Recent Posts
The ExploreNorth Blog
Return To Blog Listing
The writer is a resident of Canada's Yukon Territory with a passion for Exploring the North. This blog is one of the vehicles used to share that passion through words and images.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'yukon-alaska stuff'
A Black-and-White Road Trip
I sorta got sucked in by the weather offices yesterday, but I suppose it’s okay because I really needed to hit the road for a day. The weather forecasts for both Whitehorse and Skagway were for mostly sun, clouding up in Whitehorse in the after...
Renovating the Squirrel Condo
If you’re a squirrel, a sheltered woodpile no doubt looks like a great place spend the winter. There are lots of places to nest in complete safety and relative warmth. But squirrels don’t seem to know what woodpiles are created for –...
A Winter Dawn
The sun rose into a clear sky 10 minutes ago at 8:58, and it’s -22°C and calm – a lovely start to the day. ...
Electricity is Bad for Your Health
The Yukon is a very healthy place to live. We have clean air, clean water, infinite opportunities for recreation, and a very relaxed lifestyle compared to many places. One of the companies that helps maintain our healthy lifestyle is Yukon Electrical...
The Olympic Torch Relay
Yesterday was one of the days that make me think that winter isn’t so bad after all. It was flat out gorgeous. I started the day out in the hot tub, mesmerized by the beauty of the snowy forest bathed in the light of a full moon. The first pho...
Disappearing under a Blanket
That’s what’s happening to the green part of my world – it’s rapidly disappearing under a blanket of white. And that makes me want to disappear under a blanket of wool for a few months… ...
Getting Warm Now to Get Warm all Winter
The rest of the firewood logs have now been delivered, and due to a breakdown of the trailer dump, the timing worked out very well. It was only possible to get 3 loads dropped out of the way – load #4 was going to block entry to the portable ga...
Now Winter Can Come
Since getting home from the Okanogan I’ve been so busy I hardly know which way is up! Lots of Yukoners are thinking “warm” so I’ve been working almost full time at the cruise office as well as all my other jobs. Something had ...
Sabreliner 65 – an Unusual Jet in Town
The past few days there’s been a corporate jet parked at YXY of a type I didn’t recognize, so this afternoon I finally took a few minutes and stopped for a good look. The Mexican-registered beauty is a Sabreliner 65, built by North Americ...
Winter Prep – Timing is Everything
I got the snow tires installed on both cars yesterday. This is the first time that I’ve ever been able to do it myself, and saving $240+ for an hour’s work felt great! It takes a considerable investment in extra wheels, and having an air ...
Preparing for Winter
For many of us this is an even busier period than summer – getting ready for winter is a lot of work when you live like we do. In the city we didn’t have this “problem” – the thermostat provided heat all winter, the driv...
CruiseShipCenters Whitehorse Grand Opening
Although the Expedia CruiseShipCenters office in Whitehorse has been open since the end of May, we had our Grand Opening over the past 3 days, and we all had a ball. The response from the community has been great – I’ve met a lot of peopl...
Bye-bye, Cruisers!
I try to get down to Skagway to see the last ships each year, and yesterday turned out to be an excellent one. Lousy weather (as expected), excellent day. I always wonder whether people know the kind of weather to expect when they book these very lat...
Moose-ing Around
It’s that time of year when moose mate. Today I got incredibly lucky and witnessed part of a mating dance at Tutshi Lake. I first saw this bull on the sand bar at the south end of the lake, at the mouth of the Tutshi River. He was just a speck ...
A Yukon Commute
I was working at the cruise office in Whitehorse yesterday and during my 15-minute commute back to Mary Lake got a bit distracted by some photo ops. That made me think about the difference between a Whitehorse commute and what it’s like in some...
Making Winter Easier
Going through photos of our house renovation progress yesterday, I came across some pictures of the snow we got last winter, and was shocked – my memory of being buried in the white crap might have underestimated it. The two photos below show C...
Hard Choices on a Fall Day
The Fall colours on Golden Horn are spectacular this morning – this photo was taken from the deck at 7:40. I had planned to get into the high country today but the friend who was going to go with me cancelled because she’s sick. Now, shou...
Getting Ready for Winter – Firewood
My list of “to-dos” is lengthy and growing, but the priority is getting ready for the arrival of Father Winter. The largest of those jobs is firewood – the cutting and the stacking. We’ve still got a good stock of logs from ou...
Fall Colours, Snow & Steam Trains
Cathy and I had planned on working on the house yesterday. No really, we had , even though it was a beautiful morning. But then I got an email from the WP&YR railfan discussion list that I belong to, saying that there was going to be a run usi...
Map typo remains after 25 years
I just picked up 1:50,000 topographical maps of the Canadian part of the Chilkoot Trail, and found a major typo on a map that was printed in 1984 and corrected in 1999 (104M/14). Not only is the park not “Childkoot”, Parks Canada says tha...
It was too nice to stay home….
…. and I just couldn’t resist going to Skagway today. There were 4 large ships scheduled, so this was probably the last opportunity to see Skagway crazy-busy in the sunshine this year. The timing was perfect to catch one of Spirit Lake Lo...
Chilkoot Trail Photojournal
I’ve finally posted the photos from the Chilkoot Trail hike that Steve and I did in late July. I’ve still got a lot of captioning to do but that could take weeks yet. All of the 100+ photos have the time that they were taken noted, though...
A Whirlwind Visit
Two of my sisters, from Kelowna and Seattle, just spent 3 days (4 nights) with us, and we kept busy with family visits and showing them some of the reasons we live here. Three days is just a teaser, of course, but it’s a start, and other family...
How Smoky is my World?
Well, the first photo below was shot on Friday, the one below it was shot from the same location (the Canada Games Centre) an hour ago. The road running from side to side is the Alaska Highway (Alaska is to the left), downtown Whitehorse is ahead and...
Our Smoky World
Our good luck couldn’t last – I’m amazed that it lasted as long as it did. The negative side to the hot, dry summers I love is that the forests go up in flames. The Yukon, Alaska and British Columbia are all covered in smoke now. U...
A Recipe for Disaster
Blend together: 31°C temperatures 31% humidity localized winds gusting to 90kmh Add lightning, with rain removed. Stand back – waaaaaay back. This is the recipe that’s being served up in the central and northern Yukon in the ne...
Nice Work, Mother Nature!
This is the most incredibly beautiful summer I’ve ever seen. Look at the weather forecast – it just keeps coming! This photo was shot at the Bove Island viewpoint south of Carcross a couple of hours ago – click to greatly ...
Funeral Procession for Marty Dobbin, Yukon Fire Marshal
A funeral was held in Whitehorse yesterday for Marty Dobbin, the Yukon’s Fire Marshal. It began with the air and land procession seen in the photos below. I didn’t know him, but the obituary at the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs site...
The Google Camera Car in Whitehorse
The past few days, I keep meeting the Google camera car as it makes its circuits gathering photos for Google Earth’s Street Views. I saw it in Skagway on Tuesday and got the photo below as it was coming out of the Liarsville Road (okay, I misse...
The road chose Dan
As Steve and I were starting down the WP&YR tracks after taking the Bare Loon Lake cutoff trail from the Chilkoot on Tuesday, we met an Aussie fellow on a Great Adventure. Dan Grec is a few weeks into a 50,000-km drive from the Arctic Ocean at P...
