Wednesday in Whitehorse…

February 15, 2006

We’re in our usual Whitehorse routine now, i.e. get up, take a shower, walk the dogs, feed the dogs, eat a big breakfast (oatmeal, of course!) then take a long walk down the river. Since the sun doesn’t come up until 8:45, you can get up at a reasonable hour and take your time getting ready and still be in plenty of time to walk during the long, slow sunrise. One thing that really reminds me of how far north we are – when we’re out walking around lunch time I’ll look at my watch from time to time and take notice of when it’s 12:00 – when the sun is at its highest point for the day. And at 12:00, my shadow is something like eighteen feet long. Even at noon, when the sun has risen as high as it’s going to rise all day, it just doesn’t get very far above the horizon. And the shortest day of the year was nearly two months ago! Incredible.

Yesterday I wanted to warm my car up and drive it around some after it’s been sitting here in the cold without running for several days. But we didn’t get started until late and we headed out of town toward Lake Labarge, made famous in the Robert Service poem The Cremation of Sam Magee. But we ran out of daylight before we got there. And it was frigid! We’re going to start out a little bit earlier today. And we’re also going to visit Muktuk Kennels, home of Frank Turner and a whole, whole lot of sled dogs. This is the first year that Frank hasn’t done the Quest; he did every single one of the first twenty two Quests, and he also holds the record for the fastest Quest, which I think is something like ten days, sixteen hours.

I’ll probably do another post later after we’ve gone up there. In the meantime, here are a few more pictures from our morning walk. One is of a “shelf” of ice I took down near the foot bridge this AM. I wish the picture had come out a little bit better; the edge of the ice that’s sticking out above the water is around 8” or 10” thick and it’s just the most clear, frigid blue you’ve ever laid eyes on.

Another picture is of a sign on the trail that I found humorous. I liked that it said “ICY PATCHES,” which would seem to imply the existence of some other type of patch. Believe me, if you’re outside near the river up here at this temperature, every step you take is just one big “icy patch.”

The third picture was taken by a nice woman whose name I didn’t get, just before we got back to the hotel. In my usual fashion, I got her dog’s name, although I’m not certain I spelled it right – she was a sweet little six month old mixed breed named “Nika.” If you read this post, send me the correct spelling and I’ll put it up. And thanks for taking the picture! Surprisingly, Nicky cooperated more than Ivory. Ivory had found some sort of bone to chew on and he was more interested in that than in achieving blog-immortality. As usual, he was about to waste away to nothing and he needed to get every possible calorie that was available.

Anyway, more later. Have a great day,

Jay, Ivory and Nicky