The Whitehorse digs

Ladies and gentlemen, we have power!

We went back to the apartment last night to a hooked up power supply. Never has flicking on a light switch (and figuring out which switch turns what on) been so much fun. And satisfying.

We had one last camping supper, consisting of rehydrated Black Bart Chili in a bag which didn't turn out so well. I somehow always seem to add too much water in the bag and it turned into Black Bart Chili soup. But, this was soon forgotten when we hit up the grocery store to finally stock the kitchen with some real food. Oh man! Dan did a good job restraining me, since I had a grocery wish list a mile long. It was so nice to walk in the door of the apartment and hear the fridge humming and to open the door and actually feel the cold! Finally, cold beer!

Speaking of apartment, I've had some requests to see what it looks like. So, here goes:

Pretty standard. It's a good size and NOLS has been able to provide enough furniture for us to work with. The branch is in a warehouse right closeby.

It's a super big space so both Dan and I have lots of room to work with (until the students arrive at least).

Dan has a big area for rations prep and storage,

and I have the equipment area (very backstock-esque).

I even have a little store/retail area, complete with a MEC skid waiting for me to break down- ahh nostalgia!

So far, we've been busy pulling things apart and cleaning/organizing so that we can figure out what we have and where it all is. It's tedious, it's dirty and it's beats sitting at a desk hands down :)

No Sleep for a Long Sun

Two days in and Whitehorse seems like a pretty cool spot. My biggest obstacle so far is the daylight. That hardly seems to end. It's only May.

There's already 19hrs of daylight. I typically sleep pretty close to the sun's daylight cycle, so this super-extended daylight is wreaking havoc with my sleeping patterns. I'm able to fall asleep easily enough (never a problem as you have discovered if you've ever tried to watch a movie with me...) but it's the staying asleep that isn't working so well. My body must sense the light and thinks it's time to wake up. I was up last night at 11pm. Here's the daylight situation at about 11:15pm:

Wild. It took a few hours to get back to sleep. I don't feel too bad today but I'm sure I'll be a disaster by tomorrow if this keeps up. I can't even imagine what it's going to be like in the middle of summer when the sun hardly takes a rest!

I'm hoping to have power in the apartment when I get there tonight. Cooking on a camping stove is starting to lose it's allure. I'm craving baking- bread, cookies or even just regular meals that would take hours on a camp stove. I'm also looking forward to having a radio on. I miss my daily dose of CBC. My laptop has proved really handy for watching DVDs that I've signed out of the library (I love this service), but it doesn't fill the radio void. And since I don't have an internet connection in the apartment (no scamming wireless options for me), I also can't stream online radio.

I'll have to come up with a good option for blacking out the window in the bedroom. Maybe another Salvation Army run for a good thick blanket that I could hang. Ironic that I'm waiting for power to have lights in one room and looking for ways to keep light out in the other room. So hard to please.

I'll keep you posted how I make out with operation Blackout (both sides of it) :)

Woohoo Whitehorse (Day 20)

So our NOLS-issued apartment is pretty good. I guess Whitehorse used to be a military town and the low-rise apartment buildings where we're staying would likely have been for the privates. The walls are a little thin (we could lie in bed and listen to the movie playing in the living room of the people downstairs) and the power isn't turned on until Tuesday (a slight extension to our camping...), but everything looks pretty good.

We've unpacked our gear (speeded by the fact that we didn't actually bring that much) and off-loaded the first pick of the furniture that NOLS keeps for staff and we've pretty much ready to settle in. We both start work on Monday and wandering around the branch warehouse, it looks like a really fun place to be. As the Equipment Manager, I have my own little "store" and a skid of MEC gear (a taste of home) just waiting for me to tear into. Dan's got a huge area for all the rations storage and to his delight, there is no food prep at this branch so he won't be on the hook to cook :)

We had a celebratory feast at Sanchez restaurant last night. It's this awesome little Mexican restaurant with menus in Spanish and a fantastic latin American ambiance. Total throwback to South America, so I was ecstatic! We had a fantastic meal of authentic mexican food washed down with a Corona and lime. Ahhhh. Life is good :)

The weather was overcast and rainy again today, but we hopped on our bikes, braved the descent into the canyon to downtown and went exploring. My first impressions of Whitehorse are that it seems to have a tonne of really cool shops and a fantastic bike trail system. People are really friendly and super helpful. We grabbed a map from the local bike shop and hope to make some time tomorrow to do a little riding and exploring. The Yukon River runs along the downtown waterfront and the buildings all have a very unique, goldrush-town vibe. And, the best part, there's a Farmer's Market! Local food and goodies every Thursday afternoon. Sweet!

We also went to the library and got hooked up with temporary resident lending cards. We're officially Whitehorse residents...sort of. Seems there is a pretty big transient population here- the guy from the bike shop has only been here 3 days (and his girlfriend is from Almonte ON) and every person we've stopped to ask for directions has just moved here too!

We managed to pick up some great grabs at the Salvation Army and find some food that we can cook on the camp stove for the weekend, until the power comes on. Hopefully the weather will be good tomorrow and we can hope on our bikes and explore some of the recreation trails.

This road trip has been a fantastic adventure. Some 6538km later, we managed not to kill each other (or even come close in fact) and we've been privy to see a smorgasboard of the diverse landscapes across Canada. A trip like this totally makes you appreciate how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful country. And although the camping was really fun (and I can say neither of us really tired of it), we're both also happy to stay put for a while. And I'm sure Gus will appreciate the rest and celebratory oil change :)

Hello Whitehorse!

The final leg to Whitehorse (Day 19)

We had a band of grayjays at our camp this morning. None were quite as bold as Petey from Whiteshell Park, but they were still pretty adamant that we may have some nibbles for them. No luck though.

Today was the final leg of our trip- we were getting to Whitehorse or bust! The wind had subsided a bit, so the drive was a little better, but not long in the car the rain finally started. We saw a bunch more buffalo this morning, right up close to the car (but not too close)

and enoug caribou that the mad photo-snapping had subsided. The fog from the rain had settled into the mountain tops, but made for some really great views.

We stopped for our lunch break in the town of Teslin YK which conveniently happened to be home of the Northern Wildlife Museum.

I'm not usually one to wander around a room full of taxiderm, creepily life-like dead animals, but I've been pleasantly surprised by each of the museums I've been to on this trip. And, I have to hand it to Teslin, I think the get the gold star (I know I said the same things about Grande Cache, but I think Teslin has them beat). They have scene diaoramas set up that are some life-like, and the animals are preserved so well that it looks more like a movie set than a taxidermy display. I was really impressed.

Our next stop was Johnson's Crossing YK. The village basically consists of one shop, which is a gas bar, convenience store and, most importantly, bakery. Their ad in the vistor's guide I had claimed they had "World Famous Cinnimon Buns" and since we had already sampled the best in the Galactic Cluster in Tetsa River, I figured we should really stop and compare. So we did.

When the last bite was done and the icing sugar wiped clean from the plate, I think we both agreed that Johnson Crossing had the best cinnamon buns we've come across. They were scandalous huge, fluffy and super fresh. I hear there's one more stop on the cinnamon bun war tour, but this one is north of Whitehorse. Maybe a later side trip :)

With our cinnamon bun bloated bellies hardly started digesting, we finally came upon the sign we had been waiting for:

We had made it. We were finally in Whitehorse! And, the mountains are right here too. The downtown core appears to be on one side of the Alaska Highway, in a canyon right by the river (hauling groceries up that is going to be fun). We turned off the other side of the Highway to our new summer home in the Hillcrest district.

And, the branch where we'll be working for the summer isn't more that 200m into the industrial park from our apartment. So, it looks like we're all set. We're both pretty excited to finally be here and we can't wait to get out of the car (although Gus has been a star) and explore. The summer is looking pretty awesome.

Liard River to the Yukon! (Day 18)

A full hot breakfast at the nearby Lodger (thanks for the tip Jaret) was the perfect start to today. Did I mention that I love breakfast?

Not on the road more than 5min, we were back to the buffalo. I can't get over how big and shaggy they are, lazing around (although I guess I'd swagger like I owned the place if I had car-bashers on my head too).

We even spotted a few moms and babies- they look like little brown cow calves.

The wind today is almost gale force, making driving a little nervy at times as Gus gets bucked all over the road. The wind sweeps straight off the mountains into the Liard River valley.

Around km900 near Contact River, we had a brief pop into the Yukon (I love this sign- complete function over fashion...)

then a few more kilometres of BC before we officially hit the full Yukon border: yay the territories!

Our drive today is nice and short, stopping after only 2.5hrs in the car at Watson Lake YK (woohoo YK). The ladies at the Visitor's Centre are lovely and padded us down with tonnes of Yukon and Whitehorse brochures (so much for limiting our paper accumulation). The visitor's centre is also home to Watson Lake's tacky but memorable sign post forest:

Too bad we didn't come prepared to contribute. The crazy wind was whipping the gravel and sand around like a desert sandstorm, so after a stop at the library for some free (legitimate) internet time, we made our way out of town to Watson Lake Provincial Park.

Things were still pretty quiet here, but there were a few little trails that we could explore. We also met back up with a few of the Aussie RV calvary. In the park, the tall lodgepole pines protected us from most of the wind, so it turned out to be a really pleasant evening. We wandered around a few of the trails and were able to get down to see the still-ice covered Watson Lake.

It feels a little colder tonight, so hopefully we'll be warm enough in our tent.

Hot Springs in Liard River (Day 17)

Lucky for us, it didn't rain last night because the road into the campsite was pretty rutted. Gus pulled through without issue and we made our way into Fort Nelson BC for the most expensive gas we've see yet (and the pumps across the street were even more expensive).



We made a semi-lunch stop in Tetsa River for a taste from the "Cinn-Bunn Centre of the Galactic Cluster"...mmmmm. Then we found ourselves on the Caribou Highway- and they aren't kidding. Caribous everywhere!


We had to make numerous stops, sometimes to let the caribous clear the road and mostly just to snap another photo.




To make things a little more interesting, the road also started to get steeper and windier (you never quite knew what was waiting around the next turn...) and we were soon back into the thick of the Northern Rockies. Our drop into the valley of Taylor BC was pretty spectacular!



Aside from a few spots where crews were filling potholes, the road is still in great shape. To Dan's delight, the end of Caribou Highway led straight into the start of "Buffalo Crossing" part of the Alaska Highway. And it didn't disappoint.


These guys are so huge! At some points, they were right beside the car, eyeballing us as we passed or as we waited from them to lumber off the road (and Gus really isn't in much of a fighting position to rush one of these guys away).




Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park was our stop for the day. Not only was this our first open provincial park so far, but we were joined by a caravan of 21 RVs of Aussies travelling from Seattle to Anchorage. And the hot springs were FANTASTIC! There are two natural hot springs pools- the top one was so hot that we could only stay in for about 10min. The walk back down to the primary pool was enough to cool off and head back into the sulfur warmth.




The top end of the pool, near the spring opening was almost scalding and that wasn't even within 20m of the top! By the time I got out, my silver ring had been turned an iridescent copper colour,



I was completely pruny and all dopey sleepy. It was about all I could do to drag myself back to the tent and despite still having almost full daylight at 10pm, I think I was asleep before my head even hit my pillow.

Grande Prairie AB to Prophet River BC (Day 16)

Things went dramatically downhill after we left the parking lot of the Pollodon Inn (that's karma for scamming wireless internet!). We proceeded to drive around the outskirts of super-truck macho-driver Grande Prairie for over an hour in search of Saskatoon Island Provincial Park. Frustrated, tired and hungry, we retreated to our default location- the local Rotary Club RV Park. You can imagine our delight when we drove up to the registration area only to find a "No Tenting" sign in the window. What kind of camping park doesn't allow tent?! So, our last resort was back to a good ol' Super8. Although, this one was a little short of good. At almost double the price of the awesome Super8 in Kenora (thank you Alberta oil & gas) and not even a fraction of the charm, we grudgingly checked in. I almost laughed (almost) when I found out there was no internet connections in the room- I know this sounds pretentious, but in this day and age..c'mon! And worst of all...I didn't see a waffle-maker in the breakfast lounge *Gasp*

Luckily, by morning the waffle-maker had appeared. And I did manage to connect my laptop to the network at the business centre. We peeled out of Grande Prairie as fast as we could (of course after I had my waffles and everything else I could fit in my belly). The only slightly redeeming element of our Grande Prairie experience was the World's Biggest sun dial.

Goodbye Grande Prairie!

Not long on the road, we came across another Biggest. This time, we found ourselves in front of the town of Beaverlodge's giant beaver :)

Soon we were across the border into British Columbia,

where we stopped in Dawson Creek BC (which coincidentally Dan found out was named after Dr. Dawson who was born and raised in Pictou NS) to have our photo taken at the "Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway" post. Which just so happens to be in the middle of one of the town's intersections. So, I was the silly tourist wandering through traffic to snap the classic cheesy photo.

Later on down the raod, we saw another Biggest, or at least an out-of-the-ordinary Big.

I'm not sure who the lumberjack is, but it was good for a photo. Other than the lumberjack, we didn't see many other drive-by sightings today other than a few deer. The Alaska Highway is so far really good, wide open road through gentle hills and norther BC forest in all directions. Funny how this landscape is just as remote and rugged as the Grasslands, but somehow not nearly so daunting.

We ended up bypassing Prophet River BC, since the provincial park was apparently flooded from the snow thaw, and instead camped at Andy Bailey Provincial Park a little further down the highway. Not long after arriving to the serene little lake,

we were joined by a slightly rowdy group of locals who thought the quiet lake was also a good party venue. Luckily, they wrapped up fairly early and it was quiet enough to get a good night's sleep!

Mountain Oasis in Grande Cache AB (Day 15)

We were visited last night by a few cars tearing around the camp area. But, I think they saw our tent and then peeled (litterally) away. Yup, we definitely need to fill out a camping permit, or karma will definitely not be happy with us :)

This morning's weather picked up right where last night left off- gorgeously warm sunshine and a cloudless sky. Everything was pretty frosted and condensation damp, so we had to dry out the tent and sleeping bags on the fencepost before heading out. Sitting in the morning sun with a warm cup of tea in your hands while you look out over a snow-crusted lake is pretty arduous, but we sucked it up for the sake of our gear.

After an unplanned detour (ie., I may have temporarily boggled the navigation to get in the right direction out on the highway...), we were en route down the "Scenic Route to Alaska" towards Grande Cache.

With the clear weather, we were able to make up for some missed mountain photography shots from days previous. The mountains are so spectacular here.

And it only got better. The snowcaps on the mountains got closer as we gained elevation (~1400m) and rounded Grande Cache Lake.

Once we hit Grande Cache, we stopped in at what has so far been, by FAR, the coolest Visitor's Centre yet.

We thought Cypress Hill had a fantastic Interpretive Centre, but Grande Cache has all the same wildlife specimens (owls, hawks, grizzly and black bear, lynx, caribou, deer, cougar, moose), plus a few others AND they have an art gallery, a ranger's museum and a balcony to view the 21, yes, 21 mountains that surround the town.

This town is GORGEOUS! First of all, it's the neighbour town to the Willmore Wilderness Park, full of trails and animals and mountains. Although it's a true oil and gas town (we are in Alberta), the town still has a lot of outdoor culture. We found out (from the super friendly Info staff) that a local doctor has designed a "Passport to the Peaks" program where he's assigned each of the 21 peaks to a passport that you can complete. You work your way through the hikes to the peaks at each the bronze, silver or gold level, stamp your passport with the stamp in the summit box and then once you've completed all the peaks a level, you send it off to the doctor for your level's pin. How cool is that?! On top of this, Grande Cache is also host to the Canadian Death Race, a wicked 125km mountain race through the local peaks. Right up your alley Jodi! Apparently there's also a big concert too and the town swells to double its size!

Both of us are completely taken with this little town. We had a little tour and a scrumptious lunch at the local bistro (that makes all homemade food and they don't offer french fries on the menu!) and then made our way to Sulfur Gates, a little lookout trail that the Info staff suggested.

First off, you can camp here...with your horse. They provide corrals and stall areas for you and your horse (I've gotta try that sometime).

Sulfur (aka Hell's) Gate sits at the foot of Mount Stearn,

and is the confluence of two rivers that meet right at these huge sulfur buttes, Sulfur Gate.

It's absolutely gorgeous. And on a clear day like today, all you can see is the panorama of mountains around. The water and the mountains together are totally breathtaking. And to top it off, we finally saw a moose as we drove away.

Although we had to force ourselves back into the car, we eventually made our way to Grande Prairie AB where we'll spend the night at Saskatoon Lake Provincial Park (if all works out). Here in the city, the sun is still out full bore and there's a whole lot less snow on the ground. We haven't quite made our way to the park yet, since I've managed to "piggy-back" (a polite word for scam) a wireless internet connection from the good people at the Podolan Inn & Spa. It looks like a nice inn, just a little out of our price range.

We're currently hiding behind the hotel and the glare from the sun on my screen is making it almost impossible to see what I'm typing, let alone to sort through the zillions of mountain photos we've taken. So, in the next day or two (when I have a more legitimate connection), I'll get the photos up that go along with all these descripts. Hopefully they live up to how gorgeous all this really is.

Jasper to Hinton AB (Day 14)

We both had an amazingly quiet and restful sleep in the cozy bunkhouse. We almost beat the tourbus rush at the kitchen too. But, once they had moved on for the day, the peacefulness of the hostel came back :)

Sascha, the hostel manager, suggested a few short hikes for us to try. We started off with the little hike behind the hostel which was supposed to give a really good lookoff of the mountains to the west, but the drizzly sky stole a bit of the view. Then we headed across the road to the Athabasca Falls.

Aside from the two tour buses already there, the falls were pretty cool.

We wandered around a bit, taking in the feeder stream,

the lake that it all feeds into

and the rock overhand that shelters some of the boardwalk.

Then we made a quick exit before we got tangled up in any more tour buses.

We had a walk around in Jasper before we headed off to Maligne Canyon, which had been recommended to us by Sascha and one of the park officers in the info centre. On our way out of Jasper, we drove by a big group of elk who are apparently semi-permanent grazing residents of Jasper town.

Maligne Canyon turned out to be a really beautiful walk.

The canyon houses an underground river system that spans 15km between two lakes (Maligne and Medicine Lake). We started out at the bottom of the canyon, passing different seepages (holes where you got a little glimpse of the water among the ice)

where the waterfall drops into an eerily dry river bed as the water drains into the underground channels

by the deep throat of the canyon

until we got to the waterfall at the top.

Being out in the sunshine was a welcome change from the weather we have had so far in Alberta. We almost didn't want to get back in the car, but the drive out supplied our greatest wildlife viewing yet. I saw my first wolf (or coyote?) crossing over the road,

followed by two different herds of big-horn sheep,

past more elk and a few white-tailed deer,

and finale with a huge, bearded and horned elk. Wicked!

We ended up at William Switzer Provincial Park, just outside of Hinton AB. We were back in pretty thick snow cover, but we managed to find a sunny, dry spot with a great view of Jarvis lake.

The washrooms are open and the well even draws up water. And, it was so sunny and warm, we sat in our shirts, for the first time this trip, and just soaked in the sun. And, still no bugs. Sweet!

It got a little chilly as the sun was going down, so we wandered off on a little jaunt only to be met by what we thought were park officers (suppose we should in fact self-register and pay afterall...). It turned out to be a really nice older couple who normally supply the firewood for the camp and were just poking around to see if anyone was looney enough to be camping (Hello). Even by the time we got in the tent, it was still a lot warmer than it's been, even if we are camping in snow.