Another Ferry Flight!

[Darcy]

Alright, I gotta ask - is that a Red Canoe Boeing bag?

Guilty. Perfect size for the cockpit/flight gear.

[Chimborazo]

Alright, I gotta ask - is that a Red Canoe Boeing bag?

Guilty. Perfect size for the cockpit/flight gear.

Ha, awesome.

[Darcy]

A few shots. I'm on the night shift so these are all after midnight. Pretty cool place. Another polar bear and cub were spotted 20 miles from where we are working but i haven't seen them yet. Been doing lots of slinging/longlining too. Found an old camp and a bunch of old caribou hides. Fisheries guys doing whatever fisheries guys do...















The helicopter is 1/4 the size, pay is about a quarter as much, and the work is 4X as hard as my last military contracting gig, but I'm flying and seeing some amazing country. I'm the oldest pilot here by 2 decades....

[Darcy]

One of the fisheries guys called "BEAR!" last night but on closer inspection, turned out to be a caribou. You see something big and white moving in the distance, you never know. I asked them to give me first crack at it with my Randall, but to stand close with the shotgun and if it looks like I'm losing, step in...

Pretty incredible scenery. About 74 degrees North...



























Got some video too but can't figure out how to embed them.

[Kurt]

You cannot really embed them, We have BB code for youtube for vids. I will see if I can dust off my php or BBCode skills and look for a way to embed non youtube videos as a "player".

[Darcy]

No worries, thanks. I'll try to edit them into something watchable and upload them to Youtube, but may have to wait till I get home anyway. Internet is sporadic and slow here.

[snaark]

What are you actually doing up there? I mean there seems to be a lot of choppers but not many people to ferry around. Just curious.

[Darcy]

There's this series of mountains up here that are 70% pure iron, and it's being mined and shipped to Asia and Europe during the two short months the port isn't locked up with ice. I think there are around 700 people here at any given time (they mine year round) which doubles with all the environmentalists that come up during the summer. Some of the helicopters are on exploration contracts looking for more iron, some of us are on environment contracts studying the affects of the mine on fisheries (my guys), water quality, the caribou, the narwhals, what have you... It's an extremely environmental conscious region, all the land owned by the indigenous peoples, so the environmental assessments are as busy as the exploration guys. My guys catch fish with nets and electric shockers and measure them, tag them, see how healthy they are, and keep track of the numbers, plus water quality, oxygen levels, flow rates and temperatures, etc etc...

The mine itself is like living in a Mad Max movie, but we aren't allowed any photos. Luckily my 12 hour shifts are spent far out in the field. 24 hours of daylights so we go around the clock. I'm on nights, all those shots are between midnight and 3 am....

[babihutan]

Glad I checked in here, been a while. Thanks for the awesome shots and story, definitely a part of this world that not many get any exposure to so your coverage is greatly appreciated!

[Darcy]

Loving it up here. Very surreal, usually blowing a gale but when the wind dies off, you can hear the birds and the odd caribou grunt, watching life creep out of the rocks as it slowly warms up and the ice recedes. You can see forever. Quite the experience ;

[el3so]

I have always wanted to use the word "unearthly", figuring it'd be about either a divine apparition or a fatberg. Didn't expect landscape pictures to be involved.

[Darcy]

Last few. I'm headed home in a few hours, contract finished for now, but I'm scheduled back in mid-August. Got a few other job offers come in recently that I may snag though...

Some waterfalls:









Half the lakes are still frozen:



Inukshuks allover the place...



Core samples at an old drill site:



Old camp:



Big ass mosquito photo-bombed my shot. Luckily they just started last night...



You can see how damn rocky it is everywhere...



So I took a slip the other night hiking through one of those rock fields and smacked my shin. Next leg I'm toeing the helicopter into the side of a mountain trying to drop these guys off and my shin starts throbbing like a mother-fucker. We finished the site and I flew back to camp, then pulled my pants up to find this....



Swelling has gone down significantly and it's turned the entire area black and blue. Still flying with it, but there's another scar to match the rest. SOST fixed my last shin injury, right next to this one about eight months ago. My shins are a mess. Used to race mountain bikes and do half-pipe shit on BMXs in my youth, which is really hard on shins. Never seen one swell like that though.

Packed and waiting for the charter South.....

[Kurt]

I've only seen them swell like that when fractured.

[Darcy]

Hope it's not broke, I'd have to go see a Doc. I think I hit a blood vessel that bled inside and created pressure - lots of pressure, sweet Jesus! Still hurts like fuck.

Did up a YouTube video, 8 minutes long, all shot between midnight and about 3 a. Not sure how to embed it but here's the link;

https://youtu.be/wNn-gAPQCpA

[Ozymandias]

Great photos. This is the kind of photographic travelogue the BFC needs to get back to. Although I understand that covid-19 is making it difficult for many to get out there and travel these days! Thanks for sharing.