camps

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The fire crews

OMNR

Fire crews did their job day after day without complaint. Hot. Cold. Rain. Sometimes even in snow—although there was no snow on Dryden-18. They did their jobs in swamps, on dry ground, around lakeshores, along rivers—wherever they could set up a Mark III pump and get it to suck water.

$3.80 an hour plus room & board

OMNR

Huge areas of blowdown had been created in July of 1973 when a windstorm blew through the region. Prolonged drought in early 1974 created perfect conditions for dry lightning to ignite the blowdown and create all kinds of control problems – and an opportunity for anyone looking for a quick dollar fighting forest fires.

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1974 On hire

OMNR

The sleepy forest fire season in northwestern Ontario finally kicked in with a vengeance, when, after a long spell of drought, dry lightning ran through the district. Dryden-16 was ignited not far from the Federal Government’s Experimental Lakes Area at Hayes Lake.

Hunting season

OMNR

In the fall of 1972 I picked up CF-YWY in Thunder Bay for a moose hunt on St. Ignace Island west of Rossport. It turned out to be rather controversial for the locals, who imagined all sorts of stories of moose shot from the air and flown out of the country.

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Norway House hoedown

People

Early in 1972, I ended up in northern Manitoba doing some winter work for Aerotrades. When I checked into the Playgreen Inn in Norway House, there was but one room remaining. Happy as I was to have a room, little did I know but there was a reason for that vacancy.

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