An open sky over vast wilderness is what Marina Droogers calls her office. Only 26 years old, Droogers flies canoeists, fishermen and hunters—and their seemingly endless piles of over-packed gear—in a 60-year-old airplane to pristine northern lakes, wild rivers and isolated camps. She navigates with the same compass and finger-on-the-map technique used in the 1920s, dropping clients off at lakes she’s never visited before—and she makes it look easy.
On any given day, a ride in this bush pilot’s red, five-seater Beaver aircraft, a plane renowned for being the workhorse of the North, can be a thrilling passage through calm skies or a whiteknuckle ride through turbulence and low cloud that leaves the common man trembling.
Working for Mattice Lake Outfitters near Armstrong, Ontario, a three-hour drive north of Thunder Bay, she flies from May to November and clocked 420 hours in the air last season. The work is intensely physical and the loads she carries are rarely of the walk-on, walk-off variety. “Physically, I can’t last at this forever,” she says.
From bloody, squirmy moose quarters that tip the scales at 100 pounds, to fuel drums and propane cylinders, outboard motors and strapping canoes to floats, everything involves lifting. “The reaction I get from many clients tells me they don’t think I should be here—‘So, where’s the pilot?’ they ask me after I’ve pumped out the floats, refueled the plane and loaded…
This article appeared in Canoeroots & Family Camping, Spring 2013. Download our free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here.
