|
Home
Work
Shop
Travels
People
Other
Links
email |
|
These are just a few of the pictures I've
taken in my travels around Canada. Most of
my travels, and work, in Canada have been
in Alberta and the high Arctic although I'm
currently living and working in Ontario.
I seem to collect a lot of aviation pictures
but I'll try and limit those as I know not
everyone finds them interesting. Figure 1
is a general map of Canada for those not
familiar with the layout. It's not very detailed
but if you click on it a more detailed map
will open in a new window.
I won't go into all the places I've been
in Canada as there are too many of them when
I count the places I've been on my job. The
places I've spent any significant amount
of time in are Calgary, Edmonton,Toronto, Ft. Simpson, Inuvik, Cambridge Bay, Resolute Bay, and Iqaluit.
 |
| Fig. 1 |
Most of the pictures on this page were taken
"North of 60". The territories
in Northern Canada start at 60° North
and go up from there. I'm posting these pictures
as Southern Canada is pretty familiar to
most people. Here are some interesting facts
about Canada's North (for more interesting
information on Canada go to Facts About Canada).
- There are three Northern territories; Yukon, Nunavut, and Northwest Territories.
- Yukon is the smallest territory at 186,661
sq. miles (483,050 sq. km.) and a population
of 31,000.
- Northwest Territories has an area of 452,480
sq. miles (1,171,918 sq. km.) and a population
of 42,000
- Nunavut has an area of 733,594 sq. miles
(1,900,000 sq. km.) and a population of 22,000
- The American states of California, Arizona,
Delaware, and West Virginia would fit into
the Yukon.
- Other than town streets Nunavut's only road
is a 13 mile (21 km) stretch of road between
Arctic Bay and Nanisivik.
 |
I took this picture while I was working for
Simpson Air in Ft. Simpson, Northwest Territories. The hangar we had
was too small for the Twin Otter so we had
to work on it outside. In cold weather we
would drape an old parachute over the area
we were working and use a herman nelsen (portable
heater) to warm the area under the parachute.
This method worked remarkably well so long
as there was no wind. |
| I only lived in Ft. Simpson for six months
before moving to Inuvik, also in the Northwest Territories , to
work for Aklak Air. While living in Inuvik a friend and I decided
to drive to Tuktoyuktuk on the ice road. Tuk only has a road to
it during the winter months when the McKenzie
river freezes over. The road is about 93
miles (150 km) long and the for the majority
of that distance you drive on the river.
The trip takes about 3 hours. |
 |
 |
These are pingos. The only area that I've
seen these are in the Western Arctic in the
vicinity of the MacKenzie river delta. These
two were near the ice road to Tuk. They are
formed in areas of permafrost and their core is made of ice. |
 |
| This was taken in the Yukon territories in the fall.
The company allowed some of us the use of a Twin Otter on floats for a
fishing trip just before we were to take the floats off for the season.
We decided to go to the Firth River in the Yukon and we landed at this
small lake near the river. It was a great, relaxing day after a busy
summer of work. |
| This is a PA18-150 Super Cub that Aklak used
to track animals with radio collars. The
aircraft had a few problems so I was flown
out to this location, near Rat River West
of Aklavik, in a helicopter. I took this picture as
the pilot was preparing to take off back
to Inuvik. |
 |
 |
| The picture above shows the Arctic Viking unloading in Iqaluit. This ship is 244' (74.4 m) long, 40' (12
m) wide, and 21' (6.5 m) deep. The tide is
high enough, high tide is approximately 36
feet (11 m), that they simply anchor the
ship during high tide and then it is beached
as the tide goes out. Once the tide is out
all that is required is to drive the trucks
to the ship and unload it. There are several
ships that bring supplies to the various
remote communities in Canada's North. They
have to get in during the very short summer
season and even then icebreakers are nearby
if they are needed for some of the more northern
communities. With most of these communities
any supplies that aren't brought by ship
have to be flown in and that adds significantly
to their costs. |
 |
Iqaluit is used quite often for cold weather
testing, I've seen a number of new aircraft
there being tested. This particular Boeing
720 is an old aircraft but it belongs to
Pratt and Whitney and they are testing engines.
This aircraft is modified so there are several
different locations where they can mount
the engines to be tested. The one being tested
in the picture is causing the steam. It is
a small business jet sized jet engine mounted
on the right side of the nose. The funny
looking nose on the aircraft is where they
would mount a turboprop engine and if they
are testing a larger jet engine they remove
one of the aircraft's main engines and mount
it there. |
 |
| This cannon was placed in Pangnirtung by the Hudson's Bay Company in the early
1900's. |
 |
Pangnirtung gets some pretty spectacular
winds. If you look close to the white ladder
leaning against the house in this picture
you will see a cable. There are a couple
of these and they run over the house and
secure it and the roof so it doesn't get
blown away. |
 |
| This was taken at the end of June at the
airport in Qikiqtarjuaq (Broughton Island). Pangnirtung and Qikiqtarjuaq
are at the opposite ends of a very popular
hike through Auyuittuq National Park. We
would often fly hikers to one of the places
and then pick them up at the other several
days later. The scenery in the area is spectacular. |
|
