Fort Simpson, NWT, Canada

Now that I have returned to a location with a reasonable internet connection, be prepared to receive a gigantic update. Also, kudos to the northern communities for having internet connections in the strangest places.

On December 27, 2009 I drove my little car from Saskatoon to Edmonton to catch a plane up north once again. I got to Edmonton a little early and was able to spend some time with the lovely Mrs. Stone (who also graciously took me to the airport). Once I got to the airport I realized it was going to be a fun night. The airport was fairly chaotic, there was fog and multiple delays as people were once again trying to handle the new security measures. My flight was one of the few that boarded on time, but then we waited almost an hour to be defrosted.

After landing in Yellowknife, it started to become painfully obvious that I was getting sick. I did my best to fight off the disease for a few days before the real fun started, but alas, it didn't work.

My next mini-journey was with Sue to Fort Simpson to pick up one Ms. Laurie Awesome. We got into Laurie's place a little late because of some necessary late night photography (which was unreal because of the nearly full moon). Once we got into Fort Simpson, I met a few more people as well, Boris and Julia. After some quick introductions, some camera talk and some YouTube we drove down to the bar for a few bevvies. Little did we know that there was a potential conflict there. In the end, I had to pretend that I was dating both Sue and Laurie to help save ourselves from further hostilities. We survived just fine though. The trip to the bar wasn't even close to a lost cause as we were able to produce the creation of individual trucker names for all our traveling party, I also completely lost of my voice as I decided to speak in my southern accent for part of the night.

The next morning, we all slowly packed our things up and took off on the road to Muncho Lake, BC. Along the way we decided to stop off and let of some steam. Apparently up here that means shooting a gun. This was a first for me and it was awesome.


Also, on the drive I was taking more and more photos that try to capture how beautiful the north really is. After about 10 hours on the road, we finally reached our destination of the Northern Rockies Lodge.

The next day proved to be quite the adventure. We woke up and decided that we would go swimming in the Liard Hot Springs. This sounds like a great idea, until you realize that they are outdoors, there's no heated change rooms, and it's -31. None the less, we went for a swim and manage to get all our things together and get back to our warm vehicle before freezing to death. My wet clothing that I had to take off became a solid block of ice by the time we returned to the lodge.


The next adventure for us was to snow-shoe across Muncho Lake before dinner. This was no problem and provided many more photo ops for me.

The lodge we were stating at also put on a nice NYE party as well. There were 7 guests in the place, and we were treated to appetizers, drinks and dinner. Following dinner, we decided it would be a good idea to go sit in the wood-burning sauna. This was unbelievably hot, and every time you poured more water on the rocks, it felt like it was burning the inside of our lungs. In an attempt to cool off, I went for a quick jog outside, down to the lake to complete the coldest snow angel of my life.

After that we returned inside for dessert, then went back outside for the final countdown to New Years around a massive bonfire on the lake. After that I went back out into the middle of the lake to check out the Blue Moon. Quite the evening.

Along the way, we've also seen tons of wildlife, some of which I was able to capture (in pictures).

The next morning, everyone was in rough shape for various reasons (Sue=hungover, Laurie=sick, Gibby=sleep deprived), but we made it back to Fort Simpson in one piece. Here's to a Happy New Year and more adventures that are as fun as this one was.