And So It Begins…

July 30, it was a dark, but clear morning when the limousine arrives at 0430h to collect me. The drive to the airport was uneventful; however my luck with airport security remains unchanged. As usual I was subjected to a thorough screening by CATSA, I was repeatedly asked useless questions “where are you going?” answer – Yellowknife, it’s on the boarding pass that you are holding, “do you have any firearms?” answer – yes, the bright blue paper that is attached to the boarding pass is the firearms declarations. “is this your computer” answer – no it’s a Coleman stove, what do you think!

With such high tech security equipment and crack security inspectors (you would think that CATSA would be able to train people to recognise a computer when they see one)-It’s a wonder that anybody wants to travel these days.

The flight was not unpleasant, however we had to wait for the pilot to arrive, he was only ½ hour late, the inflight computer was way of the mark and had us going to Vancouver instead of our expected destination of Edmonton and from there to Yellowknife it was status-quo.

Upon arriving in Yellowknife, it was a scramble to find and collect our gear. Some was at Purolator which we had to find first as it had moved since our last trip up here, some was at the office, none at the hotel and most had not arrived (Purolator has no tracking records of some of it, they don’t where it is or if it was sent by air or land transport and we don’t know which courier has the rest).

July 31, racing around Yellowknife.

We spent the day grocery shopping, picking up supplies and equipment, packing our gear and trying to track down our Purolator shipment. They have found some of it, it was sent by truck and should arrive in 3 to 5 days or longer and there is no way to intercept it. 3 to 5 days, wonderful!!! But we leave for Copper Pass tomorrow.