Arriving from North Bay in Timmins to change to the small plane of AirCreebec which brings me to Moosonee. A small airline where everything is a bit more informal and done very relaxed. In beautiful weather a nice flight and spectacular descent to Moosonee Airport, where you see Moose River meandering, the Island Moose Factory and out in James Bay the Ice floating around.
The break up of Moose River was not even a week ago but although nearly no ice left on the river. So no problem with the water taxi ride to the island Moose Factory.
Moose Factory; yeah, that’s where they make them…
You can order them in brown, white or black; sorry dude pink is not in stock…
Serious, Moose Factory got it’s name from the river Moose and the fact that the Hudson’s Bay Company established a fur-trading post originally called Moose Fort. Due to the fact that the officer in charge of the fur trading post was referred to as the „factor“ the island was also known as “Moose Factory”.
The Eco Lodge on Moose Factory has a wonderful dining hall made entirely of a wooden structure with spectacular view to the river and the sunset.
On the next day taxi-boat driver Thomas and his father took me out to Ship sand Island in the Delta Moose River forms flowing out in James Bay. (Moose River Migratory Bird Sanctuary)
You have to find the right way here trough the shallow water avoiding any sandbanks or wood. The ice out in James Bay looks from here like a big wall of Ice. But in fact it’s a mirage and the ice is just a bit above the water. As you come nearer to the ice it gets colder.
So before fuel or motor froze we turned. On the sandy beach of Ship sand Island you can often find fossils. Some of them older than the dinosaurs. So I heard many stories about the life out here from Thomas father.. How he got attacked by a polar bear and also that due to a treaty (treaty 4) from 1874 they still get 5$ a year. In that time this must have been a good treaty, but they forgot to put in a term to consider inflation. So if you take the bus to collect your money you’ll end up with nothing when you paid the fare.
We got back safely without being eaten by a polar bear…
Moosonee can only be reached in summer by rail or air (in winter there is an ice road south to Otter Rapids and north as far as Attawapiskat), So on my way back south I took the Little Bear “Express” train. Besides the few passengers it transported mainly cargo and some cars. At a leisurely pace of 65 km/h we chugged trough wood and along rivers (which you often cant see due to the trees). Passing the Otter Rapids power plant which produces 182 MW out of the Abitibi river you reach after nearly 5 hours Chochrane.
