3 for the road...

hey folks, for those of you who still bother to check this antiquated blog thingy, we are happy to announce to the internet world that our family of 2 is scheduled to become a family of 3 towards the end of July 2008. we are expecting a bambino to arrive sometime around that date!

Spring?

Well it's now nearly the end of another Yukon winter and spring is nowhere in sight. We have lots and lots of snow. It is the snowiest winter on record! The Canada Winter Games have come and gone and everyone else in the country is stuck with our northern tv advertisements while we are stuck with lots of orange jackets. All the volunteers were given orange jackets to wear during the games. a pretty good deal as these are heavy duty gore tex jackets!


We escaped the games for a week and went to do some surfing and wave watching in Tofino. Unfortuntely we brought the snow with us and were nearly stranded on vancouver island after a snow storm on the pass between Tofino and Port Alberni. That sloppy coastal snow is no fun to drive in!

There was lots happening after we returned from the south including a (free!) great cultral festival with everything from rap to fiddle music to northern inuit throat singers.



The infamous burning away the winter blues festival (you can watch this event LIVE on the web!!) is on Saturday March 24th at 8:30pm and it looks as though this year we'll have to have quite the bonfire to melt all the snow. The river is still frozen over and it was -25 this morning. At this rate ski season will last until sometime in August. We are going up on the roof tomorrow night to shovel it off as a few of the pipes have actually been covered completely by snow and we have large icicles forming the attic!


On the bright side (the yukon spring is literally nice and bright) with daylight lasting until about 8:30pm we can get out for some longer skis after work and even after dinner.


Enjoy the rain in vancouver and elsewhere and here's to hoping that we emerge from our winter hibernation with at least a small remnant of our european sunburns/tans from last summer!

All Northern Pond Hockey

For the second year, Whitehorse played host to the all northern pond hockey tournament at chadburn lake. And for the sencond year the temperatures were below -30 C. This year, almost 40 teams braved -40 (!) temperatures to pit their pond hockey skills against one another for yukon pond hockey supremacy.

This year, our valiant team of super heroes (which included superman/woman, flash gordon, a large stuffed dinosaur and a brown M&M - how can you top talent like that!?) made it to the quarterfinals only to lose in a close fought game. Good times were had by all. Despite superman's cape continually getting in the way, flash gordon's bummed knee and rastaman being far to laid back the team had a great goals for/against ratio. Only one toe was lost to frostibite, that being the big toe of the flash.

The mother of all pond hockey tournaments is in Plaster Rosk New Brunswick, World Pond Hockey Champioships, in February. Perhaps one day the Yukon champion can travel to NB much like to Dawson City Nuggets of old to play against southern foes.

Well, it's still -43 here so no one's going outside today despite the sun.

Current Weather Conditions...

wishing it were fall. Due to Jole's lack of blogittment, the Gone North presence in the blogosphere has turned into a Sarah-only project for the past 12 months, but I am ready to reclaim cyberspace.

Lots has happened, including autumn. It lasted for...about a week. Actually, that's not true, we had an amazing fall and were out on the roadbikes and mtn bikes until the third week of october. We had snow for halloween and it is currently very cold and very snowy. As a result of said snow, ski season has started and we managed to make use of our passes once so far as we braved the -35 degrees with windchild last night.

Jole just returned from Indianapolis where he attended the International Dyslexia Association Conference. It was a very good conference and in between hearing highly educated people give workshops, jole even got to experience all the americana that the middle-american city had to offer including the meals with choices that included red meat, red meat and red meat. The meat hangover is still lingering.

Other highlights included the restaurant/bar/arcade/dance club/bowling alley - 3 floors of pure enjoyment - and the "mall". Hanging out in droves at the mall were literally hundreds of highschol students who were visiting Indianapolis for the Bands of America High School Marching Band Grand National Championships.

This was simply one of the most interstingly bizarre things I have ever seen. The event took place inside the 70,000 seat RCA dome (Like BC Place) and saw dozens of 200-300 student marching bands strut their stuff with trombones, tubas, saxaphones, flutes, trumpets, flags, dancers, rifle twirlers and drummers in highly choreographed routines that amazed and dazzled the accumulated throngs of spectators. It was truly an experience from another planet. The costumes, the makeup, the hair, the white gloves...wow.

Another highlight was the the Eiteljorg (pronounced eye-tell-j-org...???) Museum of American Indians and Western art. Hmmm...a "cowboys and indians" museum...the irony is far too tempting.

All in all the midwest was an experience that was pleasantly surprising. I was blown away by how friendly people were. It was almost creepy friendly. almost. But the funny accent made me chuckle to myself before I could be creeped out. And then there were the people who asked me if i had problems with polar bears in my front yard...

here are some photos too - we missed the polar bears , they were grazing a few hours before we took these shots. One is Sarah in the leaves, one is Todd Cunningham and I shooting the "Gums of Death" rapids (Class 3 eh!!) on the Takhini River and one shot is our uncompleted (at the time) shed. Enjoy rainy November for those of you in Vancouver. We'll be down at Chirstmas and hope to see all of you then.

Sounds like Canada in the Yukon

If you want to discover more about life in the Yukon, tune in to CBC Radio 1 this week from 10am -1pm. Shelagh Rogers, host of Sounds Like Canada is broadcasting from Whitehorse all week and will be talking to, hearing from and listening to yukoners of all sorts including poets musicians, normal people, goldminers (yes, I'm insinuating that gold miners aren't normal).

AM 690 for those of your from the lower mainland

cheers,
joel

the slick, new, high-powered olsen BML-80 super furnace. sounds like a Boeing 747 taking off in the basement.

the haul of wild blueberries from white pass summit

there's a blog entry in this somewhere...

well we are beginning to realize the perils of owning your own home...in the yukon. We've been in our new place for about 4 months now. We have managed to spruce it up a bit, mowed the lawn, chopped a hole in the wall and so on.

When we got the place inspected before we purchased, we were informed that the furnace was the original (~30yrs) so we were anticipating that over the next couple years, we would have to replace it. What we weren't anticipating was that we would have to replace it this year.

Now, as with living in any region of the country, there are times when you love it and times when you curse it. And indeed, living in a city 2500km from the nearest large canadian city has perks and it's drawbacks. one of the drawbacks is that getting someone to look at your furnace isn't as easy as selecting at random from the several dozen "furnace/heating" listings in the yellow pages. In whitehorse, there are a grand total of about 4 furnace/heating places in the yellow pages.

Now, this all goes back about 2 months when we called one of the smaller outfits to come by and clean our ducts (the ducts in the house that is). He kindly informed us that he was quite busy and that it would be about 3 weeks or so until he got to us. 5 weeks later, we haven't heard from him so we decided to call him to see where we are on the list. Sure enough, we're the "next" house on the list...but oops, mr. furnace cleaner has to go to Pelly Crossing for "work" for a week and won't be back in whitehorse until next tuesday. Now, if you look at Pelly Crossing on the map you'll see that it's not really a place you go unless...well, it's not really a place you go. The only reason one would go to Pelly in early September is to stock their freezer full of fresh moose meat.

We decided that we would let Mr. furnace cleaner go on his hunting trip and we'd just call someone else. 0 for 1. When we called that someone else we found that they couldn't get out to clean the ducts and service the furnace until the beginning of November. hmmm. 0 for 2.

Now, all this time, we hadn't had the furnace running because the ducts are really dirty. so we decide just to do some impromptu cleaning and turn the old beast on and hope for the best. temperatures had already been dipping below 0. So, we turned the furnace on and voila, hot air. It was about 13 or 14 degrees in the house prior to turning the furnace on so it was nice to be warm.

Two weeks later, i am in vancouver and sarah and claire are at home and kaput, the furnace stops working. nothing will get it going again. sarah call us the emergency line for the third furnace/heating place and leaves a message. the "emergency line" guy doesn't call back for 4 days. 0 for 3. all this time we are wondering if it would classified an emergency if it was minus 40 degrees and the furnace stopped working at night while we were sleeping. was the furnace place thinking " ahhh, no worries, it's only -1 degree, still balmy, call them back on monday??

We decide to call back the second outlet and tell them we need to get someone to come out to have a look as we can now see our breath inside and the indoor temp is down around 5 degrees C. They tell us that they have some "emergency time' that they can book us in for in 10 days. and why is it that you have an "emergency line" again? If you move to the yukon and have a furnace emergency, make sure to pre-book it with your local furnace guy.

once we tell the guy we are willing to drop some coin on a new oil guzzling heat machine, he relents and "discovers" a cancellation in the schedule. one quote for a $4000 furnace later and we're booked in to have the install completed in 3 days. just wave around a few g-notes and you'll get your way with the furnace guys. $4000 is for the low end model, mid efficiency unit.

we had one other quote from another place for $5000. They faxed this quote to us 4 days after doing the on site estimate and me telling the guy that we would appreciate a quote promptly as we are willing to make the purchase asap. it's nice to know that as a potential paying customer, your business is valued...

so for those of you taking notes:
1) pre-book your emergencies in the yukon
2) if you're in the yukon in september, go moose hunting in pelly crossing
3) be prepared to spend a ton of money on a furnace if your's dies!

together again!

The ladies at Lake Louise AB.

caribou with a nice rack.

The lush, tropical jungle of Liard Hot Springs on the Alaska Highway

Claire and Megan on top of the "Dome" in Dawson City. The smoke is from forest fires in Alaska.

what we did on our summer vacation part 2...

well, sarah's on to her second week of school now and we're still talking about our summer vacation....sheesh.

well, after vancouver we embarked on a kootenay/rockie mountain vacation rapido style. with stops in castlegar, nelson, cranbrook (with a triathlon thrown in), fairmont hot springs, radium hot springs, lake louise, jasper, grande prarie, liard hot springs and whitehorse. whew, it was quite a trip.

as noted, we hit up a number of hotsprings. we found liard hot springs, although the most rustic, to be the best. fairmont was like swimming in someone's bathtub, with several hundred other people you didn't know, radium was especially nice in the evenings when the crowds died down.

as you can see from the photos above, emily appeared out of thin air and was able to accompany us for a few days of the trip (from cranbrook to radium). that was nice.

it was sure nice to get home to whitehorse to see the cat which hasn't quite forgiven us for leaving her for so long. she attacked our feet without warning in the wee hours last night as latent punishment. she continues to exhibit peculiar behaviours at all hours. we may have to call in the resident pet psychologist. it's a booming business in the yukon what with all the sled dogs up here. the politics and interdog communications within a dogteam can be a handful. they often need to talk it out with their therapist.

claire has landed work at mac's fireweed books, the local book store and instantaneously received a promotion to downstairs. one might think that's actually a demotion but she insists it's not. hmmm.

sarah has whipped her grade twos into shape. jole and claire haven't seen her for almost three weeks as she's been diligently preparing her classroom. she has even been spotted at school working on the weekends. such is the life of a beginning teacher.

the leaves are beginning to turn their brilliant yellows and the bite of fall is in the air.

enjoy the photos.

the prodigal daughter returns...then promptly leaves again.

being photogenic

camping before the kluane chilkat bike relay at Haines Junction Yukon, the foot of Kluane National Park.

no hole...

hole. what jole did when sarah went away

what we did on our summer vacation pt. 1...

ok, we're back from the dead and have an update for eveyone, of life and summer in the north. hope that this post finds everyone doing well and re-energized after holidays and vacations.

sarah didn't actually get to experience a yukon summer this year as she decided that she'd had enough of the mosquitos by early june and left for the tropical balminess of vancouver for 6 weeks. she participated in a few weddings (congrats carmen and michelle!) and graduated with highest honours from the Orton-Gillingham Tutor Training Course for reading instruction for kids with learning disabilities. she drove her parents nuts for three weeks of this intense course and surely they are quite happy she went back up north! we sincerely hope they don't change the locks on us for the next time we visit.

while sarah was gone, jole chopped a hole in the kitchen wall that he hopes to have repaired by sometime in the fall of 2009. it was great to be able to test the reciprocating saw out though. i am proud to confirm that indeed it works. we'll be buying a chainsaw sometime this fall and i hope to have something to test it on as well. If you have any ideas, please let me know.

fearful of being mysteriously complelled to chop more holes in walls, i drove down to vancouver at the end of july to pick sarah up. it was a long drive. I gathered remnants of my family (UK citizen sister & father RJ) and a badly limping truck in lac la hache and we caravaned the rest of the way to vanocuver where husband and wife were reunited joyfully (and inlaws doubtlessly joyful that the end was near!) after 6 weeks of forced "apartness".

We tried to soak in as much visiting as possible and take in all that vancouver has to offer including pick up lines from speedo-clad older men at the pool (ask me about that one sometime). apologies if we didn't connect with you but we only had 4 days to cram in everything.

When we finally got everything crammed in, to the car that is...claire, mirna, teaching supplies, teapots, it barely cleared the curb as we set forth to complete a halfiron triathlon in cranbrook and a rendezvous with emily in the rockies. some photos above to keep you interested until part 2! stay tuned. please note the afore mentioned artfully designed and crafted hole.

still alive and kicking

hey folks,

we haven't frozen to death yet or been eaten by bears. Lots has been happening including sarah starting her new job and a trip to vancouver and...well...we'll post some photos and an update soon. I'm sure you've all been hovering over your computers for months waiting in earnest for our next update. what can we say, summer in the yukon is a busy time!

jole & sarah

the gang, joel, brian, sarah, tom, karen, hugh and sue at kluane lake

relaxing and enjoying the back 40...after (at 12 midnight...note the lack of "nightime")

the back 40...before

canoeing the yukon river

back in the saddle

well, it's been a while since you folks received an update from us so here's a news flash.

we've been busy clearcutting the back forty (as you can see from the photos) and fighting over paint colors. luckily we don't have cable anymore so we don't have to torture ourselves with home reno shows hosted by pretentious british "decorating gurus". the BBQ's going strong and ready to feed whoever wants to stop by this summer.

sarah is getting ready to head south for 6 weeks. she arrives for carmen's wedding on thursday and will be in vancouver until the end of july returning to the yukon to prepare for her new grade 2 teaching job in september.

joel's going in all the big yukon events this summer including the mayo midnight marathon, the kluane chilkat bike relay and the yukon river trail marathon. there's lots to do over the summer.

the daylight hours are getting longer and longer and longer and longer. right now it's not even getting dark at all at night (see photo at 12am) and the longest day of the year is still a week and a half away.

let us know when you're planning to visit and we'll set up a bed for you. the new address is 56 klondike road, whitehorse, yt Y1A 3M1.

spring in the yukon overlooking the yukon river

wild crocus

spring in the yukon overlooking the yukon river

outside

inside

chez macht-woods

so we took the plunge into irreversible debt and purchased a house last week. we'll end up paying less for a mortgage than we will for rent so financially it's worth it. plus the housing market up here is going crazy. not quite vancouver style but getting there.

Our house is about a 15 minute walk from downtown and is in the whitehorse suburb known colloquially as 'riverdale'. how quaint. we're 100 metres from mountain trails and 10 minutes walk to the yukon river.

3 bedrooms, unfinished basement. if we watch one more home rennovation show on tv we're gonna puke. domesticity here we come.

Whitehorse top 10...number 7

The daylight. there are no words that can describe what it's like when the clock says 11pm and it's still light outside. your circadian rhythms completely lose their beat, your body thinks it's time to wake up at 4am, and you feel like running 10 miles at 10:30pm. work is just an annoying little inconvenience that gets in the way of you enjoying 20 hours of light.

and we ain't seen nothing yet. it's still 2 months away from the longest day of the year. All that sleep we got in december and january will come in handy now. that expression, "there's never enough time in the day" isn't valid north of 60. in fact between April and September, there's toooo much time in the day. this permits procrastination of unparalleled proportions. what you don't get done outside by 7pm, no worries you can finish it off after midnight when you have a little more time on your hands, but no less light.

i think the price of a winter from the frozen depths of hell, was a small one to pay for a summer of eternal sunshine.

joel came down with yukonitis this week so he hasn't been able to enjoy the balmy 20 degree days as much as ubercyclist sarah. sarah hasn't gloated too much.

House hunting has been fruitless but there are some promising abodes on the horizon.

Have you ever clicked on the "Next Blog" button on the top right of the screen? you can instantly view the personal blog of a fundamentalist christian in san diego, or a navy officer in japan or an evironmentalist in iceland or a highschool student in singapore or a bush-hating canadian. it's wierd how easy it is to "connect" with a stranger on the other side of the planet. kind of scary-weird, entertaining, and addictive at the same time.

the good, the bad, the internet.

dogsledding action

it's 9pm and it's sunny!

the bonfire

Winter goes down in flames...cyclist with fire extinguisher to the rescue!

burning away the winter...?

yesterday was the first day of spring. March 21st, 2005. we did it. we survived the yukon winter.

it was fitting that we should chase the winter chill from our bones yukon style...by burning it in the largest, gasoline-powered bonfire of bonfires.

the annual burning away the winter blues festival takes place every year in whitehorse on the spring equinox. people dress up, people dance, they beat on drums, they carry gas torches, flags, lanterns, wear masks, glowsticks and dragons.

several hundred people gather and march in a torch/candle lit procession along the banks of the yukon river to robert service campground where a huge papier mache effigy of winter is burned in a massive bonfire. people are encouraged to bring their paper representations of winter and cast them into the fire to burn baby burn.

the event started calmly enough and the big winter effigy was unveiled to the ohhs and ahhhs of the gatherred throng. that was where events went awry as the big paper dude prematurely burst into flames when one of the organizers tried to stick a lit flare into his head to make his eyes glow. old man winter really wanted to burn and his body caught fire. a fire extinguisher came to the rescue after winter stopped-dropped-and rolled to safety. see above photos. it was a comical scene as children ran screaming and parents shrieked in horror at the carnage. winter was salvaged with only 2nd degree burns to 45% of his body.

the march was about 1km and we were blasted by 50km/hr winds on the banks of the ice-jammed yukon river. who said winter was on the way out!!?? a candle-lit pathway led us to the 40 foot-long bonfire that was radiating incredible heat. Fire dancers were on hand to welcome the festival-goers.

after everyone had gathered, it was time to cast the big effigy of winter on the fire. Chants of "BURN HIM! BURN HIM! BURN HIM!" echoed throughout the campground. (ironic during easter week no?) finally, the time was at hand and the big dude was tossed into the middle of the swirling flames. old man winter wasn't going down with out taking someone with him however. soon, some flying embers from his face landed in a nearby tree and lit it on fire. aghast, the crowd all pointed up into the trees as we feared fire was going to consume us all!

not to worry, the fire department was on hand quickly to extinguish the danger and all was safe. all except for sarah that is as her nice wool coat was the victim of many a hot spark. jole cast his beard clippings in the fire and is officially beardless in whitehorse until next year's beard growing contest. we couldn't stick around for long as the heat from the fire was singeing our eyebrows.

we are looking forward to having some guests as mirna comes to visit this week. happy easter and bring on the spring!

greetings from rendezvous

whitehorse top 10 - number 8

sourdough rendezvous (with a mummified cat)!

on the last weekend in february every year, whitehorseans and yukoners gather for a celebration of heritage day and a festival of drunken debauchery to stave off the remaining few weeks of winter.

this year of course was our first rendezvous experience. tom the 3 year sourdough veteran was our guide as we navigated the twisted streets of intoxication and impersonation. we had our garter. we had our hat. we had our boa and we had feathers in our hair. we looked like real old time locals. all we needed to do was get wasted and we'd fit right in.

right then, on to the spirits. we made our way to one of the finer drinking establishments in town and proceeded to make friends with the mummified cat, preserved for all eternity in the bar (they found it under the floor boards several years ago while rennovating). we were there for the coup des gras, the big dance, the main attraction...the beard growing contest. i had managed to grow quite a mane of facial hair over the past 6 weeks and was pretty confident that i could out-testosterone the best of the best in this annual competition of manliness. daily applications of rogaine with monoxodil didn't hurt either.

much to the crowd's dismay some greek guy showed up (with a beard emanating from his chest) and took the prize right from under my nose (literally!). following up on the beard contest was the "hairy leg contest". the woman who won had more hair on her legs than i had on my face. it reminded me of going in to MEC in vancouver.

although we lost the beard growing contest there were still many things to see and do over the weekend. we also took in the log saw and chop, the chain saw chuck, the one-dog pull, the airshow, the flour packing contest, the sourdough pancake breakfast and the cabane a sucre and last but not least the fantastic filipino BBQ.

february is a great month to visit with so much going on. it beats a vancouver february anytime! bring on spring!

Check out more new photos at here.

the start line

ready to go!

the start

whitehorse top 10...number 9

today was the day that pretty much every citizen in whitehorse came out to view the start of the 22nd annual Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race. 21 teams of 14 dogs each took off in 2 minute intervals to tackle a 1026 mile (1600 km) journey to Fairbanks, Alaska. the word epic doesn's even come close to describing this event.

the teams started in downtown whitehorse and the winner will cross the line in fairbanks in just over 10 days. Every year the race alternates from starting in whitehorse, to starting in fairbanks. next year it will start in fairbanks and finish in whitehorse. snow was trucked in and laid down on main street to make the first couple km of trail in downtown whitehorse.
the dogs and mushers will tackle three 3000 foot mountain summits, tempertures as low as -60C, dangerous overflow ice on frozen rivers and hundreds of miles of barrren, remote wilderness. this event isn't for weenies. some of the "colourful five percent" of northerners take on this race.

In his bio on the Quest website, musher Frank Turner lists his languages spoken as "Canadian and swearing". Turner has raced in every single Yukon Quest event. These guys and girls spend thousands of dollars and tons of time every year caring for dozens of dogs. the relationship betwen musher and dogs is a special one. every musher will tell you that the dogs are the athletes and the mushers are just along for the ride (and trying to stay warm).

and these mushers are tough though. one local yukoner, William Kleedehn, from carcross (an hour south of whitehorse) had to scratch (pull out) last year because his sled went through river ice during the race and he broke his leg above his prosthetic. he's favoured to win this year.

John Schandelmeier, from alaska is running a team made up of dogs entirely from the local animal shelter.

the dogs don't tend to be what you'd expect in a sled dog: the big furry husky. instead they are often wiry, short haired and a little smaller. one thing is for sure, they are born to pull. check out this video of musher Kelley Griffin (the second video in the list) and her team take off from the starting line. That sled a definitely a few hundred pounds. the thing has to be held back by a dozen people.

the sound of 300 dogs getting ready to race is indescribeable. most teams are just going nuts, barking and howling, and yelping, it's deafening. but as soon as they take off onto the trail they instantly become silent. it's the most eerie thing. some of mushers bring with them bales of hay on their sleds to bed thedogs down for a warm rest out on the trail. many of the teams run through the night, the only things guiding the way being the full moon and the instinct of the dogs. the dogs have an amazing memory for the trail.

check out the yukon quest website for daily updates on the status of the teams. we'll put some photos on our photo website too. so the 9th best thing about living in whitehorse is the yukon quest!

after one week

shhh! quiet please...beard growth in progress

The deadline is february 25th. i have almost 5 weeks remaining before judging commences for the annual yukon sourdough rendezvous beard-growing contest. on monday january 11th, i certified myself "shaved" at the "Barber Shoppe" and proceeded to pony up my $20 to enter into the annual facial hair proliferation contestation. I have 6 weeks to grow as big and well-sculpted a beard as possible.

Every year, the annual sourdough rendezvous event hosts a beard growing contest for local yukoners to test their testosterone. the sourdough rendezvous is an annual holiday that takes place over the last weekend in february to help us frigid yukoners emerge from the winter doldrums, drink a few intoxicating beverages and just basically blow off some steam. the event is one week long leading up to the holiday heritage day and the long weekend. i think the yukon is one of the only jurisdictions in canada that has a holiday in february (yet another incentive for all you suckers in vancouver to move to or at least visit the yukon!)

The accompanying photo gives an idea of where my whiskers are at. i'm not feeling too confident that i'll be able to pull off an upset victory in the "Best New Growth" category (there's also the "Best Colouring" and "Best Old Growth"), but the post-bike-trip-jesus look that some of you may remember gives me some solace that i may not completely embarrass myself.

I'll include some updates as to the status of the beard between now and the 25th. the top prize for each category is a solid gold straight razor valued at $150. the minus 47C temperatures we experienced last week are another incentive to grow some fur on my face.

whitehorse top 10...number 10

well, well, well.

The 10th best thing about living in whitehorse was going to be simply, winter. That time of year when it feels cozy to be inside with a good book, to sleep lots, take lots of walks, when everything is quiet outside and the land is shrouded in a blanket of white. Having a real winter season is a real bonus for sarah and i who grew up in vancouver where we experienced rain and more rain from November to April. New recreational opportunities are opened up with the snow and the sub-0 temperatures: cross country skiing, skating outside, dog mushing, snowshoeing... I will say it now, I would much rather take -25 in Whitehorse than a +6 and rainy day in vancouver any day of the week.

So winter was going to be the 10th best thing about this fair city. Unfortunately, after our little experience today, I can't say that old man winter can make the top 10 list. Upon waking this morning we discovered that it was -44C. Yes, we had plugged the car in overnight so we hoped that all would be well with our new wheels. We got all kitted up in our gloves, hats, down jackets, boots, scarves etc and ventured into the out of doors.

The car doors opened which was a good sign. The key entered the ignition without a problem. This is where the progress ended. Trying to get the car in neutral was like arm wrestling with a40 foot python, the transmission fluid was virtually a block of ice. Upon engaging the ignition our ears were treated to symphonic reverberations that sounded like the primordial growls and intestinal machinations of some monstrous metal-eating car compactor rather than from the engine of our new vehicle. We are quite positive we woke up everyone within a 4km radius. For what seemed like forever the bizarre guttural, grinding sounds continued until after what seemed like an eternity, the engine turned over and the pistons started doing their thing. It sounded like a 143 year old smoker was trying to cough up a huge loogie from somewhere in the bottom half of the lower lobe of their right lung. After a moment a high-pitched whine started emanating from under the hood that sounded like 1000 castrated cats mourning in unison for their long lost naughty bits.

At long last the car began to sound half normal although now loud clunking noises could be heard. We turned up the radio.

The car seats were frozen. It felt like we were sitting on cold cement and we cursed ourselves for not buying a vehicle with heated seats. When we tried to close our doors all we got was a loud thud. The door latch mechanism was frozen to the point that it wouldn't clasp shut. No matter how hard we slammed (probably an error as metal will shatter at extremely cold temperatures) the doors wouldn't remain shut. Spending 5 minutes outside trying to figure out the latching mechanism and coming to the fairly obvious conclusion that human beings were not meant by God to endure these types of temperatures, my hand started to go numb and began to ache with the cold through my gloves.

After 15 minutes of warming up the car, nothing was really warming up. Ice was forming on my glasses and on the inside of the windshield from our breath. The heater was still blowing cold air. Like idiots we still had the fan on high. Because of this, I think the wind chill factor in the car probably exceeded -50C.

Realizing that we weren't going to get any warmer any time soon we figured we'd try to beat the frostbite by hurrying up and driving to work. We got onto the road and it was as if we were riding in a cart with wooden wheels. The tires had frozen square. It was an amusement park ride like the carousel ...up and down...up and down... And LOUD! Because the doors weren't closed they were banging around on the latches. It was deafening! We decided to take an extra trip around the block to give the wheels a chance to thaw out before hitting the highway at speeds of 100km/hr. We would have probably dropped our suspension on the road.

We hit the highway and the fog reduced visibility to about 10 metres. Coupled with the iced up windshield and glasses Sarah had to navigate for me. We navigated by following the snowpack on the right side of the road. once in town and closer to the river we had to slow to about 20km/hr to see where we were going and to avoid the school kids running randomly into the street.

By the time we got to drop sarah off at the school she was working at i had to go inside to get warm. During the drive, our feet and hands and face got progressively colder and colder. It was actually scary. Even if we had to stop the car on the side of the highway, we wouldn't have got any warmer...the heater just kept blowing cold air.

Of course the schools are still open and everyone goes to work. a few people will mention that "it's kinda cold eh?" but that's about it. these yukoners are tough buggers.

So unfortunately we can't put "Winter" in the top 10 cuz if this is winter, then you can have it! but as my uncle bruce said, "think of the stories you can tell your grandchildren!" So there you have it. The 10th best thing about living in the Yukon is:

#10 - You get to tell some really crazy stories to your children and grandchildren.

***And did i mention that the drive is uphill both ways?

yours in solidarity with our frozen oilpan,

jole

some photos

it's time to see some photos from our trip to vancouver. to our horror, many of our loved ones became horribly disfigured over the holidays by consuming copious amounts of chocolate, shortbread, turkey and alcohol. these photos capture some of the terrifying and shocking developments over the last two weeks.

oh the horror

gone back north

well, our recent trip to vancouver was a success. one dinged car, lots, of miles, some weight gained (me not sarah), much sushi consumed, tons of visits with the fam, and 2004 brought to a close. it was great to be in vancouver to see everyone we miss so much.

it's been a big year for us with sarah graduating with her education degree and the move to whitehorse, not to mention the second 24 hour relay, the kneeknacker, and the other assortment of people we visited and things we did. we hope we can match it with an even more exciting 2005. our cross country skiing adventures are going to continue and we've volunteered with the wheelchair basketball and special olympics. we're especially looking forward to the yukon quest dogsled race, the sourdough rendevous, the kluane chiklat bike relay, the river trail marathon and the melting of the snow. (winter is not without it's charms but...) stay tuned for our further adventures.

having been back to vancouver for a couple weeks, it brought to mind many things that i miss about "home". but then the yukon isn't so bad either so i've decided that a top-10 list is in order. actually 2 top-10 lists. the top 10 things about living in vancouver and the top 10 things about living in the yukon.

follow along as the two cities duke it out for city supremacy! who will win?

the view from near our place

the zen of nordic skiing

kick, glide. kick, glide. kick, glide. kick, glide...

This is the rhythm, the pattern, the peace, the steadiness, the calm, the routine, the zone, indeed the zen of cross country skiing. it is the place you go when all you can hear is the silence of the snow. it is that otherworld where the noise, the business, the travails of life are left behind at your doorstep when you click into your bindings and propell yourself into the white wilderness for an afternoon of cross country skiing utopia.

there was nothing zen-like about our first experience with our new cross country skis. armed with multiple layers of polyester, fleece and gore-tex, sarah and i burst forth from our cozy winter den (basement suite) into the -20 degree yukon winter to kick...glide...pole...kick...fall on our asses with boards strapped to our feet.

after melting about a pound of wax onto the bottom of our skis with our clothes iron, smoking out the cat with burning wax and dripping it all over our shoes, we got outside to enjoy our new official winter sport. sarah had frostbiten fingers after 5 minutes thanks to her cotton "mittens". but she soldiered on into the snow only to take jole down later at the hairpin corner on the base of the steepest hill in the wolf creek ski trail network. it was nearly a sonny bono experience.

back at the ski chalet (basement suite), we laughed about our misadventures and stella brewed us up some hot chocolate with which we promptly steamed up our glasses and kept bumping into the furniture. despite the falls, the wipeouts, doing the splits (ALERT: cross country skis don't have edges!) we have found something to keep us occupied for at least the next 5 months. we should be so lucky because that's how long the snow's going to last!

we hope everyone's doing well. We arrive in vancouver on December 19th for two weeks, so we hope to see you then!

sarah & jole

winter @ 10 boss rd....part 2

well, now that you're all thoroughly confused, we've finally dug ourselves out of the snowbank.

we've purchased some stylish new duds to fend off the winter chill. the previous post was meant to have some photos but the snow caved in our windows and the avalanch covered the computer. sarah was frozen in the snow bank for three days. luckily shewas trapped with her African cedar kalimba (item #45K46.20 at Lee Valley) and she was able to morse code out s.o.s. signals to search and resucue volunteers who were searching with special yukon avalanche huskies. thankfully stella kept sarah's eyeballs from freezing by licking them and kept her conscious until the special avalanche huskies could dig her out.

meanwhile jole was in dawson city, experiencing the peculiar sensation of the snot freezing in his nose while enjoying playing tourguide to a visitor from vancouver who did the sourtoe.

to the sourtoe cocktail enterprise, sarah will be donating a few of her toes that had to be amputated due to the frostbite from being stuck in the snow bank for three days. the remaing few digits will be donated to the Foundation for Reasearch Examining Experimentation with Zygotic Extremities (otherwise known as F.R.E.E.Z.E. in medical circles) for use in mircosurgical toe transfers.

Otherwise we are doing fine and enjoying the two feet of snow. We're looking forward to seeing everyone at Christmas. sarah will be walking with a slight limp. and no mistletoe jokes...please.

cheers,

jole & sarah

winter at 10 boss rd

i feel special

back when this blog started i made it one of my missions to get it listed in the "frequently read" side bar on my friend darren barefoot's very popular blog. Today, as i'm reading his site here at work...i noticed a link to the "gone north" blog. mission accomplished! not only that, but darren dedicated an entire entry. looking at the comments, it seems people have some strong feelings about whitehorse!

for those of you who haven't seen Darren's blog, at worst it's a terribly entertaining work distraction and at best it's going to keep you on the cutting edge of geekdom (and that's not an insult). Even though when it comes to the tech end of things i haven't the faintest idea what the discussion is about, (for example: "Ah, the serendipity of Flickr RSS feeds for tags." huh?) the other posts will keep you in touch with the cultural zeitgeist.

oh yeah, and darren's a hard core ultimate player.

(i've always wanted to use to word "zeitgeist" in public so make that 2 missions accomplished in 1 day!)

joel

politics, yukon style

if you think american politiks are messed up, the yukon is in another dimension...

• our premier is a CONVICTED heroin dealer.
• Two government MLAs owe the territorial government over $400,000 in unpaid loans. One for a hotel in dawson, the other for a mine operation. one, the minister of social services, peter jenkins refuses to make payments on them. the government refuses to collect from their own minister. minister jenkins has also called into question some immigrants of welfare as being a drain on the system...how many beds for the homeless can your $300,000 buy? can you say CORPORATE WELFARE BUM.
• the former justice minister got in shit last year for releasing from impound, a tow truck owned by one of her "associates" after the tow truck driver was busted for drunk driving while working.
• recently the government proceeded sell a few dozen prime country lots and decided not to tell anyone so their friends could have first crack at building their dream homes in the woods.
• the premier is a CONVICTED heroin dealer, oh i already said that.

It all puts that dui premier and his soft-drug, pot-dealin' boys in BC to shame! not to mention that pussy cat ralph klein. as an aside, his comments last week about how "severely normal " people don't want to hear about the troubles and financial difficulties of "severely disabled" (sic) were disgusting. that man should be shot with a mad cow pie.

is it a western thing? did western canada start as a colonial convict settlement? only the politicians know.

art for art's sake...who is art anyway?

this is not art

t

the election has come and gone, thus, i think it's time to reflect on our neighbours to the south (in our case here in the yukon, to the west). On a recent westerly jaunt to skagway, the alaskan epicentre of cruiseship culture we too, along with the throngs of "cruisewear clad" americonians, ventured into one of the many cardboard cutter giftshipshops in town. ahh, americana incorporated.

amidst the carefully mechanically reproduced soapstone walrus carvings, the gold nugget-floating-in-a-water-filled-ballpoint pens, the ulu knives, the stuffed porcelain eskimo dolls with faux rabbit fur trim and authentic hair braiding, the gold nugget paper weights, and alaskonian shoehorns, the I heart alaska t-shirts and the other trinkets was a sculpture entitled "letters from home" (see photo - i snapped this photo under constant fear that i was going to be forcibly detained by giftshipshop security personnel and interrogated about my treasonous activities in aback room under a bare 40 watt lightbulb. I was able to snap the photo and escape undetected)the sculpture, complete with biography of the artiste, is a three foot high 'hommage to the american GI in iraq. complete with M-16 assault rifle slung over his shoulder, the sculpture depicts a soldier decked out in his camouflage reading a letter written from his wife back home in anytown ohio. the text of the letter is even inscribed on the actual "letter" the soldier is reading. you can read it over his shoulder. the text is also enlarged for your reading convenience in an artistically framed print hung on the wall behind the sculpture.

If you want to purchase this fine work of art, you'll need to part with almost $400 rubbles.

tacky tribute to american troops overseas...or full-fledged "hang 'em high" militaristic ego stroking...or both? thankfully the sculpture depicting american troops torturing prisoners of war in abu ghraib prison wasn't on display. at least they had the taste to keep that one in the back.

would it strike you as odd if you were invited over to someone's house for a dinner party and saw this thing in their front entrance?

is it possible to minimize the suffering of those caught in the middle of this conflict more than having this monstrosity on display in a giftshop where they sell carefully mechanically reproduced soapstone walrus carvings, gold nugget-floating-in-a-water-filled-ballpoint pens, ulu knives, stuffed porcelain eskimo dolls with faux rabbit trim and authentic hair braiding, gold nugget paper weights, alaskonian shoehorns, and "i heart alaska t-shirts"???

bush vs. kerry, would there really be any difference had kerry won?

all the news that's fit to print...

Forgive me lord, it's been about 2 weeks since my last confession...er...post... and it's time for an update.

Since we last spoke, many new and exciting thinks have happened for our intrepid northern nutbars:

We moved out of Tom and Karen's place
We got a cat
We got a car
We got online
We took some photos of all that

First things first...

I live by the philosophy that "my dirt is cleaner than your dirt". So when we moved into our new basement suite/cave to find layers of pet hair on the floor, and dirt on the windows i immediately went into jungle survival mode - i fixated on the singular threat to my very existence and moved to neutralize it. in other words, i spent 3 hours vacuuming 3 very small rooms. sarah thought i was just being plain stupid, but when, to rationalize my bewildering behaviour, i showed her evidence - my vanquished enemy - a safeway bag FULL of pet hair, she understood my compulsion. I'll be damn sure to leave the place with cleaner dirt than we found.

We cleaned the place out good. we now eat off the floor.

tom and karen were happy to see us move on. Our shit pile in their loft seemed to be growing by the day and then there was the 2 hour cue for the bathroom every morning. I hope we did our fair share of dishes and wood gathering. but not toooo much, i'd hate for them to be so impressed with our hardworkingness that they invite us back for periodic work bees such as to build a deck or an addition or to say...paint the house. who can say "block party"? in all seriousness, their hospitality and generosity are unparalleled. if you ever find yourself in the yukon, you can just call up karen and tom and they'll put you up for at least a month. tell them i sent you.

Our new cat is named "stella". It's a great name to yell when she's ripping the shit out of the curtains or your leg. I'll let sarah tell you all about our furry new addition.

FOR SALE: 1985 VW Golf. 5speed, runs well, needs block heater, 4 dr, new muffler & rad. good tires.

If you know anyone who wants to buy a "new to them" car, give us a call. We just leased ourselves a brand new subaru impreza. it's fun to drive again. we have such luxuries as a "radio" and "air conditioning" and a "read window wiper" and "defrost that works". It was actually an option in the brochure, "Defrost that works - extra $100"

We have internet access now so we can reply to your emails finally. don't write us off yet!

Some more photos are pasted onto that website that sarah put together. the link is in the last blog entry i think.

talk to you again soon. stay tuned, i've still got some things to get off my chest, including issues with the insurance industry and the unconstitutional nature of -15 weather in October...what is this the $^#*@&! Yukon or something?!

some photos

We've set up a photo site for you to see a bit of what we've been up to. check out this link.

It snowed this morning. Here comes winter!

just like rob base and dj ez roc said...

joy...and pain.

the joy:

i did the Klondike Road Relay last weekend. a most enjoyable experience. The Klondike Road Relay is a 176 km running relay race from skagway, alaska to whitehorse. The race begins on friday evening and "runs" through the night. Teams finish in whitehorse on saturday.

This race is the Haney to Harrison on steroids. almost twice as long in total, the stages are nearly all twice as long as the h2h, it climbs and decends a 1000 metre pass and it's run in the middle of the night in one of the remotest parts of the country, traverses 1 state, 1 province and 1 territory. F$&^$@# awesome. ( I would use the work epic here but i have some sort of aversion to this term).

I ended up on a team called Miller Thomson: a law firm team out of vancouver. The team was great. Bunch of people out for fun and a good run. Some guy named "Murray" from the firm's whitehorse office got the thing rolling, paid the $600 race entry, and rented a 15 passenger van for the weekend. Then "Murray" went to south africa. Thanks "Murray"! Turns out only one vancouverite from the firm attended.

So the ten of us partied our way down to skagway on friday night for our start time at 9pm. Then partied out way back to whitehorse: riding the bus for 15 hours to the finish just before noon. When i say partied, i mean a few people had some guiness and some people tried to sleep. at about 7am, the van got jumping again when a few people cracked the irish breakfast and turned the music up. we started handing out orange slices to all the runners.

the pain:

a total of 134 teams competed in this fun event. Legs ranged from 10km (straight up a freakin mountain) to 26 km (straight up a freakin mountain with a little down hill at the end) I ended up with the 26 km leg #6. We had some incredibly strong runners as well as some newbies and we manged a very respectable 17th place overall in a time of 14:56:xx. The insane winning team from alaska completed in an unacceptable 11 hours and 20something minutes - a full hour ahead of the 2nd place team.

I may be trying to recruit you for a crazy running team in september next year. So start training and get ready to pack up your running shoes and your guiness.

...it's like sunshine...and rain.

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4 crown quest

What's that sound? It's jole hitting the wall.

On the one year anniversary of Ironman, I decided to complete an entirely different event in the far northern part of British Columbia. The third annual Atlin 4 Crown Quest was held on Saturday/Sunday August 28th and 29th in the remote community and wilderness surrounding Atlin B.C. The race incorporated mountain biking, paddling, running and more mountain biking. Entrants could choose to do the event over 2 days with a BBQ dinner and campout overnight or a one day epic. I chose to do the one day event.

About 40 athletes took part in 2 different races. The first to embark from the start line at 11am on Saturday were the 23 or so competitors for the two day event. The two-day version of the 4 Crown Quest consisted of a 20km bike up to Surprise Lake followed by a 20km paddle to the campsite at Cracker Creek. There, competitors rested for the evening and enjoyed a salmon BBQ.

The second day for the 2 dayers started with a 20km run through some remote mountain valleys and ended with a 20km bike back to the start/finish line.

The one day competitors did the bike-paddle-run-bike all in one day, Sunday. It was a long day. I decided the week before that, "hey, this looks manageable!" I was in for a surprise. Since the Kneeknacker, my "training" consisted of a total of 0 runs, and 3 bike rides including a time trial race and a Marsh Lake Duathlon 4 km bike leg.

The bike ride started out innocently enough. The road was about 2 km paved and the final 18 were decent gravel. No single track. I lead out the bike with three others, but these weren't "nobodies"!. One was Hans Gatt, the winner of the last three Yukon Quests (The annual 1,000 mile dogsled race from Whitehorse to Fairbanks), one was a member of the team who place second in the last Eco-Challenge, and the third guy was the eventual winner. We all completed the first bike portion within about 2 minutes of each other and departed in our boats. The three quickly put time into me once we were on the water. I have been in a kayak all of once in my life. It wasn't so bad, I have been watching the Olympics so I figure that my stroke technique is solid! Since running is my strongest of the three disciplines, I though that if I could finish the paddle leg with the three of them in sight then I might have a shot at top 3. If only!!!

I was soon passed by a double canoe...and then another double canoe...and then a double kayak...and then a single kayak. I was sitting down in eleventh place. Those doubles can sure go!

The paddle leg seemed to go on forever. I finished it in just under three hours. I hadn't moved my legs since climbing in the boat, my hands were blistered and my back was killing me! I had to pee like a race horse and the sun was out. I was cooking like a hotdog in my 2 shirts, camel back, life jacket and spray skirt. The end couldn't come soon enough. As I rounded each point I prayed to be close to the transition. Alas, there was yet another point to round, and another...and another. Finally I could see the end. I beached to boat and ran into the bush to pee. 5 minutes later, I was doffing my paddling attire and trying to will my legs to work. My back was slowly uncoiling.

The first 5 KM started uphill, climbing 400m to the first aid station. I employed the proven Kneeknacker strategy of walking the uphills. So I basically walked the first 5km. To use the term "road" would be generous. The track was a very, very rough 4x4 road through a very stunning valley called the Ruby Creek Valley. It was close to the high alpine where there were lots of big bears hiding, ready to eat us if we so much as wandered off the trail a few feet. This is the only race I have ever done where it was mandatory to run with a canister of bear spray. The numerous large piles of bear shit on the trail indicated to me that this was a good rule.

I ran more or less with two other competitors until the 15 km checkpoint. We crossed a few creeks, navigated a few blast areas (there was active gold mining in the area) and generally beat ourselves up. My legs were dead and by about the 10 km mark I had decided that I had bonked because I didn't bring enough food with me. The previous day, Sarah and I were trying to predict a finishing time. We figured around 7 hours. So, if I was thinking, that means I would have had to consume about 3500 calories during the course of the race. I don't know what I was thinking when I brought only 1 banana, 1 energy bar, and one small flask of hammergel. This amounted to probably less than 1000 calories.

So, I was shelled by 15km into the run. My two running mates went on ahead never to be seen again. At the end of the run, I scarffed 6 cookies and piled on my bike and tried to make it to the finish line still conscious. I did, to a fanfare of two volunteers blowing whistles and yelling. Alright! Granola bars all around!!! My finishing time was 6hrs 50 min, surprisingly, quicker than I had expected. The winner finished in just under 6 hours. Next year I will bring more food.

We found a place to live. About 15km south of town in a "subdivision" called wolf creek. Lots are a couple acres each and there's an outdoor rink in the neighborhood. We'll be in a 2 bedroom basement suite until the end of May next year. Rent is expensive up here. We'll be paying $900 per month including heat (a big $$$$ in the north) and water (it has to get delivered) and cable. We move in October 1st. Just in time to host sarah's parents. I hope you guys will be packing your paint brushes!

you live in a small town when...

• ...on the radio sports report you hear an announcement to remind the members of the Senior Games team to come down and get fitted for their uniforms.
  
• ...you call someone to ask if you can look at their apartment tomorrow and they say they won't be around but they'll leave the door open so "just come on in a have a look around"
  
• ...the local news is broadcast in Inuktitut.
  
• ...every Friday afternoon, the radio station broadcasts a "shop & swap" where you can call in and sell your extra kittens or mason jars or chevy truck. And it's very popular.

Life is good in the Yukon. I got hired as the Education and Employment Services Coordinator at the Yukon Council on Disability. I started today. There are three people in the office. Similar type of place and purpose as the Neil Squire Foundation except it is much smaller. There'll be a steep learning curve as the current ED is moving on to work as a Disability Employment Consultant with the Territorial government as of Thursday this week. After that, I'll be on my own with one other employee until the new ED starts in September.

We finally got a chance to look at some places. Nothing really too impressive but there are a few options. We should know more by the end of the week.

Luckily we are getting dogified because everyone and their dog has a dog around here.

toe jam

jole is an official member of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club. you likely have no idea that that means do you? neither did jole until last week when tom suggested that consuming the "sourtoe cocktail" MUST be done if we went to Dawson City. It was done.

last weekend we took a 5 day trip to Kluane National Park, Alaska, and Dawson City. We camped at beautiful Kathleen Lake in Kluane, in the middle of a forest fire near Tok Alaska, and on the banks of the Yukon River in Dawson. We visited Chicken Alaska. We saw burls and burl bowls and burl ashtrays and burl candle holders and more burls in burwash landing and every other town in the middle of nowhere. We concluded that burls are a Yukon/Alaska...northern traditional art and craft (apparently elsewhere too). burls are large growths that look like giant warts on the sides of spruce trees. We could have bought our very own peeled, varnished and polished burl the size of a basketball for about $90. we know what we're getting all our friends and family for christmas.

and what is the sourtoe cocktail club you ask?? yes indeed...the sourtoe cocktail club is an exclusive club of now 17100 individuals who have visited Dawson since 1973 and consumed a beverage with a severed, preserved toe in it. yes, a real live (well, dead) toe. The toes have been donated by people far and wide. Rumor has it that one of the toes belongs (belonged) to a guy who works at the hardware store in town. At the Downtown Hotel bar in Dawson the "captain" gets to choose between 5 severed, shriveled toes to place in your drink. There is one mega-huge big toe, and four smaller little piggies. To get officially inducted into the "club" you must consume the drink and have the toe or toes actually touch your lips. jole went a step farther to ensure his induction but clenching one of his "toes" between his teeth for a couple seconds. sarah has the photo documentation. tom and jole now have lovely frameable certificates to validate their manhood.

jole's still not sure of exactly the significance of the sourtoe cocktail club, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. It could have been worse, much worse......much, much worse. There is now the dogball hi-ball beverage. Yes, it involves canine testicles. yes, testicles. And yes, it is based out of Dawson City. What is it with that place?! Check out the background and hilarious discussion amongst the pet-people.

Another job interview this week for jole at the Yukon Council on Disability. Sarah is now on the sub list in the Whitehorse school district. A place has been tough to find but we're still looking. Donations to the jole and sarah downpayment fund can be made directly to us.

that's all for now. we hope everyone is well.

j&s

p.s. when you comment, who are you?

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.

ode to the fresh fig

What looks like raw hamburger, grows on a tree and tastes sweeter than a bowl of chocolate frosted sugar bombs?  Yes my friend, fresh figs.  Last weekend I discovered fresh, ripe figs on the huge fig tree out back at our place in Vancouver.  Our landlords, greek, planted this thing when when they bought the house and now every summer (particularly the hot, sunny ones) this tree bears the sweet bounty of plump juicy figs.  A fresh fig extravanza!  You must try it out.

Find a tree.  Pick a slightly yellow, mushy one.  Split it open and suck the raw-hamburger-looking inards out so that the juices run down your face. 

If the inards look like hamburger that's really "off" then you have found an especially tasty treat.  The mushier the better. mush on.

Packing

Moving sucks.  Why is it that no matter how early you start packing for a move you still are behind the eightball with a week to go and no boxes left? I'm moving to Whitehorse. 

There are shitloads of stuff spread around our apartment.  Where did all this stuff come from?  And how are we going to fit it all into the truck?

the first one

here goes.

my first blog post. we'll see how it goes as I attempt to keep friends and family up to date and interested in our move to the yukon and the misadventures stemming from said move.