That's a Wrap: Final Thoughts On Our Northern Adventure

Well folks, that's in for our trip to Yellowknife and Whitehorse.  I'm back in Toronto now, sitting at my dinning room table.  As is my custom I wanted to give some final thoughts on the trip before signing off.  I also typically do a write-up of the gear that I'll be using to capture the trip before I leave, and I didn't do that this time, so I'll use this space to go over my equipment for the trip (as it relates to writing this blog) and how it all worked out.

(**EDIT: Sorry folks, this post is going to be loooong!  I've been saving up a lot of miscellaneous thoughts that didn't make it in to any one post, so here they all are!)

Let's start with that gear posting that I just mentioned.  This was easily my best trip for blogging, based on my ability to consistently write and provide pictures; I don't think I missed a day, and I only had a couple SNAFU's where I wasn't able to post images from the day.  That's actually down to a couple of things, the first being the fact that I didn't leave Canada and was therefore able to access all my Google services without issue.  Blogger is a Google product, and when I travel to China I'm not able to access it without some kind of a VPN service, and in other places I've had trouble accessing the internet all together.  The internet speeds in Yellowknife were abysmal, but I was still able to get consistently connected, so that eliminated the number one cause of missed blogs.

In terms of camera equipment, I brought my Pentax K-5II out for the ride, just like last time.  It remains a great camera, and I was happy to have it.  However, this time out the bulk of my photos actually came off my phone.  The last time I was in Whitehorse I adopted the practice of carrying my DSLR with the long lens on it, in the hopes that I'd be able to see wildlife.  Generally if you come across an elk, a moose, a two grizzly bears playing poker in the woods you aren't going to have time to switch lenses.  The last time I carried a second camera with a wide-angle lens on it, but this time I opted for the shooter on my Pixel 2 XL, which takes a great photo.  As I previously mentioned, the quality of my panorama shots can be directly attributed to Google's excellent camera and app.  The other benefit to this approach is that everything I shoot on my phone gets automatically uploaded to Google Photos as soon as I'm on WiFi, and Photos integrates directly with Blogger.  This made it a snap to add my photos to the blog posts each night.

The only remaining change-up to my gear bag was the additional of a Pixelbook.  A huge number of the posts on this blog were written on an extremely old Asus netbook which never got upgraded beyond Windows XP.  I'm happy to report that the old workhorse still turns on, and I've been using it to toy around with an Arduino I got recently, but with XP being long ago retired it's almost impossible to get anything meaningful done online with it.  The Pixelbook has been a magnificent piece of equipment.  There was one snag in Whitehorse where I wasn't able to access the photos from my camera, but aside from that it's made blogging a snap.  Jabbles got me an SD card reader that has USB-C and I was easily able to import the photos from my camera using that.  Once on here I was able to edit them using a free, compact version of Lightroom that came on the computer.  I've never incorporated post-processing in my workflow, and I didn't think I'd start while out of town, but it was a breeze to give my photos a quick boost.  I didn't play with them too much, but it was really helpful to be able to make adjustments if I'd missed the exposure by a little bit.

This really was the first time I felt like the equipment and available resources came together to allow me to just focus on writing the blog.

While not a piece of travel gear, I always need to give a big shout out to Airbnb.  It was my first time using the service, but that worked out magnificently.  I was dubious about staying in someone else's home, especially in the case of Yellowknife where the home owner was living in another part of the house, but it was great.  Adam was an interesting guy to talk to, and provided some great local insight and information.  Bolstered by confidence from how quiet Whitehorse was the last time we visited, I left booking a hotel in Yellowknife until about a month in advance.  Turns out there's a massive shortage of hotels in Yellowknife (so much so that it made the news recently) and I could find nothing in a conventional hotel for a visit.  It's not hyperbolic to say that by offering the main floor of his house on Airbnb Adam saved that portion of our trip.  Anyone heading that direction should look him up, and I'll aid in that venture by linking to his Airbnb listing here.

The place in Whitehorse was also fantastic.  Having a whole house to yourself is great when you're travelling with a big group.  I believe I'd already touted the benefits of being able to coordinate with each other, and having a place to hang out while Finn was napping.  Beyond that though, it was just nice having a spot to relax.  Sometimes on a vacation you just want to dial down the adventure and put your feet up, and doing that in a hotel room never quite fits the bill.  Kicking back on a couch in a proper living room really seems to recharge the battery like nothing else.

During the entire trip we only stayed in a hotel twice; the first night in Ottawa, and the last night in Whitehorse.  The Hilton by the airport in Ottawa is lovely, and very conveniently located.  The Best Value Inn - River View in Whitehorse, on the other hand, was a horror show.  The website mentions that it is "newly renovated" and apparently the rooms on the first floor legitimately are.  However, the second floor rooms that we were substantially less than delightful.  Euphy and I actually had to change rooms because the first one stank, and the baseboard heater had exposed wiring.  If anything the River View was a spectacular endorsement of Airbnb.

Wrapping up the gear section, I'm going to write a bit that is probably exclusively for the enjoyment of Jabbles: it's Car Review time!  In Yellowknife we got a Dodge Grand Caravan.  Euphy was registered on that one, so she did all the driving, but she really enjoyed it.  I was critical of it at first when comparing it to my Kia Sedona, but there's enough of a price difference between the two that it becomes an unfair comparison.  I've become a fan of minivans, and I think if you've got a family and you're working on a budget that the Caravan would serve you well.

Now for the vehicle I can really comment on, the Ford Escape that I rented in Whitehorse.  I'm not sure of the exact model, but it had some upgrades like leather seats, which were nice.  It handled itself very well climbing Grey Mountain, and was nice around town.  I did feel like there was a distressing lack of power when passing on the highway though.  By all initial appearances it's not a bad vehicle, but you're talking to a tech geek here, so we have to look at software, user experience, and the infotainment system.  For in-dash infotainment Ford uses Microsoft SYNC, which is a dumpster fire.  In my vehicle when I hook up my phone it detects that it's an Android and launches Android Auto.  Done.  This hateful piece of malignant bloatware has Android Auto as an option, but would constantly pull me out of that interface to display an error letting me know that my phone wasn't compatible with SYNC.  Thanks, good to know, can I go back to the software that works now please?  Another quirk showed up about half way through the trip when the car hit the mileage limit where it starts warning you that you're going to be due for an oil change soon.  In my car when I hit that point it will display a message when I start the vehicle and let me know how many kilometres I've got left.  The Escape makes an irritating ding and displays a similar message, but it has that feature when the engine turns off when you've come to a complete stop, and it considers that a restart and so you get the ding and the warning every time you accelerate away from a stop sign.  Grows tiring quickly.  Also, and I thought this was terrifying, when you come to a stop and it kills the engine, it also locks the steering wheel.  I noticed that when someone in front of me stopped, I waited for the lane beside me to clear, and then went to pass them and my wheel wouldn't turn!  Not sure what the logic is behind that, but it was unsettling.  On their own those are all small irritations, but they added up enough that I've become soured on the notion of Fords in general.

So, as a gear summary, everything worked out brilliantly except Best Value Inn and Ford, which should be avoided like the plague.  I will take a moment for you all to applaud me on reviewing both without profanity.

Okay, I think with that out of the way we can finally talk about those final thoughts I mentioned in the title.  This was, in short, a brilliant trip.  I love Northern Canada, and seeing it with my family was great.  Finn handled himself really well, but I think that a flight of that duration is more than you can ask of any toddler, and we'll probably give him a few years before asking him to sit through that again.  I can see myself repeating this voyage down the line when he's old enough to really take something away from it all.  Yellowknife is an amazing place to visit as a launching off point from which to take in all the natural beauty that surrounds it.  I'd love to go back with a little more time to just explore the vastness beyond the city borders.  Whitehorse has a lot more to offer within the confines of the city, but what like Yellowknife it really is all about what's outside the city that counts.  Having barely poked my head in the door of Kluane I feel compelled to go back and explore it in more detail.  It's a big enough area that you could base an entire trip on that alone.  I do feel the same way about the trails around Whitehorse though, and could love to spend more time wandering around the trail system near Grey Mountain.  The North's greatest treasure is its vastness, which makes it a destination great for returning to.

I think I've made you all sit through enough, so I'm going to wrap this up.  I'm not going to make any foolish promises of continued writing - I think history has shown us how that will go.  This is a travel blog, and there isn't much to say without the requisite leaving of one's house.  Rest assured that I will be back, the next time I go adventuring, and I look forward to writing here again.

Sunday. Closed.

Howdy everyone!  I hope everyone has had a good weekend.  We started our day early since Gray and Susan had an early flight and we had to clear out of the rental place.  We've got a hotel for our last night in Whitehorse, and we're flying out tomorrow morning.

We weren't able to check in to the hotel that early, but they let us drop our luggage off, and we headed out to a place called Ricky's for a very good breakfast.  After that we made a brief stop at the Visitor's Centre to get some ideas of what to do with our last day.  We settled on taking a drive north along Highway 2 to just see the sights.  It's a beautiful drive, especially with the fall colours, and we made lots of stops to check things out.

I seem to be having issues loading my pictures into the blog right now.  I'm not sure if it's Chrome, Blogger, or the slow internet here, but I guess I'll have to share my photos from the day later.

When we returned from our drive we were able to check in to the hotel and go for some lunch.  We ran into some issues yesterday trying to find lunch, and it was worse today.  A surprising number of businesses in downtown are closed Sunday, or sometimes all weekend.  Whitehorse is a beautiful place, but they aren't terribly efficient at separating tourists from their cash.  Sometimes that's refreshing, but it can become an aggravation when it gets difficult to find something to eat.  We eventually found something to eat, and headed out to the park to let Finn run around for awhile.

In the afternoon we did a little bit of last minute souvenir shopping, which also highlighted just how many of the stores downtown are closed on a Sunday.  Fortunately we were able to hit the ones we wanted, but it's worth noting that if you're going to be in Whitehorse over a weekend you'll really want to plan for a lot to be closed.  Definitely plan to do a hiking trip on Sunday, those tend to not be regulated by hours.

Well, I should get going, I've got a very early morning tomorrow, and a lot of travel ahead of me, so I need to get some sleep.  We're flying out at 6:15 tomorrow, and thanks to a combination of the distance and the time difference it will be around dinner time in Ottawa by the time we touch down.  From there I still have a drive to Bancroft ahead of me.  I suspect that you won't here from me tomorrow, but I'll do my best to get on here Tuesday so that I can do my customary wrap-up post.  Until then, have fun everyone.

I Don't Know Who Miles Is, But I Like His Canyon

Good evening all!  I hope this posting finds you well.

This morning we headed out to Miles Canyon, just south of Whitehorse.  It's an area where the Yukon River cuts through a narrow canyon before flowing into Schwatka Lake, and it's very picturesque.  Euphy and I had visited briefly on our first trip to Whitehorse, but we didn't really explore the area, so I was eager to get on some of the trails, of which there are many.  We did a nice walk to the southern end of the lake and back, which took up the morning.

A glimpse of the trail system around Miles Canyon.

A suspension bridge takes you from the parking area to the side of the canyon that features most of the trails.

The colour of the water is truly incredible.  It looks like it would be a lovely place for a swim if not for the intense current.  As it is I suspect there would be an unpleasant level of fatality involved.

A view from the trail above Schwatka Lake.

It's a climb to get up here, but then the trail runs along this ridge line, giving you a fantastic view.

After our hike we headed downtown to get some lunch, which proved challenging.  I was surprised at how many restaurants are closed on weekends, or during the day, or during the off-season.  We eventually got some grub, and by the time we got back to the house Finn was pretty much KO'd.  I was still feeling energised though, so while he napped I wandered around the forest behind the house.  I found a trail that I hadn't been on before and came across an unusual natural wonder.

This was easily a five minute walk from any trail that would be big enough to support a car.  Human ingenuity is amazing.

It was mid-to-late afternoon by the time I found this, and there's still a thin layer of ice there.  It must have just stayed in the shadows all day.

I got completely psyched out by this flooded stretch of trail since the water was still enough that it looked like the crest of a hill until I was practically on top of it.

Neat fungus!

Again!

So, that was the bulk of my day.  Gray and Susan are heading out tomorrow and we're downsizing to smaller accommodations for our last day, so there was some packing up and tidying up to be done around here.  It's late now, but I'm going to poke my head outside and see if the aurora are up to anything.  Have a good evening everyone, I'll check in again tomorrow.

Who Feels Like a Nice, Relaxing Drive Up a Mountain?

Good evening esteemed peers!  How are you all doing today?  I hope this finds you well, as always.  My day started off early; I'm very nearly over this cold, but I just had a brief coughing spell around 5:00 this morning that was enough to wake me up.  Since it was still fully dark I decided to go outside to see if the aurora were active.  There wasn't much going on in the northern sky, but as I waited to see if I'd get a show I started to hear the howling of wolves, which is a magnificent thing to hear.  Happy I took the time to stand outside.

We didn't really have a game-plan for today, but I've had my eyes set on Grey Mountain for some time now.  It was actually on my to-do list the last time we were in Whitehorse but I didn't have the chance to get up there.  It was appealing because it's immediately to the southeast of Whitehorse, so it's accessible from here and offers good views.  Also you can drive a considerable distance up the mountain, so it's not a strenuous hike once you set out on foot.  The last time we were here we just didn't find the time, but I was hoping to fit it in on this trip, and so I suggested it this morning.

We set out after breakfast and headed for the mountain.  I'd heard that the road can be a bit rough, so I was prepared for that.  It's about 11 km from the start of the road until the parking lot at a communication tower on the mountain.  Two kilometres in the road turns to gravel, and I was skipping along nicely, wondering what all the fuss was about.  It was the point where we were 5 km from the parking lot that things started to get dicey.  The potholes and rocky protrusions started to become more frequent and treacherous looking, and I was spending a lot of time working the angles to ensure the smoothest ride possible.  With just a few kilometres left I was crawling.  There were points where I caught up to hikers and took easily one hundred metres just to get past them as the road was too narrow to safely pass, and I wasn't really going that much faster than they were.  With only five hundred metres to go we approached a bend, just wide enough for the car and with a sheer drop on the one side.  I was keen to make it to the parking lot, but given that we had an easy spot to pull over just behind me, my driving companions informed me that they had no wish to die in order to satisfy my need for completion.  So we parked the car and did the last stretch on foot.

Once you (bravely) get to the comm towers there's a clearly marked trail leading to the first of three peaks that make up the mountain.  Our aim was just to get to the first one as it's a decent hike to get there, and working your way along the entire ridge line was more than any of us was willing to sign up for.  From the trail head it's actually fairly easy hiking, except for one spot that had some decidedly unstable looking rocks next to a nasty looking drop off.  Euphy wasn't feeling up to that and decided to make her way back, so Dad relieved me of my Finn-laden backpack while Mom and I finished the accent.  It was a great hike and we had terrific weather for it today.

Close to the parking lot.  This photo was taken from just enough roadway for a single car.  The results of a misstep should be fairly obvious.

A view from the starting point, looking towards the first peak.

The view that I climbed up there for.

Mom proudly making it to the summit.

A view of one of Yukon's many stunning lakes below us.

You could clearly see some weather forming behind us as we finished the hike.

I got back just in time to stop Finn from driving off without me.

So, the long and short of it is that if you're looking for a good hike around Whitehorse you'll find one at Grey Mountain, but you should make sure you've got a larger vehicle.  I wouldn't have made it nearly as far as I did if I didn't have the kind of ground clearance that I was working with.

On the way back through Whitehorse we stopped off at The Deli.  Up, that's in capitals because that's the name of it.  I guess when you set up shop in a town the size of Whitehorse you can get away with just calling yourself The Deli without fear of that becoming ambiguous.  If you find yourself in Whitehorse and in need of a sandwich I'd highly recommend a stop there, you'll be well served.

After lunch we headed out to the Yukon Transportation Museum that we'd missed previously.  We had a lot of fun there, particularly Finn who was greatly enamoured with all the huge vehicles on display.  Trains, planes, and automobiles in abundance!

The museum is just outside the airport, and you can clearly see the mounted plane from the highway.

Cool old car is old and cool.

My own ceiling decor seems lacklustre in comparison.

A fair number of the exhibits are hands-off, but they scatter some interactive bits in there for the kids.  This is just the cockpit from a small plane that Finn is attempting to fly.

I loved this helicopter, mostly because it was clearly jury-rigged for a water landing.

Tons of cool old military vehicles around.

Old Mounty car!

And then there's this behemoth.  I have no idea what it is, no plaque was present to explain it, but it's gigantic and labelled as US Army vehicle.

This selfie is presented not for vanity (clearly) but as my only convenient way of demonstrating the size of the wheels on this beast.

Lastly there's this thing, which I have to assume is standard equipment for the day-to-day fighting of zombies.

There were some great stories spread throughout the museum, and a ton of cool vehicles.  Lots of military stuff from around WWII, as I think that the war and consequent building of the Alaska Highway really shaped Whitehorse.

After all that I was cooked.  I was still pretty pumped up after a nice hike on the mountain, but a little bit of lunch and calm walk around the museum helped me realise that I'd had a long day.  I've spent the rest of the day just chilling out at the house.  On that note actually, I think it's time for me to call it a night.  Have a good one, and I'll talk to you all soon.

It's Cold Season

Okay, so after yesterday's talk of the weather not slowing me down, it's time to admit - I'm slowing down.  I've had a cold for a couple of days now, and it's starting to wear me down a bit.  I'm almost grateful for the fact that weather hasn't been great as at least it's an opportunity to do some low-energy activities and recuperate a little.  Unfortunately it seems like Finn has been getting too, which made him an unhappy little man today.  Happily he's young enough to bounce back from something like a cold a lot better than his old man, so he appears to be on the mend already by the end of today.

We knew that the forecast for today was going to be pretty gloomy, with plenty of rain, so we'd already planned to hit some museums to make sure we were maximising our indoor time.  We started off with the Yukon Transportation Museum... which immediately turned in to a drive to a different spot because that museum doesn't open until noon.  Probably should have checked that before I jumped in the car.  Fortunately it's in Whitehorse, and is therefore a pretty quick drive to, well, everything else in Whitehorse.

We went downtown to the MacBride Museum of Yukon History instead.  Euphy and I had visited this spot on our first trip here, but they've since made a huge new facility, so there was definitely a new look.  It's still in the same location, but they are building a modern structure around the old existing museum.  The old exhibits are still up, but some of them are under construction as they move things around.  There's still a lot of really interesting information available there, but if you're planning a trip to Whitehorse I'd check up on their progress before visiting because it was disappointing to have some of the exhibits in a state of disarray.  I'd highly recommend trying to hit the museum once they've got everything back in order.  They've got some incredible examples of local wildlife (inspiring to see even if you find taxidermy somewhat tragic and unsettling.)  There's also a ton of great information about the history of Whitehorse and some of the people who helped shape the town.

Displays like this always fill me with equal parts awe and sadness.

Old-school diving apparatus!  Very cool.

There's a whole room dedicated to the teams of US Army Engineers who built what is now the Alaska Highway during World War II.

Opportunities to look cool abound.

I was quite proud of my bar back home until this recreation reminded me that my bar doesn't have a wolverine, and is therefore second-rate.

We grabbed lunch after the MacBride Museum but it was becoming increasingly obvious that Finn wasn't feeling great.  He was far fussier than normal and barely ate, so instead of swinging back to the transportation museum we just headed back to the house.  The little man had a significant nap and was obviously in much better health and spirits when he woke up.

I opted to use that downtime to head out on a hike.  I've mentioned before that the house we're staying at has a remarkable network of trails behind it, so I went exploring and managed to get myself fairly lost.  Fortunately I had my phone with me, so with the help of Google Maps I got back on track with ease.  It's very liberating being able to just wander through the woodland trails and have confidence that even if you don't know where you are that you'll be able to get yourself back home.

I stumbled upon this particularly lovely view.

I had checked the hourly weather report before I left and it was predicting that we'd seen the last of the rain for the day, so I headed out with confidence and was caught thoroughly off guard when the rains started up again.  I ended up just sheltering under a tree for about ten minutes until it passed.  In the end I covered over 5 km and got my step count for the day.  I also felt like the effects of my cold were significantly reduced afterwards, so I'm hoping that I'm about to put that behind me.

Unfortunately the transportation museum was closed by the time Finn woke up (fairly narrow band of time that you can visit) so we opted to have dinner out and then relax at the house for the evening.  I'm sure we can find a time to hit that last museum in our last few days here.

Well, that's all I have for you today.  I hope you're all doing well, and I'll check in again soon.  Reporting delayed from Whitehorse, I'm Colin Young.  Back to you in the studio.

Is a Rainy Day Going to Slow Me Down?

NO!

Well, maybe a little.  It was a cool and rainy day today, but we managed to get a lot done in spite of the weather.  We started out with a bit of shopping in downtown Whitehorse.  Obviously that makes for a day that's pretty light on photos, but we had a good time.  There are lots of fun shops here, and a bit of rain doesn't hurt when you're popping from store to store.

We grabbed some lunch downtown and then headed to the Beringia Museum.  Euphy and I had visited this museum before and wanted to share it with mom and dad.  It highlights the period of time when glaciers covered much of North America which created lower sea levels.  This led to what is now the Bering Sea retreating enough to expose a long strip of land linking modern day Russia with Alaska and Yukon.  The museum features fossils of animals from that period, and artefacts from the first people to cross in to North America.  Very interesting stuff.

The remains of a giant sloth.  Yup, a sloth that is considerably larger than a human.

And of course, the famed Woolly Mammoth.

After enjoying the museum we headed back to the house and went for a hike along a trail that's just south of here.  It was drizzly, but it was still nice to get out and enjoy the fresh air.  It was staggering how many side paths branched from the main one.  I get the sense that we could have spent our entire trip just exploring the trails that are within walking distance of this house and we still wouldn't cover all of them.

Well folks, I'm afraid that's all I've got for today.  I'll try to get some more photos tomorrow, but for now, be well, and I'll check in again soon.

To See Kluane

Good evening all!  Let's start things off with me paying my debts, as I believe I owe you some photos from yesterday.  I'll start with a photo from the beginning of last night's aurora-hunting journey.

What's important to remember here is that I've done a fairly long exposure at a high ISO to get this shot.  To the naked eye this was pretty much a vague tint in the sky, barely noticeable.

This is what it looks like when the sky catches fire for you!

The aurora make for a cool picture, but it's nothing like being there in person when something like that is right in front of you.  I had no trouble staying up last night to write a blog post because I was still buzzing with excitement just from getting to see the aurora.

Now, on to our regularly scheduled programming.

We got on the road right after breakfast today and headed to Haines Junction, a small town east of Whitehorse that acts as a gateway to Kluane National Park.  Kluane is a massive covering the southeast corner of Yukon Territory.  It's mountainous and mostly inaccessible by road.  Gray and Susan did a hike to get in to the park proper, but it was a serious bit of hiking that I wasn't prepared to attempt.  The rest of us went on our own to Haines Junction, just to see the sights.  If you find yourself in Whitehorse and have access to a vehicle I'd highly recommend heading to Haines Junction.  Even if a hike isn't on your to-do list, the drive alone is stunning.  The highway winds along, skirting mountains to either side, while in front of you much larger, snow-capped peaks loom into view.  If I'd turned around and headed immediately back to Whitehorse it would still have been worthwhile.

Fortunately we stuck around for awhile and got to see some incredible landscapes.  We started at the Da Ku Cultural Centre which provides information about the local indigenous peoples and their culture, as well as activities around Haines Junction and ways to access Kluane.

Also, they've got an awesome floor.

A look at the area we were exploring.

There's a ton of information to be found at the Cultural Centre and I feel like this is a logical first stop for anyone exploring the area.  There's a representative from Parks Canada there to give you information about the park, and she had a binder full of bear encounter reports to let you know if you're about to enter a hot spot of activity.  They are also set up like a small museum, with lots of interesting and informative exhibits.  There's a scale you can step on that will let you how much you weigh in terms of local wildlife.  Apparently I clock in at 0.6 of a grizzly bear and 0.13 moose.

Admittedly I could stand to lose a few pika.

After getting a bit of local info we headed down into the town to explore a little bit, and find some lunch.

Why head to Haines Junction?  Because this is the view from the parking lot.

After grabbing some lunch we headed to the south end of town, along the Alsek River.  There's a 5 km trail that runs out from a small parking area on the north side of the river.  I'm not sure if we made it into what's considered Kluane proper, but we were at least skirting the edge, and got a good view of what makes it worth exploring.

I totally would have climbed one of those if I didn't have a toddler on my back.  Totally.

Just a reminder of whose house you're in.

The fall colours are in full effect right now and made for a stunning hike.

I feel like you could come here and spend an entire vacation just exploring this small corner of the park.

Finn was captivated by the natural beauty.

It was a great hike, and I was happy we got the opportunity to do it.  After we got back to the car we made the beautiful drive back to Whitehorse.  It was late afternoon by the time we got back, so we just focused on getting some groceries and making dinner.  We've spent a relaxing evening around the house and I think I'm actually going to get to bed at a decent hour tonight.  Have a great day everyone, and I'll talk to you all again tomorrow.

Kayaking the Yukon River

Hi everyone!  I hope you're all in your individual happy places today.  This will have to be a short post (more on that later) but hopefully you'll enjoy some photos before you leave today.

After breakfast we headed out to Kanoe People in downtown Whitehorse, conveniently located right on the banks of the Yukon River.  Gray, Susan, Dad, and I rented kayaks and started out downstream (roughly northwards.)  The Yukon flows incredibly fast through Whitehorse, and even though I've spent plenty of time in the saddle of a sea kayak it caught me off guard.  The current seems to rob your rudder of some of its steering power, and it was always eager to start spinning your boat around.  Still, all that current comes with the advantage of making exceptional time to wherever you're going.  Our destination was the confluence of the Yukon and Takhini rivers.

This is apparently a very good time to be on the Yukon as the salmon run has just wrapped up, and the local eagle population is still hanging out by the river looking for an easy meal.  We saw more Bald and Golden eagles than I could keep track of!  I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking, as I'm not sure I can type 1000 words at the moment.

Bluffs!

Eagle!

Bluffs!

Eagle!

Bluffs!  (At the confluence of the rivers!)

Eagle!

Kayaks!

Graffiti cajoling you into being a better person!

Okay, so now we get to the part of the tale where I let you in on why I seem to be rushing this particular post.  We chilled out for the later half of the afternoon and into the evening with the intention of trying to see the aurora.  The predictions were that it would be a good night for it.  At about 10:30 we got in the car and drove to a lookout not far from the house.  We weren't really seeing much, although there was definitely a greenish tint to the sky in some places.  We thought that maybe we were just too close to the city, so we jumped back in the car and drove a ways out of town.  Still not really getting anything we decided to abandon the mission and return home.  About half way back to town, the sky lit up!  I found a place to pull over and we stood just off the highway marvelling at the show.  I took a few photos that I hope will turn out well.

The side-effect of all that running around was that I didn't get back in until after midnight.  It's currently just shy of 12:45, and a sensible person would be forgoing their blog in favour of sleep right about now.  Fortunately for all of you I have rarely faced accusations of sensibility.  However, I am trying to put this together in fairly short order.  That's why you'll have to wait until tomorrow for the aurora shots.  I already had a chance to review and process my photos from the kayaking trip, but I'm not willing to crack open Lightroom right now to scope out the aurora photos.  I'll be sure to fire up tomorrow's post with an aurora catch-up though.

For now, it's long past my bedtime.  Be well my friends, I'll talk to you tomorrow/later today.