I am in bear country.
Trip Start
Jul 24, 2006
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Trip End
Aug 06, 2006
Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
i spent a few days in calgary visiting my uncle, his wife and their 4-year-old kid. didn't really do much while there since i thought i'd just let my uncle drive me around cuz i thought it might make him happy (which, of course, means seeing stuff i don't necessarily care to see) and my main reason for visiting calgary was to see the family anyway. either much of calgary looks like one big suburb to me, or he actually does live in the burbs. we only vaguely drove through downtown. we went to west edmonton mall to swim at water world (the day i arrived, my uncle decided we should do the 3-hour drive there), banff (but only basically rode up the gondola/cable car to sulphur mountain), the calgary zoo, add my aunt's (his wife's) hair/beauty salon. i then bid my farewell to them bright and early on thursday morning and hopped in a 7am plane to whitehorse.
aside from a compact and very small downtown, whitehorse sprawls around the hills and yukon river a bit, with a population of about 30,000 or something like that. i walked end to end around the downtown and also spent some time hanging out on friday with chris and alexis who were passing through enroute from california to a cabin in homer, alaska where they will be residing for the next year.
on saturday morning, i departed on a hiking/camping trip out in the utterly amazing, rugged and very unpopulated (wild animals not withstanding) kluane national park, nestled in the southwest corner of the yukon (with BC and alaska bordering it). we spent 2 days hiking up mountains (king's throne by kathleen lake, and sheep mountain by kluane lake) and were rewarded with spectacular views. the most memorable for me was sitting and eating lunch (and sipping hot chocolate) high up on a ridge on sheep mountain with the most amazing view below, and nothing but serenity (and plenty of wind) around us. the whole experience was probably the best scenic experience i've ever had. i could have sat there for hours and been perfectly content..
the interior of kluane is mostly apparently untouched wildnerness, with no trails or roads going in. the trails are all along the greenbelt and mountain ranges that edge kluane. the interior apparently contains mainly ice glaciers, as well as canada's highest peak, mount logan (at nearly 6000m). we were going to do a "flight seeing" tour to the interior to see the ice glaciers but alas, we couldn't get a hold of the flight company. it was going to cost about $125 for 40 minutes - pricey but a once in a lifetime experience i was super excited about, so too bad.
i spent each night falling asleep to the thought of bears attacking me in my tent. apparently, this is a common experience.. the other woman on the trip (there was 3 of us, one of whom was our yukoner guide) fell asleep to thoughts of bears too. luckily, we didn't encounter any, although there was a grizzly apparently spotted around the trail we hiked on sheep mountain.
after returning to whitehorse yesterday, i've just been bumming around the hostel, catching up on news and emails. going to head out now to meet people from the yukon conservation society for a hike around nearby shwatka lake.. then maybe drifting down the yukon river on a boat. we'll see.
tomorrow morning, i head up to dawson city. i'm staying at a hostel across the river there where we apparently have to chop our own wood if we want to take a bath (there's no electricity). should be an interesting place..
p.s. the yukon is pretty amazing.
p.p.s. it does indeed stay pretty light out till very late. i normally fall asleep by midnight at the latest, and it's still perpetual dusk at that time. i imagine it'll be even brighter later, further up north in dawson.
