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Monday, September 21, 2009

North is a state of mind


Click to enlarge ( I live in Nelson in the SE)

I'm back on the road in Northern British Columbia again. This time I'm visiting 18 communities, doing health care consultation with folks . I'll have the camera on the ready and post some photos soon. Last week, while driving at night, a grizzly bear bolted across the road immediately in front of the car - racing along at top grizzly speed. (Sample locations from east to west: Dawson Creek, Fort St. John, Prince George, Burns Lake, Smithers, Terrace, Rupert, and over to that island off the west coast.)

North is a relative term. Many people think Canada is in the far north, but almost all its population is further south than Maine or much of UK and Western Europe. We huddle along the 49th parallel with our cousins in the U.S. Many people in Canada call this area I am in now 'the north', yet it's less than midway up.

I worked above the Arctic Circle for six months once - on Baffin Island and the mainland. Now that WAS north. There was six weeks of daylight in the summer and six weeks of total darkness in the winter. (That's when I quit the job and flew home on a jet that landed in the frigid dark morning to carry only me and the flight attendant, wearing pink hot pants and a little bellhop cap - her, not me. This was a long time ago, but even then it was very surreal.)


Anyhow, I'm here, reporting for blogging duty.



Comments:
Good to “see” you back on blogging duty.
I envy you (and admire you for) your current adventure – although not the grizzly bear part.
Looking forward to the photos & some commentary.
Stay safe.
 
i'm glad you didn't get in an accident with the bear! they are really active now, fattening themselves up for winter hibernation. and i've heard the berry season was sub-par in canada this year, so those bears are hungry! be sure to secure your garbage, pick all the apples off your tree (or off the ground if that's the case) and keep your pets indoors.
have a safe trip.
oh, and if you are attacked by a bear, i don't think you are supposed to play dead. yell, scream, hit him in the nose with a molson dry bottle.
 
I once had a close encounter with an elk jumping in front of our car when we were driving to Trail one night. We didn't hit it but did see it bounce around a couple of times before leaping back down the embankment it had appeared from.

Have safe journeys and don't forget to write.
 
i don't know. i think
i rather miss the old
days when airlines
treated passengers like
guests instead of cattle.
 

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