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...

Longer Days

The days are getting noticeably longer. It makes me feel like coming out of my shell more. To make up for my lack of presence online, I offer beautiful pictures of paradise; also known as Baja.

Finally!

Since last winter, I have tried to get a good picture of the Fox that lives in our neighbourhood and commonly hangs out in the parking area in our condo complex. Today, it actually let me get close enough and stood still long enough for me to get a nice close-up. Then it quickly foxed off.

Pond Hockey

This past weekend, there was a shinny tournament held on Chadburn Lake at the edge of Whitehorse. This was the first time I had ever played hockey on skates. I had fun, but I won't be joining a league any time soon. Partly because real rinks don't have snow banks that I could use to help me stop.

We started the day with a gorgeous 9:30 AM sunrise.

An hour later the sun began setting... Just kidding. This wasn't until 1:30 PM.

It turned out to be a gorgeous day with a temperature around zero and no wind.

Many of the teams dressed up.

But the Yukon Synchronized Swim Team won the best dressed award.

One team was kind enough to tape shot glasses to a stick and try to get their opponents drunk.

Our team in action. We're the ones without matching jerseys, but we'll be better prepared next year.

Hoar Frost

Those who have never seen hoar frost are amazed at how surreal the world looks when it clings to everything. Those who have never seen hoar frost spelled out are usually shocked and confused. Big white ice crystals brought about by a recent November cold snap blanketed the trees, and sunny days brought loads of shutterbugs out of their homes to capture the landscape sparkle.

Change is good

This post isn't just to show that a change in fashion over the decades is welcomed (these are vintage 70's clothes, by the way -- the green outfit was even handmade by my mom), or that we did do something for Halloween (this picture is from the night after Halloween - our actual Halloween involved handing out candy to kids and doing renovations until some friends came over and we all fell asleep watching Ghostbusters. Yes, we had a sleeping party), but that the recent happenings in the US are really eye-opening events that have turned that country on its head.

And a lot of it changed in a month. The US, which used to be a bastion of capitalism and run by the "old white rich guys" as one newspaper put it, now has a largely nationalized banking system and a half-black president. Crazy. This is really exciting politics compared to the Canadian federal election (for a guy who doesn't really like politics that much). If people think that nothing will change now that Obama is president, they are sorely wrong. Without even doing anything as president, many world leaders around the globe (and citizens of their countries) have completely changed their perception of the US for the better. The US and the rest of the world are ready for and welcoming change. Good luck to all.