Heidi in Paul's back-up waders (notice the good fit)

Charr Chaos 2-Double O-Seven is Here!

Hello everyone! We're back. The ice is melting, bugs are flying (correction, LOTS of bugs are flying), and we are fishing. This year got off to a more sane start, with our carts already built, less food to dehydrate, and more chopper support. YES!!!! For new readers, you should scroll back through the archives to get a feel for the project and our dubious talent for songwriting. For old readers, you may be somewhat relieved to hear that we have not been driven to song adaptation (yet).

So, this year Kathryn has a full-time job in BC. This unfortunate (for me) circumstance necessitated an alternate crazy girl #2. Marilynn, my office and lab-mate from New Brunswick, is up with me for 6 weeks and Roshini, my insane roomate from New Brunswick, is up with me for the last 4 weeks. Marilynn came out to Edmonton to start the marathon of cooking and dehydrating in early June. She also sewed us wind-proof neckwarmers (see earlier blog entry).

Our arrival in Windy Camp was somewhat less eventful than last year. We had flights in with Miramar so we didn't have to shout for Fred in the Cambridge Bay airport. However, we discovered upon arrival that the majority of our gear has not arrived and is archived in a warehouse in yellowknife. This is most unfortunate as we have: a) no waders; and, b) no bug jackets. Not to be deterred by minor setbacks, we purloined some excess waders and pulled out our new whizzy bug hats (best twenty-five dollars EVER spent). We don't really have most of our fishing gear yet, so we have been spending the last couple of days at the fish fence helping the golder crew out and opportunistically sampling charr and trout - YES. We'll be in Windy Camp until the 24th, mostly sampling water for Golder and then we head out for our Nauyuk Lake adventure on the Kent Peninsula. It will just be me, Marilynn, the bugs, and the charr for a couple of weeks and we're really looking forward to it.

We will leave you with a parting shot of our first charr of the year. This one mananged to flip so violently on the table that my camera and the pit tag needle flew away at high speed. Fortunately, the camera is shock proof.

We hope you are all enjoying summer as we watch the first spring flowers come out.

PS. Zippy (the only quasi air-tight boat) was slung full speed into a broken drill casing yesterday. Zippy is no longer air tight. Or water tight. Sigh.