Pontoon Lake

So after being at France's house on Madeline Lake, we were asked by France's neighbours Laurie and Francois if we could house sit for them 1km up the road on another lake called Pontoon Lake. Well, after driving past the house on our way to Whisky Wednesday we jumped at the chance. Yes please! "Oh, we don't want to put you out", said Laurie. Trust me you are not putting us out. I mean, basically two houses, a sauna cabin and the lake to ourselves, for swimming, fishing, paddling, canoeing etc. The only thing we had to do was look after the dogs. Scott and Siku. Scott was the older of the two and although Siku had the biggest jealous streak ever, he was the boss and the leader. We were told by Laurie that the dogs would often walk down the highway or through the forest to the other side of Madeline Lake 4km away. Of the nearly 3 weeks we were at the house, we drove down and picked the dogs up 5 or 6 times. They even arrived at France's farm a few times looking very pleased with themselves that they had found us. They really were one of the highlights of our stay and we were sad to leave them behind. I joked that I had their passports. It was also comforting having them with us on there daily walks in the bear/wolf/lynx inhabited forests and back end of nowhere, even if the split second we turned to head home, Scott would take that as a cue to head straight on home leaving us at the mercy of the bears! During the second week we had to rush into hospital for Maddie and after a couple of long midnight drives back to Yellowknife stopping to see the northern lights and coyotes yapping, it was decided Maddie would need an operation. Again, thanks for the comfort of the house on Pontoon Lake for her recovery.
It was the perfect spot to view the aurora, but we never thought we'd have a chance to see in august. How wrong we were, seeing it almost every night for about a week! A thrilling and emotional experience to see the bright green lights glowing and then waving like tentacles across the sky.Read more