Sunday, July 13, 2025. We eat our breakfast of o.j. and croissants and it will turn out it’s good we heeded Daryl’s advice, because we would not eat again until noon. We take the few bites we couldn’t eat and leave them outside for a one-legged seagull I had befriended the day before.
Daryl meets us as promised at 7 a.m. in the lobby, having picked up the Explorer Hotel guests first. Mark and I jump on the shuttle with Lee and John. Lee is quite chatty, and at 78, he’s not slowing down at all. I find his enthusiasm to be infectious.
Daryl takes us in the shuttle bus to a part of the airport separate from the commercial flights. I photograph the sign, below, which is a leftover from a TV series that ran from 2009 – 2014 called Ice Pilots, which portrayed Buffalo Airways, an airline based in Yellowknife. There are defunct planes on the ground and other signs of a time gone by.
This shows where the Trophy Lodge is–on the Ford Bay, Smith Arm of the Great Bear Lake. You can see the landing strip above the symbol for the lodge. The plan is to land on the landing strip, walk down a hill, get in a boat and cross a little stretch of Ford Bay, to the lodge.
It occurs to me it’s the 13th and I think of my Grandmother Peterson who was superstitious and may not have flown on this day. Not that she would have flown to the arctic for any reason anyway, but I do think about her and airplane safety as we wait in the lobby for our ride.
Before we leave, it is nice to know where we are going, and after Daryl accidentally points to one of Plummer’s other lodges, I fire him, and we locate where the Trophy Lodge is on the large map, below. To the left is the Google Earth image showing Yellowknife on the left and Trophy Lodge on the right.
We take the obligatory pre-boarding photos, including one of a happy guy who had waited twelve months to return to this place. We also take the obligatory selfie to document the real start of our vacation. It being the 13th–and if the plane goes down–this photo will also be evidence that at least we’d made it this far.
Once on board, I snap a photo of Lee. Behind him is Bob, another nice Canadian we will also spend more time with at the lodge.
Shortly after reaching our cruising altitude, we cross a giant lake.
Most of what we see is like this–land with pockets of water. I dream for a moment of what it’d be like to wander across that land dragging a kayak and fishing gear. And then I remember all the insects waiting for us at the landing strip and go, “Yeah, no.”
I have an issue with the fact that bottled water sold in the US tells the buyer nothing about the qualify of the water. I am happy to see such info in Canada…and then wonder what their drinking water criteria is. And note PFAS is not mentioned.
This is the Trophy Lodge from the air. I’ll note I had a real desire to clean my window after we landed.
This is the landing strip. We fly along the landing strip before turning and landing on the landing strip.
We land safely and are greeted by our host, Shane, who welcomes us back. We don our bug nets and jackets and begin our stoll down a hill to the lake.
En route, we are passed by this tall, young man, who introduces himself as Aidan. We do the same and he says, “Hey, I think I am your guide this week!” We tell him that we look forward to fishing with him…and he beats-feet down the path to the boats.
Our 15-minute hike leads us to the Great Bear Lake and several boats and guides ready to take us across the lake toward that spit of land in the background (a.k.a. the Ford Bay). We get in a boat with a dad and two sons and one of the son’s significant others.
I start my modeling career in the boat. It is a short gig.
We are assigned the same room as last year, I think, because they typically put the rowdy people at the end of the hallway. To give people an idea of what the room looks like, I run this video.
As we hang up clothes and put a few things in one of three drawers, our hostess, Karen, comes down the hallway with our beer and a case of Diet Vernors, Mark’s go-to pop. Vernors also mixes well with Crown Royal, a small bottle of which also is on the cart.
One of my favorite things to do is to go exploring, so after I unpack–hang up a few clothes, put a few in one of four tiny desk drawers and stack the rest on a shelf above the hangars–I head to the water. Last year while we were here, I was bombarded with arctic terns defending their nests/their territory on the shore. But there are none at all on the beach this time. Still, it’s an amazing scene, and this photo shows no evidence that there are any people anywhere around, which kind of makes me sad because nobody else bothers to walk around to see what’s here. In fact, the only footprints on the sand are from birds and a big moose. I set up two trail cams and shoot photos of a couple flowers.
It is soon time for lunch: homemade goulash and a salad.
Above, indian paintbrush (also know as prairie-fire); to the left, the arctic aster (also know as Siberian aster).
One of the things I love about Great Bear Lake is its moods–it can be super calm, a little choppy, and rocking and rolling enough to scare wary riders, all in the same day. A flat, calm day is always welcome.
Aidan takes us to a place they call The Airport, which is near the lodge. We drag lures for 5 hours and catch two small lake trout.
We return to shore around 5:30 or so, and since dinner isn’t until 7 p.m., I spend more time walking around with my camera. I remain a solo walker–no other guests take to walking.
Common loon
I find one semi-palmated plover and take its photo, above.
Suddenly there are terns on the beach–a half a dozen, including, sadly, the one shown bottom, right, with a broken wing. That bird is in terrible trouble, likely unable to nab any food for itself, and likely to become food for another creature.
To the left is an arctic rose.
Dinner starts at 7:30. This is one table in the dining room–the one where salads and desserts hang out.
Here, Mark posing with the pork chops + stuffing + zucchini and other veggies. There is whipped cream and strawberries for dessert. At right, Mark with the chef.
After dinner I walk again. This time, I take photos of the moose tracks. The photo at the right shows my foot print (women’s size 6.5) in comparison to the moose print.
This shot was taken at 7:39 p.m. Looking back, I’m sure we stayed up until at least 9:00, but I didn’t journal any other details after 7:39. It had been a full day. We were tired and slept soundly.
I shot this photo just outside our room. The sun blocked by clouds created a dim light similar to what daylight is like from about 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. during the summer in the arctic–pale, muted, never dark.