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Quebec Caribou |
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Fall of 2002 found 4 southern MN Hunters on the adventure of a lifetime. After years of dreaming, Aaron finally took charge and checked in to finding us an outfitter that could lead us to the white-robed giants of the North. We eventually booked with Greg Bonecutter of North Country Outfitters, now Silak Adventures to arrange the hunt.
The last week in August finally arrived and we were on our way. We headed east in the comfort of Rick's luxurious Ford 4-door diesel pickup, with 10 foot trailer in tow. Spirits were high as we trekked toward Montreal, our first fly-out point. We allowed plenty of time to tavel the 1200 miles to Montreal and the trip went smoothly. Arrival in Montreal was another story. If you have ever been frustrated driving in Minneapolis, it has nothing on this place! When there is road construction here, you usually have a warning sign and a detour. Up there,you are on your own! Add to that the now famous Loop-d-Loops, and we had a comedy of errors on our hands. We went by the hotel more than once, unable to "get there from here". The Hotel Dorval, which was booked for us by the outfitter was much nicer than expected, with hot tub, pool and a very nice restaurant and bar......Ahhhhhh, roughing it at it's best.
The next morning, we left our vehicle in the secure lot of the Hotel Dorval and headed by shuttle to the Dorval Airport. It was a big concern leaving the truck and trailer behind as we had heard lots of horror stories about vehicle theft in Montreal, especially big diesels left for a week at a time. Thankfully we had no such problems. Once at the airport we did what every caribou hunter knows about.......waited for the airplane. Our flight north to Kuujjuarapik was on an Inuit Airlines Dash-8, a 20-something passenger turbo-prop. Really a neat ride and a different experience after only flying on jets. I think this may have been the only flight in the world after 9/11/01 where all the passengers on a flight had knives on their belts and nobody even batted an eye!
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KUUJJUARAPIK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT |
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DASH-8 |
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After a 3 1/2 hour flight we found ourselves on the east shore of the Hudson Bay in an Inuit village called Kuujjarapik (coo-gee-air-ah-pick). The airport is a block building and the "control tower" is a guy standing on the runway directing the planes, much like a traffic cop! Once inside the airport, our gear was put on a cart and weighed. The neat thing here, was the math was done on the wall with a marker by the airport workers. Many square feet of mathmatics on the wall was evidence of those that came before us. We had two crews of hunters going to different camps, and only one airplane, so we got to do what caribou hunters do the best....wait for airplanes. We wandered about the town and found ourselves at the local pub, where for the bargain price of $60.00, you can get a case of Budweiser to take to camp. We explored the village a little and discovered the main mode of transportation is the Honda 400 ATV. Seems everyone in town has one, all of them olive green. I'ts not unusual at all to see a family of 4 cruise by, stacked like cordwood on the machines! Finally the plane came back and we had just enough daylight so the plane could take us to camp Jobie and return with enough light to land back in Kuujjuarapik. The plane that took us the last 170 miles was a Twin-Otter, a real workhorse twin-engine. Again, for someone with very little flying experience, it was quite a thrill. We followed the Hudson Bay for the first part of the journy, and then turned east and flew low across endless miles of tundra. The "airport" at Camp Jobie consisted of a 200 yard sand strip and the landing was exciting to say the least. You come away with a great deal of respect for the skill of those bush pilots! |
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Here it is: The Applebee's of the North |
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STONEMAN |
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CONTINUED... |
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