Wow

I can't think of a better word to describe my last week... i have seen and heard so much beauty, it's been overwhelming.. After a couple of days hiking around whitehorse (within a 20 minute drive there are many beautiful hikes), we headed off to Tombstone.. this is a park, near Dawson city at the 64th parallel. (arctic circle is 66th). To get there, you have to take the Dempster highway, the only highway going north to the northwest territories. This highway is actually a dirt road, sometimes impassable, and certainly not busy.. an hours drive in, having seen nothing but nature and maybe 1 car, we arrive at the campsite.. rustic, no electricity or phones anywhere, and beautiful mountains surrounding us. An intepretive walk the first day taught us about the animals and the plants nearby, including the lichen we were starting to see everywhere. We learnt about animals and their hibernation patterns, and of course saw the famous moutain for which the area is named after.

The next day was a 7 hour hike up into the mountains and then along a ridge to get a closer view of Tombstone and all the surrounding mountains.. i think what is most impressive about this area is the remoteness, the fact of seeing very few other people, and certainly no civilization.. this is not a tourist stop.. some cars don't get through, people bring extra tires and gas... the closest civilization is around 100 kms in either direction, and even that is a gas station and that's it.. I've been through the rockies, but this was a different kind of wow.. and the vegetation.. in some areas there were trees but they were more and more sparse as we went north.. we saw some amazingly beautiful things.

That night we drove an hour further north where the vegetation continued to change and we saw more tundra than trees. We made supper at a lake with a wooden balcony and had supper with the birds.. and thankfully no bears. After another night there where we made labrador tea (from leaves we found in the forest) we were off to Dawson city, previously known as the Paris of North America during the gold rushes of the late 1800's and early 1900's.. A lot of the north shows affects of the gold rush, both in history and in their towns, but in Dawson it is more evident. You walk down the street and see old buildings that remind you of cowboy movies.. It's a small town, but once had the biggest population in the Yukon.. It died quickly after the gold rush, but maintains some of it's charm.

I had never thought to be so won over by the Yukon, but i have been. There is so much to see, to learn from and about.. The people, the nature and the history.. It's hard to beleive it's a part of canada that most people have barely heard of.. I simply got a touch of what there is to discover.

The weekend in Dawson was for a music festival that was simply amazing. Great talent from all over the world, great people and a great energy.. We camped across the river from the town which meant we got to take a small ferrry back and forth which was fun. I have never danced so much in my life. We were actually sore for a couple of days..

And then the journey back starting sunday night.. well, car trouble bought us an extra night at the music festival, but made our ride back to Whitehorse longer and later than expected. We spent a couple of hours there, saying goodbye to the wonderful family Jenny had been staying with, and then off we were to Alaska (Skagway) where we had to catch the ferry the next morning. One of jenny's friends bailed us out and drove us since we had missed our lift.

We arrived in Alaska amid the fog and rain, seeing dark for the first time in weeks. We slept a couple of hours and then we were up for the ferry to take us to Juneau where we spent a couple more hours wandering around. We saw a glacier/ice field up close which was pretty cool but a little touristy after our last week.

Then it was back on the ferry for 36 hours.. it was epic.. we slept outside, read, met tons of people and saw whales, orcas, seals, bears, deer, tons of birds. It was great, it felt almost like a cruise ship with tons of different rooms, places to watch the ocean, a forest ranger on board giving information and the captain telling us whenever he saw whales or orcas. It was a great experience..all the towns we docked at including Juneau are only accessible by plane or by water, no roads.. giving you an idea of the remoteness.. we then arrived back in Canada in Prince Rupert where we spent a couple of hours before taking the ferry to the airport back to Vancouver where i now sit.. clean and refreshed after a night in a bed with more than 5 hours sleep, the first time in over a week.

Wow, what a trip...pictures to follow.

News from the Yukon

Wow is all i have to say about the Yukon.. whitehorse itself is a small town with not much going on, however, they do have live music outdoors everyday at 5 p.m. and some cool cafes.. The scenery however is beautiful. It's a small town nestled in the mountains with a gorgeous river running through it...

And well, it's light all the time.. thankful for sleeping in the basement with no light, the day never turns into night.. around 12 or 1, the sun starts to set, and though i have yet to stay up all night, i'm told there is a couple of hours of dusk before the sun comes back up again. it makes for interesting nights, going to bed with the sun still shining and waking up to the same.

Camping however is another story... After a day exploring whitehorse and seeing where Jenny was working all summer and some of her hangouts, we left for Kluane which is a spectacular beauty. We did a beautiful hike near Kathleen Lake and then camped there overnight.. the bugs are bad and we are in bear country which means that we need to clap our hands and make noise almost continuously. But, the views from the top were amazing, moutains, some snow covered, for as far as you can see.. a lot of green and a beautiful river that we had to actually walk through for about 10 min as the path had been overrun.. glacier water is really cold!

But, we made it down, no bears and only a few bug bites later.. and the sun.. which is really really strong. Despite not always being hot, there is certainly no humidity and there have been many clouds, it's actually quite warm and sunblock is required. A cool night at Kathleen lake,  going to bed while it was still light out, in a tent, was a little different.. up the next morning and up to Sheep Mountain for the most spectacular hike of my life so far.. it was steep but when you got to the top there were mountains everywhere.. more impressive in some ways than the Rockies.. certainly more impressive due to the wildness and the barrenness of people.. though there are tourists and tons of camping vans, there just seems to be so much empty space.. oh ya, and we ran into a black bear in the parking lot.. well, maybe ran into is the wrong word, he was 10 feet away..  However, we did see him pretty up close and personal, though it seemed to be a day where he didn't like humans so he left, and off we went, clapping, singing and with our bear spray ready..

Camping on Kluane lake was like being near the ocean. Our campsite was right next to the water and the with the wind sounded like the ocean.. the water itself was more colors of turqoise than I though possible.