Where to start, well how about the five day drive from Vancouver BC to Whitehorse YK. I was very fortunate to have my good friend Woodsy accompany me for the drive. We drove from Van to Quesnel (6.5 hours) from Quesnel to Fort St. John (7 hours) from Fort St John to The Liard Hot Springs (7.5 hours) from Liard to Whitehorse (7 hours) and then Finally from Whitehorse to Fraser (1:20 hours).
The trip went incredibly smoothly and we were lucky enough to see some wild life on the way up! (I'll add some pics). We saw a heard of Long Horned sheep, while I was mesmerized by one, another one from the other side of the road had wondered onto to the road a little and we almost took his head off - sweeeeeeeeerveeeee and a miss. That was day one.. Then we saw two separate groups of Caribou - which was pretty damn cool, we saw the ass end of a moose as he head back into the forest, we saw a shite load of buffalo and I think thats it...I'll add a bunch of pics at the end of the post.
When we stopped in Fort St. John we found an ODR (Out Door Rink) which was so unreal to skate around on - it's been many years as I'm from Ottawa and Woodsy is from just outside of Red Deer so we're used to the ORD lifestyle. An un-delightful thing about living in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland is the lack of ODR's!
Then in Liard we hit the hots springs, wicked experience in the middle of no where theres a natural hot spring and the only place to stay is a lodge $169 doll hairs a night. That night was definitely a highlight of the road trip. Then the last long drive was to Whitehorse which was littered with buffalo which was pretty cool.
While in YK I went dog sledding. If you ever have the chance to experience what it's like to have 6 dogs rocket up and down hills I would recommend spending the $200 doll hairs for a 4 hour day. It was unreal, during the pristine weather conditions they brought me deep into the wilderness, over frozen lakes and through narrow wooded areas. I felt that sense of freedom that only comes over you during special experiences like this. It was wonderful.. So I had my own sled and then I was with one guide and she had her own. every once and a while she would stop and let me know that a steep downward hill was upcoming and to be hard on the brake (a metal piece that step on and digs hard into the snow) after a few times of her warnings I felt like I was a pro and every time she told me I politely nodded not thinking too much about it.. my first mistake.. Theres a really steep one coming up Shane, ya ya ya I've already been down too. Well this one was a step as MOFO.. and I damn near learned how to fly while I caught air and slammed on the break when I was finally able too. you have to be careful for the safety of the dogs too, because if you don't break properly then you can run into them and injure them. They are working their asss off for you too so you gotta respect that.
At first I felt a little bad because they were exhausted going up a few steep hills. but after a while I could tell that they lived for it. We stopped for. few minutes on a frozen lake to give them a break and take a few pictures. They were going crazy because they want to keep going. once you put that harness on them they were zoned IN. Just ready to tear up the ground beneath them.. it was pretty cool to see.
The woman who ran/owned the dogsledding company was originally from France and had no employees. She worked everyday of the winter from December 5th to there end of March. She was probably making a killing. She lived in the tiniest little cabin with her husband and 3 year. it was smaller than anything I'd ever lived in and I had some smalllllllll living arrangements. Overall I give it a solid A for the whole experience.
Whitehorse is a decent city, I expected more from it but it has some hot springs a 15 minute drive away and a solid games centre with 2 skating rinks, indoor soccer, indoor basketball, pool, gym hot tub and booster juice in it. Relatively small city with a population of 26,000, even more interesting the population of YK is 36,000 so only 10,000 people live in the rest of the territory.
Theres an ODR about a one hour drive from where I'm living and it is the best one I've ever seen. connected to the ice there a an area thats enclosed with a wood stove where you can warm up and tie up your skates.. while looking at the mountains that surround you. That was one of the main reasons I wanted to come out this way. Awesome ..
Oh man, and a few days ago I got back from a 2 night trip to Dawson City, which is a city 7 hours away from where I live. It's pretty far up north. I went there with a guy I met up here and we had a great ole time. It's an old school mining town with so much character and the people there are so friendly. If you met someone once and saw them again another day it was like you'd been friends for a month. I love small communities like that. I was the tail end of the winter season so It wasn't that busy but we arrived on St. Paddy's Day which was the last day of a festival called Thawdy Graw. We missed out on some cool stuff but met a few people that told us all about it and were lucky to catch the last night where there was a ton of people still jacked up about the fest.
It looked like an old western town and theres a tradition there which will rattle your socks a little. I heard the story but can't fully remember what it was so I'll just get right down to it. Back in the day, like wayyyyy back there was a guy who lost his toe to frostbite. I have no idea how exactly it happened but at the hotel tavern we actually stayed at they have a frostbitten toe on salt. it's black and looks like Bigfoot shite it out of his Jane. You better believe I have pictures of it. Soooo anyway.. Theres captain and he whips up, what they call, the Sour Toe Cocktail. How it works is they pour a shot of Yukon Jack (A sweet 40% whisky - which is actually really good) the captain hold up the toe and says "You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow but your lips must touch the toe" and the she drops the black, frostbitten, human toe into the shot of Yukon Jacks and you drink the shot and toe comes up and touches your lips. Obviously me and my buddy did this and it was a great experience. People come from all around the world to do this in Dawson City. The only place you can do it is at the Downtown Hotel tavern - which is the hotel we were staying in. The time in Dawson was so much fun and nice to get away from where we were staying for a bit.
On the way out of town we went to see an old mining historical site where there was this huge machine called a dredge. The dredge was used to sift through rocks and dirt to find gold (obviously).
The during the drive back Blair saw a huge creature crossing the road a little ways in front of us. It turned out to be a pack of wolves! We got a good look at 3 of them and then a few more stayed back in the bush. Really cool to witness. They were massive..
now I'm back at the place where I'm staying and everything has begun to thaw, the snow and ice are quickly disappearing and I've been told that there are quite a few bears up here.. so I'll have to wait and see if I get to witness any of that action.
In a few weeks I have a another road trip planned with Koliacivo who's gonna fly up from Vancouver. Were gonna be doing a 12 hour drive to Fairbanks Alaska. That should be sweet. As for now I'll post a bunch of pictures. I usually only do blogs for long actual trips where I'm travelling but this post is for J-Boy as per request. Thanks for the love and support buddy. And also my Mom :) Love ya and happy birthday.. soon ! Oh I saw a lynx a few times too!
That paper I'm reading me is legally telling me that I can't put eh toe in my mouth or swallow it or it's a $2500 fine. It used to be $500 but people were eating it... nasty
These are the long horned sheep I almost smoked one
