Cinco de Mayo

It is amazing what can happen in 1 year (other than not making a single blog post). Exactly 1 year ago today, I was in Edmonton, handing in my thesis. I had a great summer to look forward to. I couldn't book too many definite plans, because I had to keep my time open for a defense date. Because that's what happens when you leave it to the last minute. Not that I wasn't applying for jobs, but I figured that if I had the time available, I might as well enjoy myself. And enjoy myself I did. I mountain biked a lot. It was the best season of mountain biking I'd ever had in my 16 years of mountain biking. A brand new dream bike (thesis pre-completion present to myself), an open schedule, endless singletrack and nearly 24 hours of daylight. How could I go wrong?
Since Cinco de Mayo last year, I completed an olympic distance triathlon (1.5 km swim, 40 km road ride, 10 km run) in under 3 hours (don't need to do that again...), got my picture in a few mountain bike publications when some journalists and a photographer came to check out Yukon mountain biking, became a rock doc, got a full time job with the Yukon Government as a project manager cleaning up abandoned mine sites, and did the requisite work with Jenny to start our family. It will be tough to ever fit that many HUGE life changes into one year ever again. And yes, I (we) am going to have a child. I have had enough time to get excited about all of these changes and to figure out this new life that I've transitioned into over the past year. I am busier, but more satisfied that I have been in quite some time. A lot of what is happening is new and exciting. And that is all good. That does not mean that it is always easy, but I enjoy the challenges that I take on, they are satisfying, and they keep my brain busy. That is important.
And now to tackle one of the bigger challenges that I have been avoiding -- joining Facebook...

I will leave you with one of my favourite photos from a recent trip to the Pacific coast of Mexico.

"Project proposes reclaimed oilsands could be used as cemeteries"

An interesting idea to allow un-embalmed bodies to be buried in natural cemeteries on reclaimed oilsands tailings. I guess residual chemicals are not going to give dead people cancer...

The story

Ice Bike Race

Mountains bikers are getting a little antsy for winter to be done, so the local mountain bike club, Contagious, organized a couple of fun faces for the past two weekends. One was a relay race on a short (500 m) course cleared on one of the local lakes, and another on the lower third of the local ski hill. I took a few photos from the lake race, but the club put up a bunch of pretty good shots here (complete with pics of a few of the local Pugsleys). Unfortunately, I don't have any shots of the downhill race.

Rendezvous!

In keeping with my achronological blogging, I'll post some wintery pictures from Rendezvous weekend back in February -- it is Yukon's long weekend to celebrate its gold rush roots. These pictures aren't too out of place though, because it still looks very wintery up here. The spring melt just started yesterday with slush on the streets, but there is a long way to go until the singletrack is clear.

A lot to do at Rendezvous...

Like carrying 500 pounds of flour on your back. And standing in -20°C with a t-shirt.

The very large Francophone population is always well represented at community events.

I thought that the snow carving was the highlight.

Delayne (and his two team mates) ended up winning the snow carving competition with the Snow Queen, and each pocketed an ounce of Yukon placer gold.

Picnic season 'tis upon us

Yes, the snow in our backyard is still up to the top of the picnic tables, even though spring is only days away. Nothing has melted yet. And it has been the best snow year this decade, but a Caribbean island sure would be nice about now. Last week, Jenny and I went to Juneau, Alaska to go skiing at EagleCrest ski resort. It took a day of travel each direction, partly because of a 5 hour ferry ride from Skagway. Juneau is only about 25,000 people, and the ski hill is on a mountainous island across a narrow (river-sized) inlet from Juneau. It is a small hill with only 2, 2-person chairlifts, but their snow is amazing. They are closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so when we arrived Thursday morning, there was 2 feet of untouched powder over the entire hill. We had white out conditions Thursday and Friday, but I have never snowboarded in so much amazing snow. On Saturday, our last day, we awoke to clear blue skies. That meant it didn't give us another foot of powder like the previous day, but we had amazing scenery and could see surrounding coast mountains. Mid-way through the morning, after avalanche control had been completed, they opened up a couple of powder-filled bowls, so we had spring-like ski conditions with perfect visibility and fresh bowls of powder to explore all day. Unfortunately, the photo-bug never bit me on that trip, so I missed out on a lot of once-in-a-lifetime winter mountain scenery shots. To make up for it, I give you a picnic table...

Sam McGee

The town of Carcross (short for Caribou Crossing) is a 45 minute drive south of Whitehorse and is home to Montana Mountain. In 1905, a mining boom town formed for 2 years while aerial tramways were built and mine shafts were sunk, but the sought after silver was nowhere to be found. The remains of the shafts, tramway towers and a stone cook house line the old mining road that climbs up Montana Mountain from Carcross. Near the tramway towers, a long, fast singletrack descent drops off of the mining road and takes you a long way down to the South Klondike Highway. This trail was built by Sam McGee, and the mountain bikers who reclaimed the 100 year old trail named it after the name made famous by Robert Service. Sam McGee was real, but he was not cremated on the shores of Lake Laberge. He was a road-builder by trade, and Service, a bank employee, saw McGee's name on a slip and obtained permission to use it in a poem, The Cremation of Same McGee. It made Service famous, and McGee a subject of ridicule. McGee lived on a farm near Beiseker, Alberta until his death in 1940, where he was buried in the ground. The trail that he left behind made me a very happy man on a fine autumn day back in September. The colours were at their peak and the weather was stellar the entire time. It took me about 5 hours to mountain bike the whole loop, and I did this ride solo, mainly because everybody I knew was in a team road running event. I'm glad I went biking instead.

Looking north while about 2/3 up the 2 hour climb.

This guy kept crossing my path on the long climb.

Just over the first pass at the end of the main climb is an area where the old mine shafts were sunk.

Left track.

Right track. The scar of road that I followed is in the middle of the pic.
Old mining camp cook house with the aerial tramway behind to the right.

Aerial tramway towers. In about an hour I'll end up at the lake in the distance.

The entry to Sam McGee's Trail...

Happy Belated Birthday, Charlie

Charles Darwin would have celebrated his 200th birthday this past Thursday, February 12th. Last night to celebrate, Jenny and I went to a talk by Dr. Charles Berger, a veterinarian and musher who has competed many times in the hardest dog sled races on earth -- the Yukon Quest and Iditarod. His talk "Big Bang to Sled Dogs" was an entertaining, funny and informative journey through time showing how evolution and selective breeding culminated in the planet's greatest endurance athlete -- the sled dog. These 50 pound dogs are descendants of gray wolves, can eat 12,000 calories per day, run the equivalent of 3 marathons per day for a week and have a vO2 max three times that of Lance Armstrong. This talk was timed to coincide with the start of the Yukon Quest, which is a 1000 mile race from Whitehorse to Fairbanks. Each city takes turns hosting the start and this year it was in Whitehorse. The record for the winning time is 9 days. Unexpected entries this year included a young Japanese woman and a Jamaican. Paralleling the rise of the Jamaican bobsled team, this fellow trained on the beaches of Jamaica with a team of strays and a sled with wheels. I wish all of the teams the best of luck over the next week or so.

The starting line.

Dog trucks are a familiar site around Whitehorse this time of year.

How to stay warm while watching the Yukon Quest at -25°C...

How to keep babies warm...