Drive as far north as roads allow year-round in Ontario and that’s where you’ll find Elmira’s Barrett Oberle.
He and his wife Leah moved to Pickle Lake last July, where he works as a pilot. Pickle Lake is the most northerly community in the province that can be accessed by road 12 months of the year. Other towns that far north can only be driven to in the winter when ice roads allow. The rest of the year you have to fly in or out.
Exploring northern Ontario had always intrigued him, so when he was offered a job with Cargo North he jumped at the opportunity.
“I always thought maybe I would, but I didn’t know if it would ever happen. When I got married I thought it probably won’t happen then, but my wife’s been really onboard with it. We’ve both been really enjoying it so far,” Oberle said.
He says there’s lots of work up north for people looking to get started in aviation. He mainly transports freight, rather than passengers, taking fuel to the generating stations at the northern reserves, most of which don’t have road access or hydro. Groceries and mining equipment are also commonly flown in. They fly to nearly every reserve in northern Ontario and also do some contract work in the Arctic.
“One cool thing working with this company is I’ve gotten to fly a Turbine DC-3 – it’s an old airplane. They were actually built for World War 2. They were built in the ‘40s, but a company down in the States buys them and converts them and makes them really modern. So I get to fly those. That’s been pretty neat, kind of flying a piece of history. A few of the ones we have I think were in the war,” Oberle said.
![Elmira’s Barrett Oberle moved to Pickle Lake last July with his wife Leah, where he works as a pilot. He says they’re enjoying the slower pace of life and the opportunities that northern Ontario provides.[Submitted]](https://www.observerxtra.com/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/news_arctic_post1.jpg)
Eventually he’d like to work for Air Canada, but that’s still a few years away as he gains more experience. He says it’s definitely paid off for him to make the jump to Pickle Lake for his career.
“The other way to get into aviation is to be an instructor and you can do that in Toronto or Kitchener-Waterloo, or wherever there’s a flight school, but as far as experience goes, definitely working up here gets you way ahead, even if it’s just a couple years,” Oberle said.
Originally, he was interested in firefighting. He’d graduated high school and was outside his house in Elmira one day when an airplane flew overhead. He thought it might be an interesting job, so he went and did an introductory flight lesson and was hooked from the get-go.
As most people who move to the north of the country can attest to, the beauty of the scenery is a major draw.
“Getting to see and experience a part of the country that most people will never see or get to visit, that’s been fun. … The scenery is very beautiful, the lakes, the trees. The bigger thing I think for me and my wife right now is the pace of life is so much nicer up here. We find that it’s not so fast, it’s not so busy,” Oberle said.
They also enjoy the quality of outdoor activities the area offers like fishing and boating, all in a much more quiet setting than they’d experience in southern Ontario.
Coming from Elmira, you might not expect it, but he’s found there’s more of a sense of community in Pickle Lake, even than back home. It’s something they’ve embraced.
“I think a lot of people have a hard time maybe at first up here, but I’ve noticed people from the cities have a lot harder time settling in. And on their time off they’re always travelling home and so they never really make it their home for the short while that they’re probably going to be up here. But I think coming from a small town that equips you a little better to get involved with the community,” Oberle said.
![Barrett and Leah spend much of their free time enjoying the outdoors in Ontario’s most northerly community accessible year-round by road.[Submitted]](https://www.observerxtra.com/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/news_arctic_post2.jpg)
They’ve made sure to immerse themselves in the area, including taking in two foster children.
Adjusting to northern life meant getting used to the cold, but even more so than that, the abundance of bugs and black flies, which are in high supply right now. Lately he’s been working in two week shifts, staying in Red Lake while he’s working.
“Being a pilot I’m gone a lot, so being away from each other, we’ve had to get used to that. As well as for groceries, there’s a little grocery store in town here, but it’s really expensive so we drive four and a half hours once a month to get groceries down in Dryden. Fuel is more expensive. Things are a lot more expensive, but you don’t spend near as much money because it’s just what you do for entertainment and activities is different than what you’d do down south,” Oberle said.
He spent two weeks in Yellowknife last December for the first time and notes it was very dark, but an interesting city. Living in Iqaluit for a short time is on his to-do list.
“My wife and I have talked about it before. One of my uncles, he works for the government and he was up there for a few years and really enjoyed it. But I think that would be quite a bit different from Pickle Lake, quite a bit more remote,” Oberle said.
He recommends those jumping into the working world to consider starting their careers in a northern community, if given the opportunity.
“There’s a lot of different professions that you can get a start working in the north and I think a lot of people shrug it off, but it is a great place to be and to get to experience it if people have a chance,” Oberle said.
