Now, Places Everyone...Front and CENTRE !

The story of Arctic exploration is one of wonder, awe and mystery. Canada is vast as I've tried to explain in my posts along the blogway...so vast that those of us from "the south" have little knowledge of our country apart from the familiarity a few hundred miles near our residences. 

While we may have vacationed in a particular area, either arriving by plane or car, few have travelled the breadth of this magnificent dominion. I've been fortunate, indeed, to have visited Bona Vista in Newfoundland...I never saw any icebergs there, as many have done, but like the many visitors to Newfoundland, I've been "screeched" and "kissed a cod" while in St. John's.

Western end of Lake Erie showing Detroit & Cleveland
Pelee Island the most southern point of Canada

At the other coast, we've visited Vancouver, the city not the island....as yet. So hopefully, there's more travel in our future to that end of the country. I'm a Niagara boy...born and bred. Living in southern ontario, we are blessed with great climate and great views. Not far from this region is the southern limit of Canada.

The southern most portion of Canada is Pelee Island, I've never been there. It's a portion of land sitting in mid Lake Erie (one of the five Great Lakes of North America)...and it's only about 350 kilometers from my house. So there's a side trip I hope to make next summer...and the reason is this. Unlike most Canadians, I've been to the Arctic...not once...but twice. This upcoming trip will be my third...and to a completely different region. I'm quite proud to have made these journeys...the reasons are both personal and professional.

Cambridge Bay is 950 kilometers northwest of Rankin Inlet
Yellowknife is almost the same distance west of Baker Lake

On my first two trips to Rankin Inlet, I worked as the medical radiation technologist (the MRT in xray) at the Kivillaq Regional Health Centre. While there, I discovered a town only two hundred and fifty kilometers away to the northwest. I never visited it as the snow machine ride (and return) was a little too far for my adventurous spirit in -20C temperatures... But also, I was on call for much of my trip and it's a little difficult to provide emergency xray services if you're ten hours away by power sled.

The community to which I'm referring is called Baker Lake. You may not have noticed it before...maybe never knew the name. The next time or whenever you are watching a weather forecast on the news...whether it's in this country or abroad...and the weather person is showing the "arctic air mass" blowing down on us...in the middle of the ice capped area just west of Hudson's Bay...you will notice the name BAKER LAKE. It's routinely labelled. 

The "B" in Baker Lake is located at the "Geographical Centre" of Canada
The "C" in Cambridge Bay is the location of the actual community
Yellowknife is located on the shores of Great Slave Lake (the yellow
marker  between the "f" and "e")

Weather people know (and shortly you will as well)...Baker Lake's importance is this. It's the geographical centre of Canada, north to south...east to west. The fact that I was only a couple of hundred kilometers away while in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut  brings a different focus of sorts. You may remember my mentioning that Rankin Inlet is about 1500 kilometers north of Winnipeg. This means that Canada's land mass and archipelago extends that distance and much more to the northern tip of Ellesmere Island and the community of Alert.

From Pelee Island in the south to the community of Alert in the north...this country is HUGE !!!

Professionally, I'll be providing the same xray services as in the past two visits...this time to a community of 1800 people who had their resident technologist hired full time over in Rankin Inlet. This region of Nunavut is known as Kitikmeot. It is the most western region of the territory and the furthest from the territorial capital of Iqaluit (formerly known as Frobisher Bay). I've outlined some of the distances and my travel itinerary in previous editions, but some updates are in order now that we have finalized details.

The Mackenzie Riven Basin

The travel facts include 7.5 hours on 3 separate jet flights in 737's to get to Cambridge Bay. Of course, that's not counting the waiting times in airports, the travel between airports and residences, the security checks, loading and unloading...all this and I'm still in Canada. The location of Cambridge Bay on the western edge of Nunavut means travelling out through Edmonton and onto Yellowknife to get there.

Yellowknife sits on a northern spit of a very large lake. Perhaps, you may have heard of Great Slave Lake, part of the Mackenzie River system. This river basin drains the north eastern Rockies, Northern Alberta and most of the Northwest Territories into the Beaufort Sea and begs of a blog itself. Hopefully we'll have some time in the next two weeks to introduce you to this very large and important fresh water basin.

In the meantime enjoy these last few days of this year. 2016 is just a few days away and my travel to Cambridge Bay is about to begin. If its like my previous two visits to Canada's north, the experiences will keep both of us in awe.

Editor's Note: 
Happy New Year to all. May 2016 provide you with good health, happiness and the support of those you love.


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