An Adventure to Labrador (Part Deux)

1. An Adventure to Labrador(Part Deux)

2. Time to unpack and gas up the wing tanks (40 gals total). We carried two 5 gal gas cans in each float. 8 gallons will get us over to Lab City (40 minutes away) to fuel up and get more groceries From the sky, I thought a lot of the ground was grey rock. Some of it was, but much of it was something caribou (reindeer) like to eat. Try these web sites to find out what it was: http://www.flickr.com/photos/benstephenson/30425059/ http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/caribou_moss.htm

3. Here’s a look inside the cabin. The stove is run from outside propane tanks. The wood stove provides heat at night. Each of the 4 bunk beds has mosquito netting. We have an electric generator which we use each morning to fill two 55 gallon water barrels strapped on the roof and lights at night. Our running water to the sink and toilet are gravity fed from the water barrels.

4. Small portion of Our Lake • Normally, we dressed in layers of clothing, expecting the day to start out cold and then we’d remove some layers as the day warmed up • Find out about the climate: • http://www.labrador-caribou. • com/weather.html • Metric conversion calculator http://www.worldwidemetric.com/metcal.htm • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da-S8PmbKt4&feature=related • Labrador has thousands of • interconnecting lakes, ponds, rivers, • and streams • On the lake, we used a 16 foot • aluminum boat that has a 9.9 hp gas • motor or the canoe to get around

5. Some parts of the lake are 200 feet deep and Lake Trout love deep, cold • water • A good pair of rubber waders (hip high boots) are essential in keeping dry • and getting to the best fishing locations • Unfortunately, some black flies were able to get inside my waders and • pants and my shins looked like they’d been stitched by a sewing machine • Try this web site (bottom of the page) to see how many different kinds of fish • you can catch in Labrador:http://www.labrador-fishing.com/fish_species.html Fishing for Artic Char My first “little” Lake Trout

6. Grocery run (40 minutes by air) to Labrador City (Lab City) and Wabush

7. Any ideas what this rock contains? In Labrador West, there are mines that uses this kind of rock in a very important role in the steel business. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU0JuvXiES8 Hint: It’s not Uranium and I have a chunk of it on my bookshelf Took me awhile to re-find a link of the History of Lab West at the end of this forum of mostly pictures http://www.bmwmoa.org/forum/showthread.php?t=15498

8. When we landed at Lab City, I was amazed at the size of this float plane, called an Otter. It is flown by Saquenay Airlines and flies supplies and people to many of the remote towns and fishing and hunting camps in Labrador and Quebec. A Beaver (smaller than an Otter) was also used to fly both stoves, boats and many other heavy items into Steve’s camp. The boats were strapped to the floats A video clip of winter in Lab City (reminds me of the 2 yrs I lived in Ontario) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5h5bCpZ-PI&feature=related

9. Great looking waterfall Various European Nations fly fighter planes out of Goose Bay and they love flying down this European looking fiord or fjord

10. The only time we’re not wearing gloves and some type of mosquito netting is when the wind is blowing really hard or the smoke from a camp fire is keeping the bugs away. The reason that we couldn’t see any caribou is because the herds were up in the mountains, where the strong winds kept the bugs from driving them crazy. Here’s a crazy story – Steve showed me several bear and wolf tracks at the edge of this beach. As we were unloading the plane, I noticed about a 1/2 mile away down the beach, a small (approx. 2 yr old) Urus americanus heading our way. I tried yelling at it to scare it away and it must have thought we were dinner and started charging us. Steve told me to get the shotgun and slugs out of the plane. Needless to say, it got pretty hairy for awhile and we never went anywhere without the gun.

11. We stayed up one cloudless night, by the fire, until 1 am to see the aurora borealis Use these websites to find out what it is http://kanada.com/english/Aurora-Borealis.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1-rGK7YqrI Note the caribou rack holding up the shotgun and fishing rods Another crazy story – when we woke up the next morning, I heard rain pelting down on the tent, only it wasn’t rain drops, it was thousands of bugs doing kamikaze runs trying to get in to our tent and I had to go the bathroom

12. I’ve experienced black flies before while living in New England and Ontario Canada and mosquito netting and bug spray were essential. • Before the trip, I learned that the bugs in Labrador would be ferocious and unrelenting (unlike anything I’d ever experienced). • If we used bug spray, the bugs just laughed at us (take a look at the ingredients on your bug spray and see how much DEET is in the can) . Instead, we used “fly dope” a liquid bug oil that had 99% DEET and it was really effective in keeping the bugs off of us for about 3 hours, but it didn’t stop them from swarming all around us. • I don’t smoke cigars very often, but sometimes we smoked cigars through our mosquito netting while we fished, just to keep them away from our faces • Check out these web sites to see how many types of biting flies there are to drive you or an animal absolutely crazy (note the first website was changed to insects of Alaska-look in “Sheer Numbers” for the 4 primary biting insects that are found in Alaska and Labrador) : • http://www.adn.com/adn/intern/hollybugs.html • http://tlhwy.com/travel/blackflies.html

13. Steve’s the “master angler” showing off an Artic Char and a Lake Trout – we ate fish morning, noon, and night We couldn’t find a store to get ice for our fish, so we landed on a lake that still had snownearby and scooped up it into our cooler

14. Finally heading home. On the two lane gravel road, I came over a hill and came upon a tractor trailer going the other way. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I was really relieved when I finally got to the paved road at Manic 5. These websites show better photos and a video of the Quebec Hwy 389 from Baie Comeau up to Labrador City http://tlhwy.com/central/virtualtour/hwy389/hwy38901.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGdct2IDT8A

15. Manic 5 Forest fires in coniferous forests can burn many acres before they either burn themselves out or firefighting planes can help put them out. On our way up, we were given flight vectors to avoid the “yellow ducks” that were fighting a massive forest fire. See what a yellow duck looks like: http://www.answers.com/topic/canadair-cl-215 The next website shows a video of the capability of the cl-215: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6DQZ5tbSkg

16. I wanted to take these Caribou antlers in the plane, but they wouldn’t fit We saw hundreds of caribou trails as we flew around Labrador, but this was the closest we ever got to one. Had we been there later in the year, we would have seen the Georges River Caribou herd. Visit the herd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaTcd8pEPjo&feature=related

17. DO YOU THINK THAT THE CARIBOU REALLY HATE DRILLING FOR OIL IN PRUDHOE BAY ALASKA?

18. Wrap up • I had an unbelievable adventure to Labrador and most of the pictures don’t do what we saw their true justice. Many pictures had to be left out of both presentations. The climate was unexpectedly good. During the day, the weather stayed in 60-70’s and dropped down to the 50’s at night. And we had very little rain. • The gun was only used once, when Steve had to fire it several times over the head of a young black bear that thought we were something (i.e. Caribou) to eat. Thankfully, the bear headed off into the woods. • We didn’t have a radio, TV or computer, so when neither of us talked, the silence took a lot of getting used to (sensory depravation). I read a lot of books in my spare time. We kept in contact with our wives through a satellite phone. • The worst part of the trip was all the bugs, they were unbelievable, and at times maddening. However, the fishing was fantastic and I even tried my hand at fly fishing (catching more trees than fish). • Finally, I’d like to thank Steve (and Catherine) for inviting me on this once in a life time adventure. • Now they’ve opened up another float plane fish camp but this time it’s in Alaska and I’m trying to figure out when and how I’m going to get up there. • Hope you enjoyed the trip and learned a little something new about the vast coniferous biome to the north.