From Whitehorse to Carcross and Back Again

Howdy folks!  I hope everyone is doing well.  Since I didn't go in to much detail yesterday I'm going to cover the last two days in this post.  I'm going to forgo the pictures today since the process of resizing them is brutally tedious on the tablet and it's already pretty late.  From a photo backup/organizing/blogging perspective the tablet has turned out to be a pretty poor choice on this trip.  Ah well, live and learn.

So, let's skip on back to yesterday.  We (reluctantly) packed up and left Sungdog Retreat in the morning.  That was a brilliant place to stay and we really enjoyed our time there.  Sadly that was up, so on to other things.  Our next stop was Boreale Mountain Biking Lodge, far to the south of Whitehorse, but check-in time there wasn't until 4:00, so we had some time to spend.  Fortunately we have our trusty rental car, so we at least had a place to store our luggage.  Something to keep in mind if you ever visit Whitehorse is that a car is required equipment.  The freedom to travel around has been crucial to this trip.

Since we knew that we were unlikely to be back that far north of Whitehorse we made sure to hit the Yukon Wildlife Preserve before leaving the area.  The preserve is a massive piece of land divided up in to enclosures for northern animals that are designed to closely mimic their natural enivronments.  It was privately operated for years, but now is run by the Yukon territorial government.  (*Side note: that last sentence took me a full five minutes to write.  Not loving this tablet and bluetooth keyboard combo.  Okay enough techno-bitching.)  The preserve is a great way to see animals from the far north.  We took the bus tour, which turned out to be a great option.  Since we're outside of the traditional tourist season we were the only ones on the bus.  Also, our guide Maureen gave us a huge amount of interesting and entertaining information about the animals and the facility.  We also got very lucky; there's only one moose currently at the preserve, and his territory was enormous so spotting him isn't guaranteed, but we got a great look at him.  Also, since a lot of the trees are losing their leaves we were able to get a good look at the elusive lynx.  Great fun!

After the Wildlife Preserve we grabbed lunch at a nearby coffee shop and then went to the Takhini Hot Springs for a relaxing soak.  Life's hard.

By the time we'd finished the laborious task of lounging around in the hot tub it was getting late in the afternoon, so we started driving down to the lodge.  We were the only people staying at the lodge last night... the previously mentioned off-season still applies.  This meant that Euphy had the complete attention of the lodge's 3 resident dogs, much to her delight.  We wandered around, occassionally trying to wrestle a stick away from Lilly, who would whack me with it if I neglected that duty.  It wasn't until we sat down for some nice pre-dinner appetizers that Euphy started to feel unwell.  She went to have a nap, but unfortunately that was the end of the evening for her.  Fortunately she felt much better this morning.

We started today by heading a bit further south.  The Boreale Lodge isn't far north of the small town of Carcross.  We stopped for a bit to admire the colours of Emerald Lake, and wandered around in the Carcross Desert.  Technically it's not a desert, but just a huge area covered by dunes blown up from the nearby lake.  I read that on a sign, seriously don't expect me to educate you all on the difference between a desert and a series of sand dunes becuase they look the same to me.

After visiting Carcross for awhile we made our way back up to Whitehorse and got checked in to the Best Western here.  We'll be spending our last two nights in downtown Whitehorse instead of living out on the fringes of society as we have been.  I really will miss those remote areas though; they're where I belong.

We spent this afternoon out at Sky High Ranch on a horseback riding tour.  We rode up to the peak of a mountain overlooking Whitehorse, which was a glorious view!  I learned todaythat riding a horse is very much like riding a bike - you can get around quickly, it's advisable to wear a helmet, and if you don't do it often it's murder on your backside.  Weep, my friends, for my shattered posterior.  That aside, it was a great way to spend an afternoon.  Also, my horse was a black stallion named Thunder.  I don't know what you did today, but I'm pretty sure I've got you beat there.

Well, that wraps up the past two days.  We had a lovely dinner at the inspiringly named Burnt Toast Cafe (it really was fantastic, don't believe the name) and are now relaxing back at the hotel.  I'm going to call it a night, but I'll be back in action tomorrow.  At this point it's only a few more days until I'm back in Toronto (a fact which fills me with grief) and so I think that rather than the labour-intensive process of resizing all the photos I'd like to share on the tablet I'll just wait until I'm back and do a big photo round-up.  I'll keep the text coming until then though.  Good night everyone.