AIR CREEBEK TIMMINS - MOOSONEE
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| The Air Creebec plane holds about twenty four passengers. Seats are removeable and moveable, on a sliding track so they can be replaced with cargo if needed. The flight between Timmins and Moosonee takes less than an hour. It flies at low altitude so usually it is possible to see the land below. I noticed one circular water-filled crater about 100'(?) in diameter that suggested a meteor impact.
On our return flight, the Moosonee plane arrived in Timmins just five minutes before the scheduled take-off of the Toronto flight. The three Moosonee passengers: Alison, John Beck, the manager of the Moose Cree Education Authority and I had been paged three times even though we were in the process of checking in. We were all delayed at security! The airport at Timmins is small and laid-back but a female security officer insisted on checking my cell-phone to see if it functioned! It's perhaps an inside joke to unsettle naive travellers. The staff knows there is no danger of the passengers 'missing' their flight. And once on the plane we sat on the runway for awhile. |
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| As we approach Moosonee airport at eight in the evening after a five hour flight Ottawa-Toronto-Timmins-Moosonee, we fly over Moose Factory, an island community with a population of 2500. The center where I will be teaching over the next four months is situated to the right on the Moose Cree reserve. Riverside drive on the western side of Moose Factory Island spans the three sections of the Island: federal, provincial and First Nations. From left to right buildings that are barely visible are St. Thomas Anglican Church, the Hudson Bay Company manager's house and the Moose Cree Education authority. |
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| Moose River is only 12 miles from James Bay. The water is fresh at Moose Factory-Moosonee but summer tides are quite high, 1.5 metres (6') and currents are strong. Three rivers empty into Moose River: the Mattagami, Missinaibi and Abitibi.) |
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| On the trip up to Moose Factory, we were travelling with 70 kilos of books, forty sociology textbooks packed in four boxes by the Carleton University bookstore. I could barely lift one of them! The two girls, the cab driver and her friend, who picked us up at Moosonee airport were smaller than Alison and I; we were extremely grateful to the Northern Store manager who shared the taxi and packed and repacked the trunk until everything fit! |