However, of the places that should have experience handling winter weather, Canada and Calgary were high on the list.
Oddly, I was not able to do online checkin through WestJet - who I had booked tickets with, but was able to do it through Delta, as the first connecting flight was partnered to that airline. Whatever works...
I was up around my normal time for work and getting ready. Final closing up of stuff was done before heading to the airport around 4:00 AM. Roads with little traffic got us to the airport easily.
With limited room in my luggage, I had to wear my winter-type boots. These proved problematic going through security once at the airport. It took a few trys to make it through the metal detector, but there was lots of time to make the flight.
Soon enough we were boarding a small Canadair Jet for the short hop to Toronto. The small plane was cramped, but it was a short flight.
Once in the air, the sunrise was really pretty. Not motorcycle sunrise out west awesome, but still pretty.
I couldn't get the automated customs system to work for me once in Toronto, so I had to take my ticket of failure to the desk for help.
The customs agent was surprisingly friendly - many I've had in the past lacked anything close to a sense of humor. It may just be a tactic to look for information, but being nice is almost always free - on both sides.
"So, where are you going today?
"Yellowknife."
"What? Most people get away from Yellowknife for a vacation, what are you doing there?"
"Hopefully seeing the Northern Lights."
"OK, neat, where are you staying?"
"On a houseboat."
Pause, "Are you serious???"
"Yes, this time of year it is locked in ice though."
"I've never heard of that. That is the craziest thing I've heard in a long time."
It probably wasn't, but the interaction was far better than the glares I've gotten a few times.
After a short layover, we were on the plane to Calgary. The taxiing seemed to take a long time and we wound up back at the gate - the captain announced a mechanical problem which had people, including the captain, scurrying all over my side of the plane. I couldn't see what he was doing, but I suspect he was pulling out a giant dipstick to check the oil since he said the issue had something to do with an oil warning light...
We were airborne about an hour late, headed to wintry Calgary.
I was reading One for the Road by Tony Horwitz. Mr. Horwitz is an extremely talented writer and I loved the book. Reading a travel book is probably more appropriate than something like William Faulkner's As I lay dying.
The flight to Calgary felt painfully long - and just painful. The unsettled weather ahead made it even worse. The descent back to terra firma felt like it took a long time, or the clouds were extremely thick. Probably both.
I was surprised how much snow there was on the runway. I don't recall seeing that much snow on a runway ever before when flying in the winter.
Off the plane, we wound around the airport to the Yellowknife gate. However, there was little in the way of food at the "newer" part of the airport, so we retreated back to a Tim Hortons for some overpriced, if reasonably good sandwiches.
The "newer" part of the airport had these wierd electric busses to get around. The were frighteningly similar to the buses in the spaceport in the move Total Recall, except the drivers were humans instead of creepy anthropomorphized automatons.
Around 50% of the Calgary flights were cancelled or delayed - but ours wasn't, giving hope all would be well.
The boarding area was a mix of many destinations and very international in people. I also started seeing more people in heavy boots and thick coats - Yellowknife takes a different kind of preparation. Things were a little slow with the weather. There was considerable snow, but it was probably minor by Calgary standards.
After boarding the plane they hosed us down with yellow deicing liquid - it made the plane outside my window look like a big dog and peed all over it. Whatever the liquid is it must be very shear thinning since it stuck like crazy to the plane until around the take-off air speed.
The flight to Yellowknife passed quickly enough. A headache faded in and out as a result of the somewhat uncomfortable day. As we approached Yellowknife the sun sank low, making a pretty sunset.
And approaching the runway, little was seen except for trees. This feels truly remote.
Once on the ground we exited the plane through an outdoor ramp into the Northwest Territories cold. The airport was tiny and absolutely filled with people - a shockingly large percentage of them Asian. From the time I had to look around I suspect that most people head to Yellowknife on organized tours; this was reinforced by seeing many buses on our way away from the airport.
We made our way to the rental car counter and were given a bright yellow Chevrolet Spark - perhaps not my first choice for car or color, but it will work. We stopped at a grocery store to buy some snacks, food and to call Daniel - the owner of our houseboat. He confirmed how to get there.
It was a short drive to the Ice Road, then to the houseboat. In the dark, at first I thought it was a shack, but it was very quaint and comfortable. Daniel met us outside and gave us a tour. It was warm and cozy and completely off grid. Even the electric comes from a mix of solar and a backup generator at one of the other houseboats. The only really unusual thing was the off-grid potty; that will definitely take some getting used to.
We had bought a frozen pizza assuming there would be at least a toaster oven. But with nothing even remotely like that, we had to resort to cutting our pizza in quarters and making pizza grilled cheese sandwiches, which was barely successful.
As we were cooking, I looked outside and saw what I thought at first was a contrail from an airplane. Watching it, it began to dance and swirl. I realized what I was seeing was my first sighting of the Northern Lights! Aurora Borealis!
As it got darker, the lights grew in intensity. They danced across the horizon from the west, overhead and to the south. It was an amazing end to a day and an amazing beginning to the adventure.
It wasn't a fleeting view either, the ethereal lights grew and shrank and moved across the sky for several hours. It was cold, but we bundled up and spent considerable time outside watching them.
Our grilled cheese pizza got cold - no matter, it wasn't that good anyway.
Eventually we had to call it a night, which was very hard to do with the Northern Lights continuing to dance. I'll admit that I got up a few more times and even got dressed again to go outside a couple more times.
The Northern Lights flitted across Orion The Hunter at one point, which was quite a site to see.
I'll sleep sometime. It wasn't that easy to sleep anyway. While the houseboat is locked in around three feet of ice, there was quite the chorus of unusual noises.
Even in the morning remnants of the Northern Lights danced across the brightening sky.
The evening reminded me of a quote by Annie Dillard: I cannot cause the light. The most I can do is try to put myself in the path of its beam.
Safe to say that we hit the lottery by being able to see such an amazing show of the Northern Lights so early in the adventure.
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