bay, F. Kenora, G. Grassy Narrows, H. Winnipeg
I had a quick trip up to northern Ontario this week for work. I was in the Vermillion Bay area, between Kenora and Dryden.
I was reviewing some potential new sites. This was an abandoned building up near McIntosh.
The north end of Canyon Lake.
My ride for the two days was a Ford Edge. Some of the roads we traveled, weren’t really roads.
There were giant tadpoles in a flooded area of the road.
This is probably a no-no in my car rental agreement. The car had a back up camera which came in handy, other places I was making 10 point turns.
Caught at the CNR line just west of Vermillion Bay by a freight train.
It was a busy couple of weeks leading up to the end of the school year. The girls went to the Taylor Swift concert at the Rogers Centre with Melissa on the Friday. The next day we dropped Angela and Claudia off at their Pathfinder Camp for a couple of days. I was in Stephenville, Newfoundland for work for a few days. Only in small towns do you find this many signs on a single storefront. The bookkeeping is the door on the left, but rest is the pub, laundromat, tattoo and denture clinic.
Angela and Gillian were into exam week and Claudia was coasting to the end of the year. Angela and Claudia both finished the year with honours, congratulations to the girls.
