Trans-Canada trail donor panels

I was biking past the Trans-Canada Trail donor panel where my Dad's name is posted as a donor, so I thought I'd stop and take a photo of it.  I don't know if my brothers have ever been there or not, but I went with my parents to see it when it first went up around 10 or more years ago.  This panel structure is on the bike path near Wellington and Bronson.

The panel with Dad's name on it is right above my bike pannier:

Here's a close-up of his name inscribed:

This structure is within view of the new War Museum:

Milestone

I don't usually notice these interesting numbers when they pass by on the odometer, but this time I did:

Just look at all those 3's!  Stay tuned for the next 11111 km, to see if I catch the next one...

Plane shadows

I took these photos of the shadow of our plane as we were coming in for a landing at Pangnirtung, on the way to Iqaluit.  Here is the approach as we pass the various landmarks on the way down:

Flight over Auyuittuq National Park

The flight route between Qikiqtarjuaq and Pangnirtung is over Auyuittuq National Park, on the east coast of Baffin Island.  Auyuittuq means "land that never melts".  I've flown this route several times, but have never gotten any pictures, due to reasons like it being dark out, or bad weather, or a plane engine is in the way.

Last Monday though, the plane was almost empty, the weather was spectacular, and I had my camera with me!  What a flight.  There are days that I can't believe I'm actually being paid to take these flights, and this one is particularly scenic.  It's one of the nicest travel legs on Baffin Island I think.

These two are out of the east side of the plane, it shows the islands and jagged coastline of eastern Baffin Island:

The rest of the photos are out of the west side of the plane.  There are numerous fiords on the coast, here is one as we passed it:

Here you can see a glacier in a valley that is flowing down into that fiord.  I don't know if the fiord melts completely in the summer but it looks like it would at that point.

Another glacier, with the Penny Ice Cap (I think) in the background:

Mountains and glaciers:

I'm pretty sure this is Mount Thor at the lower left below.  It's famous among mountain climbers as having the tallest uninterrupted vertical drop in the world:

Close-up of Mount (probably) Thor, although from the less-famous back side:

More mountains, glaciers:

I forget what you call those little meltwater lakes, where the rim is formed by their own sediment, I think they have a name.  BTW, excuse the grime from the dirty window that shows up in many of these photos:

Yet another glacier, but the weather is spectacular, so indulge me...

Just oooooone more back there at the tops of these mountains....

OK, fasten your seatbelts, we're starting our descent into Pangnirtung:

Now we're in the Pangnirtung Fiord, this is part of the western edge of it:

OK, we landed and picked up some people, and are back in the air heading out of the Pangnirtung Fiord.  Here's two more photos as we leave the mouth of the fiord:

... and now we're off to Iqaluit.  Landscape gets boring from here on in, and then it was overcast for a lot of the rest of the trip anyway, so that's all that was fit to photograph.

Walk with a dog

When I headed out for my walk on April 4, this cute doggie joined me.

When I stopped to inspect the landscape, so did my companion:

Was it ever sunny!  Good thing I had my sunglasses, you really need them up here in early springtime.

Freight delivery

In Qikiqtarjuaq, when we have freight coming in on a holiday, a weekend, or after 5 pm, we go pick it up ourselves.

This is from last Friday, which was Good Friday.  The plane has just landed, here's the crew heading out to unload:

Once the freight is off the plane, they bring it around to the parking lot in the truck, and we carry it to our vehicles which are idling in anticipation.

I forgot to take a photo of the terminal building, but there is one, it's off to the right.  You can see the wheelchair ramp to it on the right of the top photo.

April 1, evening

Looking back at the town from my walk on the ice of Qikiqtarjuak inlet.

Back in the Great Green South

I'm back in Ottawa.  I lost my internet connection for the last four days that I was in Qikiqtarjuaq, so although I kept taking photos, I couldn't post them.  I'll get them up in the next few days.  The flight today from Qik to Pangnirtung was particularly spectacular, such beautiful weather.  Took a lot of photos from the plane, so check back, I'll post them soon.