whitehorse

...enough about fresh figs. We arrived in Whitehorse on Saturday at about 3:30pm, just in time for Tom and Karen's deck party. Karen is my cousin, and she and her partner Tom have been living in the Yukon since last summer. We're staying with them until we can locate suitable living quarters. They hosted a "deck party" to celebrate the completion of their beautiful new deck. We pulled in and had a few beer while we met some of their friends.

The trip went well. Over 4 days of driving, and on only a few occasions did we nearly kill each other in the tight, cramped quarters of the truck. The trip was actually quite stunning, particularly the scenery along the cassiar highway. We stopped for a two night layover at the cabin in Lac la Hache, where we spent time with Emily, Moe and Doug, Jane, mom, and grandma. We have some great photos of my 94 year-old grandma "touring" the lake at 40 miles an hour in the boat! I'll get those up on here some time once we have our computer set up and I figure how to post photos.

After the lake it was three nights in Kitimat where we spent some time with the Slaninas - all of them [edit: not nearly all of them!] These connections come from the 70's when my mom worked in Kitimat, [edit: as what I thought was a Frontier Apostle, but I stand corrected!] teaching at the local elementary school. We stayed with the ever hospitable Paul and Arleigh and were able to spend some time with their daughter Veronica and her family as well as the extended Slanina clan...and believe me when I say there's lots of them. We toured the Alcan smelter and saw the town. Quite an interesting place, if you ever get a chance to visit, do.
It was really nice to be in the middle of such a tight knit community, lots of family and kids around. The people we met were absolutely among the most genuine people I have ever met. Thanks Paul and Arleigh for having us stay with you! (I think we still owe you a few more visits!)


From Kitimat, we drove the Cassiar Highway which was one of the most spectacular drives. This was the part of the trip that we had planned to bike. We still (or at least I still??) plan to come and ride this road, but for now it's not to be. We saw a bear and a moose and an amazing change from coastal forest to the northern boreal forest of black and white spruce. The high alpine in the Spatsizi/Edziza parks area was spectacular.

We crossed the Yukon border to the familiar strains of Johnny Cash on the tapedeck singing "Don't Take Your Guns to Town". Once we hit the Alaska Highway, we started making some serious time. We haven't actually been to Whitehorse proper yet as Ken and Tom [edit: I mean Karen and Tom!]live about 60km southeast of town at Marsh Lake. We plan to visit the big smoke tomorrow.

I've got a job interview tomorrow for a position as program coordinator with the Whitehorse Youth Centre Society and Sarah is planning to visit the school district sometime this week. Until then it's beers on the new deck.