Rankin Inlet, Nunavut to Ferguson Lake

I spent last night at the CoOp hotel in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut.  Rankin Inlet is a very small community which got it's start back in 1957 with the discovery of Nickel.  The hotel had less quality than a motel 6 and yet it cost $235.00 a night!

Had a wonderful flight this morning out to Ferguson Lake in a Twin Otter aircraft.  I was the only passenger on board along with about 2500 or so pounds of drilling mud and pipe as well as some camp supplies.  The flight was about 1 hour and 15 minute northwest of Rankin Inlet.

Then landscape was spectacular, the closest way I can think of describing it is as follows:  Say you are looking at a surface of a completely soaked sponge.  The edges of the cells of the sponge would be the land mass and the cells are of course filled with water.  There was more water than land, bodies of water in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

In the winter months when the land and water are covered with ice and snow, Ice Truckers make the trek to the mining camp.  As a matter of fact, the Discovery program Ice Truckers has been filmed up here in the Rankin Inlet area.

Ferguson Lake is just beautiful, water is clear and the wide life is abundant.  No fishing is allowed while in camp, they have hugh lake trout and other I can't remember.  Here is a look at the lake from the airstrip we landed on.

After arriving, we unloaded the plane, and than rode a helicopter to the camp.  They use a helicopter around here for everything.  No roads out here, no trucks only Quad's and snowmobiles with they don't use this time of year.

I logged about 2 hours in the copter today and most likely another 2 or 3 tomorrow.  They have two rigs drilling close by and some really scenic areas for shooting some surveying and exploration shots using geologists as models.

I'll leave you with this one shot from today.  While out flying to a location to photograph a surveyor, we spotted these two guy's.  GIZZLY!  The start of this journey can be found HERE