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On Sept. 21, 2002
Don Holte and I arose at 4:00 A.M. and headed to
Red Lake, Ont. from his home in Baudette, MN.
After a five and a half hour drive we arrived at
the Green Airways base on Howey Bay in Red Lake.
Bruce and Ron, the other half of this adventure
had driven to Vermilion Bay from Rockford IL the
day before and finished the drive this morning.
They had arrived before us and were getting our
permits for our stay in Woodland Caribou PP
written up. We were using Green Airways and that
allowed us to get a voucher envelope from them
and only have to pay $8 Can. per night per person
instead of the usual non-resident fee of $12.
After putting our money in the envelope they took
it down the street to the kiosk behind the MNR
building. The kiosk is there so that you can self
register if you arrive when the office is closed.
This discount applies for using shuttles or an
outfitter also. We had
arrived an hour early and enjoyed being able to
talk to the folks at Green Airways. There were
many choices when it came to picking an Airway to
use. I picked Green Airways because of a good
price and because they required no deposit. They
asked that if we were not going to make it to
please let them know so they did not have a pilot
standing by with no customers. Not having to make
a deposit was attractive because with four men
and all that could happen to prevent the trip
from working out.
The Otter airplane and its
pilot, Norm, came back on schedule and we were
being loaded as the plane was checked over. Norm
tied the canoes to the plane above the floats and
our gear was put in the rear and then bound with
netting for the flight. The light weight Kevlar
canoe that Ron has withstood the tight lashing to
the plane. You could hear some flexing as the
ropes were pulled tight but as Norm mentioned,
the plane is more important. We were given a
safety talk and then the doors were closed and we
taxied out into the lake. The plane had been
retrofitted with a new radial 1000 hp engine and
before Norm started using some of that power we
put on earmuffs for hearing protection. As he
pushed the throttle all communication had to be
by hand signals.
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