Around Swedish America in 
Day 24 - Yellowknife NWT
The world is full of men who have dreamt of adventure in exotic places, but have never realized their dream. Ragnar Wesström from Stockholm is one of the few who has. He got his first taste of adventure in the 70s, working on supertankers traveling all over the globe for four years.
In 1986 he heard the "call of the wild" once again and sold his business in Stockholm to embark on a trip to northern Canada, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand and the Tonga islands. His fate was however sealed at the very first stop when he met Doreen in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. He came back after his travels, got married and started a company which he called Enodah Wilderness Travels.
Doreen was born in Trout Rock, an island in the north arm of the Great Slave Lake. The Dogrib name for Trout Rock is enodah which means "lots of lynx". This is also the home of sly trophy pikes that sometimes tip the scales at just under 40 pounds. The Dogrib who lived off the land here have left, but Enodah Travel has found this a perfect spot for its base camp. Although every single thing for the camp has to be flown in by float plane, the lodge and guest cottages have electricity, indoor plumbing and all the comforts of home. There is a licensed lounge, karaoke, internet and hot tub for those who have any energy left after a day of fishing on the 300 mile long Great Slave Lake.
The fishing season usually starts during the last week of May and continues until freeze up in September. By that time the duck hunters have started taking over the place and during the winter there is a newly-found market for ice fishing and aurora borealis viewing packages for Japanese tourists who are big lovers of the Northern Lights. Ragnar drives his visitors in Swedish Hägglöf band-wagons. Enodah Wilderness Travel also organizes trophy hunting for caribou, arctic wolf and water fowl with the lodge or mobile drop camps as the base.
During the slower winter months spent in Yellowknife, or "Gula Kniven" as Ragnar calls it, Ragnar also finds time to design attractive brochures and enhance the www.enodah.com web site. He travels to sports shows all over the continent and is now also involved in the cutting and marketing of the Northwest territories' burgeoning diamond industry.
Yellowknife with a population of 19,000, is the capital of the Northwest Territories and has all the amenities of a "big city". From the airport it is only a 12 minute float plane ride to Trout Rock Lodge in the middle of an undisturbed wilderness area that looks much the same today as it did a thousand years ago. It's been a tough job to build up a world-class lodge in such a short time and in such a remote location, but Doreen, Ragnar and their eighteen-year old son Rex can now reap the benefits of a good lifestyle and a rewarding business.