Heading back to Whitehorse

Gas stations don't open up here until 10:00 so I couldn't leave right away and it's another three hours to Dawson. And Nicky's not enjoying himself as much as I want him to and I don't want to get up to Dawson and find no place for him to sleep. Three or four more teams are supposed to arrive here within an hour or so, so I'll actually get to see teams pulling in daylight. After that I think we'll head back down to Whitehorse. I'll get some daylight pictures of some teams put up before we leave. Until then,

Jay, Ivory and Nicky

Early AM in the Yukon

It's a couple of minutes before 7:00 AM as I write this; the sun doesn't come up until around 9:00 AM so it's nearly pitch black outside - nearly except the Northern Lights are winding and blazing and shimmering in giant green ribbons up and down the sky. That was a real treat - it's the first time I've seen them. Most people are still asleep but a few are beginning to stir and a few stayed up all night to watch for mushers coming in. None have come in so far other than the first three - and they're already gone.

I would have slept later but I felt bad having Ivory and Nicky out in the car so I wanted to go out and hang out with them for a little while. When I started the car, the thermometer said 1º F - probably something like -18º C. I tried one picture of the northern lights but it didn't turn out very well. I'm going to go out and try a few more. After I get the dogs fed and watered I'll probably head up to Dawson. But if I can't find a place for them to sleep indoors tonight we're going to just head back to Whitehorse.

I'm just putting up two pictures at the moment. I'll go out and try another one of the northern lights but they're difficult (for me) to take pictures of so don't hold your breath. But I am adding a picture of the news conference with the second and third mushers to come in; they arrived together. The guy with the blue baseball cap on is William Kleedehn of Limp-a-long Kennels; I'm pretty certain he's only got one leg. For someone who's been out running dogs for so long in those conditions, his sense of humor was amazing. The guy putting food in his mouth (mushers spend a whole lot of time doing that) is Hans Gatt. I think Gatt has won the Quest several times, and perhaps Kleedehn has as well. They're both serious mushers.

People are starting to stir around here; I'm going to head back outside.

Oh yeah, the other picture is of this evening's luxurious lodgings on the floor of a really nice big gym here. It was nice when they finally turned the lights out. Anyway, more later,

Jay, Ivory and Nicky

Making it up as we go along...

February 19, 2006

I've decided to spend the night here in Pelly. The car gas situation is iffy and it's nearly 11:00 PM on a Sunday and believe me when I tell you there are no gas stations near here. Anywhere. At least none that are open at this hour on Sunday. So we'll get up tomorrow and head up to Dawson, around a three hour drive. I'll probably sleep on the floor in the gym here but unfortunately the dogs can't come in. I'll walk them in a while and get them something to eat and plenty to drink and apologize to them. I'll buy them a steak tomorrow or something.

I was here when the first musher, Lance Mackey, arrived at 9:41 PM. He ate - fast - and left at 10:32. Someone said "you're a fast eater" and he said "I'm learning from my dogs." He seemed like a very nice guy and I was impressed to see him chatting up the people who were running the concession, and leave them a generous tip. He seems like a good guy.

I'm putting up three more pictures - it's always difficult to tell in what order they'll turn out on the blog. Anyway, one picture is of Lance Mackey scarfing down some serious calories at a very high speed. I was especially impressed with that. There's also a picture of two of his leaders, whose names I didn't catch. And a third picture is of a race veterinarian checking over Lance's dogs. One of the race vets was named Dr. Phillips! No relation, according to him.

It's around 11:15 PM here and it's probably going to be a long night. I've heard there are more teams coming in soon. So I may be putting up more posts or I may try to get some sleep. At the moment I'm having way too much fun to sleep but maybe soon. We'll see. Have a great day,

Jay, Ivory and Nicky

Even I think this is amazing

February 19, 2006

The dogs and I are at the Pelly Crossing checkpoint for the Quest, N62º49’32.6” x W136º34’25.3”, elevation 1,562’. The car’s mileage is 116,946 and it’s 8:45 PM PST local. Anyway, I’m headed back out to watch the first team come in. Probably head up to Dawson soon. Until then,

Jay, Ivory and Nicky

PS Two quick pictures – the checkpoint sign, and Ivory and Nicky sniffing butts with real live sled dogs.

Road trip within a road trip

I was just at the Quest HQ here in Whitehorse and they need some stuff taken to Pelly Crossing very soon, so I'm leaving here for Pelly in a few minutes then heading up to Dawson and may not be back until Tues or Wed. I'll try to do some posts before then, but maybe not. Until our next post,

Jay, Ivory and Nicky

Sunday in Whitehorse…

February 19, 2006

Got up this morning and had a nice breakfast then took Ivory and Nicky for a leisurely walk down the river. It’s been a pleasant, low-key morning and I’ve taken the time to reorganize a few things. I’m putting up four pictures today, but only one that I actually took today.

I’m putting up one picture of the ice on the Takhini River that I took when I was walking the puppies the day before yesterday. It doesn’t give you a perfect idea of what it looks like, but try clicking on the picture and viewing it larger. You can get a little bit of a feel for the astonishing thickness and clarity of it. It’s really an amazing experience in itself to walk on ice like that. There were places where you could see the rocks on the bottom of the river just like you were looking through two feet of glass. It was hard to look away from the puppies, but it was fascinating when I did.

I’ve also included a picture of the puppies when we were back in the field, heading up to the kennel. When I first looked at the picture it had my thumb or a piece of my sleeve in one corner and it wasn’t a real great look but I trimmed it out and you get a pretty decent idea of what those puppies look like. There’s a song by U2 called Some Days and Bono talks about some days being better than others. At one point he says "some days are slippery, some days are sloppy, some days you can’t stand the sight of a puppy." What a nightmare. Can you imagine? February 17, 2006 was most definitely not one of those days for me.

I’m also putting in two pictures of the snow sculpture construction in front of the race headquarters. The first one I took on February 15 and the second one I took this morning. See the "RV ROUTE" sign on the left in both pictures? The images aren’t fantastic but the sculpture certainly is impressive.

Anyway, have a great day,

Jay, Ivory and Nicky

Whitehorse suburbs – who knew?

February 18, 2006

Yesterday’s jaunt with the puppies on the Takhini River was hard to top and we took it a little bit easy today. We helped out at the Quest office a little bit and went around delivering some packages to the homes and businesses of a few Quest supporters in downtown Whitehorse and in a few neighborhoods in the area. The one we spent the most time in, Riverdale, looked amazingly similar to a lot of neighborhoods around Richmond, VA, only a little bit smaller and a lot snowier. And every car had a plug coming out of the grill to plug block heaters into. And there were always great views of the mountains in the background, as you can see a little bit in these pictures.

I don’t know if the weather forecast is accurate, but temperatures next week are predicted to go down to -13º F (-25º C). I’ve seen temperatures here down to 4º F (-16º C) and I’ve spent several hours outdoors at 9º F (-13º C). It’s always been sunny and if you’re active and it’s not breezy, it honestly doesn’t feel at all uncomfortable. But it’s a long, long way from 9º F to -13º F. I’ll let you know how it feels! It would be a shame to get out of here without experiencing a really deep freeze anyway. Just as an aside, even the Canadians I’ve talked with think -13º F is cold. Anyway, have a great day,

Jay, Ivory and Nicky

If the reward for virtuous living…

February 17, 2006

…means spending Eternity walking four puppies on a frozen river, I’ve committed my last sin. It was the most joyful thing I've ever experienced.

The dogs and I got up at 6:00 this morning because our schedule is busy today. The sun doesn’t come up here until after 8:30 so it’s very dark at 6:00. The dogs had breakfast and I had breakfast and we went out for a long walk down the Yukon. At least here in Whitehorse, the Yukon isn’t frozen all the way across, so you walk on the banks – not on the actual river itself. I was going to be leaving the dogs in the hotel for a couple of hours so I wanted to get them good and tired and we walked out of the hotel at 8:00 and took a fast paced walk for over an hour. When we got outside it was still pretty dark and it was 7º F or -14ºC. It was a beautiful morning for a walk and that was the first time we’ve gotten to watch the sun come up. They had a great workout and I left them at the hotel while I headed back up to Muktuk.

Yesterday while I was up there they told me that if I came back today at 11:00 I could "walk the puppies" and it was an offer I wasn’t about to refuse. You only live once. The pace is slow at Muktuk right now because a lot of the people are up at Dawson helping out and enjoying the Quest’s mandatory 36 hour layover there. But the puppies need walking every day and they let me take out four great little pups who were born on September 1. They gave me a handful of snacks and told me to be careful of my gloves and so forth – puppies are puppies and they like to play and it was easy to imagine loose articles of clothing ending up being hidden in the woods somewhere. They just told me to head down to the river (the Takhini River surrounds Muktuk on three sides) and walk them for an hour or so. One of the guides told me if we weren’t back in an hour and a half they’d figure the puppies had probably eaten me and they’d send out a snow machine to find my remains.

So the puppies and I get down on the river and it’s 9º F (-13º C) and it’s absolutely the most spectacular day you can even imagine. I’m not very good at estimating distances but I would imagine the river is around a quarter of a mile from bank to bank in that area. We started out in the shade and there’s some snow on the surface and that gives you some decent footing but when we come out into the sun, the snow’s all blown off. And you’re more or less walking on a giant skating rink, but they’ve driven a snow machine up and down it and that’s where they mush the dogs so you have some traction there. Of course, the puppies don’t much care about that and they run all over the river, up and down the banks, back and forth across the surface of the river and they’re just so, so, so incredibly alive it absolutely takes your breath away. One of them will find a stick or something interesting frozen into the surface of the ice and stop and start wagging his tail and the others will race toward him to see what it is and go sliding by, backpedaling and trying to keep their feet. Some places the ice is frozen so hard and thick that you can look down thin cracks in it and it must be eighteen inches thick or more – you can even see the rocks on the bottom of the river.

I figured I could walk them for thirty five minutes or so before I had to turn back so that we’d make it in time. And when I looked at my watch and it was time to head back I just hated to go. I could have spent the entire day out there. I wished I’d brought Ivory and Nicky with me – I know they would have enjoyed it too, although not quite as wildly as those puppies. If Nicky really decided to take off and go for a run on the groomed part of that ice, it would have been fun to watch those puppies try to keep up with him.

I took over fifty pictures today and it was really difficult to decide which three to put in this post. I regret to say that I was never really successful getting all four puppies to "pose" together. If you’ve ever had any success getting four exuberant puppies to stand still at the same time outdoors on a beautiful day, please don’t hesitate to send me a few pointers.

I put one picture of the four of them just running around on the ice with the sun behind them – I thought it was a nice picture. Another image is kind of a long view of them, looking back up the river with the mountains rising in the background – another image I enjoyed. A third picture is the closest thing I had to a "close-up" of the four of them – the only other time they all got near me at once was when I would pull treats out of my pocket and they’d all be going crazy on the ice right at my feet for as long as it took them to scarf down a few snacks, then they would bolt back out across the ice in search of more adventure.

Anyway, just another day of fun in the Great White North.

Have a great day,

Jay, Ivory and Nicky

Getting to know the dogs a little better…

February 16, 2006
We got up today and had a bite to eat then left here and headed up to Takhini Hot Springs. It was a nice place and we hiked around the trails there for a half hour or so but headed back over to Muktuk before very long. It wasn’t nearly as crazy as yesterday so we got to hang out some more with the people who live and work there, and I got to meet a few more of the dogs. I took a lot of pictures of dogs; I particularly enjoyed the attitude of this one standing on top of her box, enjoying herself. All the dogs at Muktuk appear to enjoy themselves most of the time.
Ivory and Nicky and I went on a very brief hike behind the main lodge; the Takhini River runs back there and the Quest will be coming down it a day or two before the finish. This is a picture of Nicky running around out on the frozen river; that’s the kind of surface some parts of the race are run on.
When the dogs and I got back to the hotel around 4:00 PM they still hadn’t gotten to go for a long walk today, so we took off down the river for a little bit over an hour. The third picture is taken looking across the Yukon River, about ten minutes walk from our hotel room. That’s why they call this the "River View Hotel." Although I suppose they could as easily call it the "Mountain View Hotel." Either way, it’s a nice view just about any time.

Have a great day,

Jay, Nicky and Ivory

If you’re “doggy,” this is the place…

February 15, 2006

This afternoon, Ivory and Nicky and I drove about fifteen miles out of town to “Muktuk Kennels,” a.k.a. “a place for people who love dogs.” As a long time dog lover, it was like coming home. Of course it didn’t bear any physical resemblance to anyplace I’ve ever lived but from the moment I stepped out of the car I just felt as comfortable and relaxed and happy and peaceful as I’ve ever felt in my life. They have a hundred fifteen dogs on the place, more or less, and I guess something like seventy or eighty of them were around when I got there. Probably a dozen or so run loose and the others are tied out on stakes. Ivory and Nicky and I were there for around two or three hours and of the eighty or so dogs that were there, I probably visited personally with fifty or sixty of them. And every dog – every single dog – that I visited with was, without fail, enthusiastic, happy, outgoing, friendly, healthy and exuberant. I’ve absolutely never seen anything like it. From the perspective of around fifteen years of hanging around with people and dogs I can tell you in no uncertain terms that the only way to get dogs with those qualities is to treat them that way. If you’re enthusiastic, happy, outgoing, friendly, healthy and exuberant around your dogs, that’s the way they become. The people who are working with these dogs are clearly doing an excellent, excellent job. I just could not have been any more impressed. Of course these guys (and girls) are bred to pull, not to hang around in hospitals but I’m completely certain I could have taken any dog out of that place and kept it for a week or so and it would be a perfect therapy dog. Because with that eagerness to be alive and to spend time around people invariably comes an eagerness to learn and an eagerness to please that, in my mind, are the only two basic qualities it takes to make an outstanding therapy dog.

I took almost fifty pictures there today; it was difficult to cull them down to just three to put up on this site. The one with the dog standing on the box with the house in the background was the first sight that met me when I arrived there today. That was before I’d even touched a single dog but you could just feel the joy from all of them; it was palpable. If you have to ask me what I mean by that, then I can’t explain it to you. But if you hang around dogs, or if you’ve ever felt joy without really being able to explain why, then you’ll understand perfectly.

There’s another one of a dog lying on top of her box looking at me, with her forelegs hanging over. I just liked her gaze; she was very peaceful and looked especially thoughtful and considerate. I regret that I didn’t get her name; perhaps I’ll get it when I return tomorrow. You can see my car in the background, a little bit to her left. It’s slowly beginning to blend in with the color of the soil!

The last picture is of a recreational team just getting ready to take a sled out for a little spin. That’s a four dog team; Quest teams start out with fourteen dogs per sled. You get the impression that pulling a tree stump out of the ground wouldn’t be asking too much for one of those big teams.

I’ll tell you one thing – it’s absolutely unmistakable the way those dogs love to pull. When the guys are hooking up one team, every single other dog on that place wishes they were the ones getting to go – they’re very clear about that. It’s very, very energetic and very, very fun.

Anyway, more tomorrow. Have a great day,

Jay, Ivory and Nicky

A couple of things from yesterday...

Here are a few shots I took yesterday that I forgot to put up. One is Yukon Harley Davidson, which I just enjoyed looking at. The other is the Whitehorse Star newspaper - as I mentioned yesterday, I like their slogan. I talked with some people inside who were very nice, too.

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

From the Yukon Council On Disability...

...where they've welcomed me and allowed me to use one of their computers and I've had a great talk with them. This is just great! And while I'm here, I'll take the opportunity to post another picture. Sorry if all those "filthy car with dogs" pictures are beginning to look the same - I'll get it clean one of these days! That one was taken somewhere when Pat and I were in mid-British Columbia.

I left the Whitehorse Star newspaper office a few minutes ago; their slogan is "ILLEGITIMUS NON CARBORUNDUM." It would be a good slogan for some papers in the States too. Anyway, back to the hotel - I'm sure the dogs are recovered from this morning's walk and ready to get outside for a while. Have a great day,

Jay

It wouldn't really be a blog about the Quest...

...if I didn't put in a picture of this.

It’s getting cold up here!

February 14, 2006

Until this morning it hasn’t been what I would consider really frigid. I mean, yesterday morning it was raining. Fahrenheit temperatures have been generally in the 20’s and 30’s. The use Celsius here, and that would be anywhere from about -7 to +4. Nothing that you wouldn’t see in Richmond pretty often in February, and quite regularly in January. But this morning when we got up it was around 0 or -2 F, or -18 or -19 C. That’s getting pretty cold. But it was crystal clear (probably why it’s so cold) and the breeze was only going 2 or 3 mph. When we took our big walk this AM I could have worn a scarf – I will next time – and I could have worn heavier gloves but it wasn’t really uncomfortable walking. We were out for a little bit over an hour and a half. The birds were considerably less abundant this morning than they have been so far. They’ll probably come out some this afternoon.

I’m putting up a picture of a tiny piece of “jumble ice” that I took this AM as we walked down the river. To imagine what jumble ice is like up the river where it’s really serious, as I understand it, picture the same thing – only as big as a shed in the back yard, and piles of it, spread all the way across the river.

I’m also putting a picture of Nicky with ice on his whiskers. Ivory’s got a lot too but it doesn’t show up as much.

And one more picture of the dogs walking up the river bank in the morning; it’s a little bit (okay, a lot) overexposed because I’m shooting almost directly into the sun but it’s kind of a cool picture. Anyway, take it easy,

Jay, Ivory and Nicky

"Nevermore... "

That's the raven that's been pestering Nicky, or at least a raven that's been pestering Nicky - even their mothers have a hard time telling them apart. It may have croaked "nevermore" at some point but it probably croaked it in French and I didn't understand. I'm embarrassed to admit my language skills are quite limited. Spelling too.

We just got back from a long walk up the river, that is north - although that's downstream. It's the first time we've gone that far in that direction and we were rewarded with seeing our first chickadees since we've been in the Yukon. I always feel a little bit closer to home when I see chickadees. Once when I was younger I stood out on the front porch of our cabin in the snow in a warm coat and held out my hand (with a glove on) full of bird seed. After a very few minutes a chickadee landed in my hand and began eating bird seed while it stood in the palm of my hand. I've been interested in them ever since.

I'm also putting in a couple of images I took of the river yesterday or the day before. The one without the rainbow is just some ice on the river. That's almost right in downtown Whitehorse. The one with the rainbow was taken farther outside of town - I just liked the look of that rainbow. It was raining in the morning and snowing in the afternoon. But it's been pleasant all day today.

Anyway, time for something for supper. Have a great day,

Jay, Ivory and Nicky

Weekday in Whitehorse...

As far as the pictures above are concerned, the top one is one Pat took just as we arrived at the hotel on Saturday. The second one is a picture of a magpie, in case you weren't aware. I'll try to get a better one before we leave. And a raven as well, although just picture a big crow with lots of personality. The third one is sheep we saw on the side of the road on the way up through British Columbia. Click on any of the pictures if you want to see a larger version.


February 13, 2006

It was nice to get up at 7:00 AM today and actually feel a little sense of purpose. Of course, at 7:00 AM up here it’s still pitch dark. So you take a shower, get dressed, take the dogs out, feed them, go get breakfast, it’s 8:30… still pitch dark! So I went over to the internet café for a while and did this and that, then came back and it was starting to finally get light. So the dogs and I went for another great walk down the Millennium Trail to the fish ladder, then crossed the Centennial Bridge (footbridge) and came back up the other bank.

These crazy ravens just go after Nicky all the time and they completely ignore Ivory. Probably because Nicky responds more than Ivory. Today as we got back closer to town I was stopping to leash the dogs back up. I leashed Nicky up first and then I’m turning around and getting Ivory up to me and fiddling around with his collar some, holding Nicky’s leash in my other hand, paying attention to Ivory and not really watching Nicky. Suddenly he (Nicky) starts barking and going crazy and pulling on his leash and this raven is hovering right over him – right while I’m holding his leash! Those birds are never boring.

Anyway, more later. Have a great day,

Jay

OK - SLOWLY getting organized

World's largest weathervane: Whitehorse Airport


Sorry about the sideways pictures and so forth. Gradually I'll pull it together. Probably on the last day before I leave! I did this post the day before yesterday but this is the first time I've been able to post it. So, without further ado. Also, I'll get a picture or two up on the next post. Here we go:

==========

Made it to Whitehorse!

February 11, 2006

We pulled up at the River View Hotel in downtown Whitehorse at 11:00 AM Pacific time. Mileage: 116,612. Total mileage to get here: 4,867. The car is parked at:
N60º43’18.4” x W135º03’07.2”. The elevation here is 2,106’. The temperature was 31º when we arrived; when we left Teslin this morning it was 13º and on the way here it went down to 10º, the lowest temperature we’ve seen on the trip.

Out hotel is about one block from the Yukon Quest HQ and we walked over there when we first got here, just to look around. It’s Saturday but the Quest is starting today and believe it or not there were people in the office and they waved at us to come in. and one of the volunteer coordinators, Jennifer, opened the front door and said “Ivory and Nicky! Hi!” I mean, can you beat that? Nine days on the road, leaking head gasket, five thousand miles of driving, pull into town and the first place we go to they greet us by name. So, we are definitely loving life.

There’s a great trail that goes up and down beside the river – the Yukon river, that is – so Pat and the dogs and I hiked up and down it just to see what’s around. The weather’s beautiful and I’m telling you, 32º here is just no big deal. Even with the wind blowing off the river. And the people at the hotel are so nice to the dogs (and to us).

The river is mostly frozen solid except for a little channel running down the middle or along one bank in a couple of places. It’s got what appears to me to be a lot of what mushers refer to (I think) as “jumble ice”, big sheets several inches thick and maybe the size of a washing machine. They’re thrown up in big piles and even seeing these relatively small ones here in Whitehorse, I can imagine how difficult it must be to have dogs pull a sled over them. Because from the accounts I’ve read, when you get way up the river there are just huge piles of jumble ice, pieces as big as garage doors and the piles go from bank to bank on the river – no way around them. This long distance mushing is some serious business. Even from the perspective of a three-time Ironman finisher this looks extremely difficult. And you don’t get to stop for ten or eleven days or two weeks. And you have to feed the dogs, take care of their feet, everything. So the main thing mushers sacrifice to do all that is sleep. For weeks on end. Ironmans are a lot of work and I’m slow but I still don’t miss any sleep!

When the dogs and I were walking up the river we saw a magpie on the bank, our first magpie in the Yukon. Maybe even our first magpie in Canada. It’s funny that my favorite bird at home is a chickadee (black and white) and here I’ve been watching magpies the whole trip (also black and white). And Ivory and Nicky are black and white! Maybe I don’t need to take color pictures…


It’s around 3:00 now and Pat and I got up here to the Canada Games Centre around an hour ago – he’s going for a swim and I’m just checking the place out. I’ll come up here and get a swim in some time this week but I’m just learning about the whole area. I guess it’s busier because it’s Saturday but this place is just full of people. They’ve got several hockey rinks and they’re all packed. It seems sort of like the Yukon equivalent of pickup basketball. Some of them look really, really serious and they’re playing really hard. They also line up and do these drills where they have lines up pucks on the ice and lines of players and they all come up one at a time and shoot them at the goalie. In another area they were doing a similar thing with volleyball. One guy would serve, the same guy all the time, I guess the coach. A guy on the other side would bump the serve up to a setter, he would set it and a guy would jump up and spike it, and some of the guys were really good. One guy would try to block the spike. Usually they couldn’t block it, then the person who spiked it would come over and try to block the next spike. Until finally a blocker missed and he would have to drop and start doing pushups while all of the guys on the other team would have to do drills and run back and forth frantically for a few minutes. The same thing in the hockey drills – I think if a shot got through the goalie a whole bunch of guys would throw their sticks down on the ice and start doing pushups. And they’re swimming in here, playing soccer, just tons and tons of activity. I’m typing this while I watch them do all kinds of different cool looking, very high speed hockey drills. The only thing I haven’t seen them practice yet is fighting – probably they were working on that before I got here. It’s all about the fundamentals.

Pat’s plane leaves at around 7:00 tomorrow morning and it’s Sunday and we’ll have the whole day free. So I think I’ll give the dogs a lot of food and maybe grab a cup of coffee and a water bottle or some Gatorade and take a long hike up the river and see what it looks like. It may be warmer here than it was in Teslin but I think it’s going to be pretty cold in the morning. People around here are uniformly surprised it’s as warm as it is. I’m not complaing about it being warm but I’d really like to take the dogs and walk out on the ice, probably walk across to the other bank. In a lot of places it looks like you could practically drive across it – it looks thick and sturdy. We’ll see what it looks like. I’m really looking forward to a long hike with the dogs. Nine days in the car is plenty.

I looked away from the ice for a while to do some typing and watch some people walk by – this is a whole, whole different place – and when I looked back there were ten or twelve hockey players around the net with their backs to me and they all have ponytails! It’s a girls hockey team! I guess I shouldn’t be surprised but I am. They’re out their skating through a course made up of eight orange triangles then they come out at the end of it and shoot at the goalie. I think they’re timed. They’re very controlled and graceful and I just sort of assumed they were going slow until they pass the glass in front of my and their ponytails are whipping out behind them and they’re absolutely flying. I think I’ll be waiting a long time before I see this in Richmond, VA.

See you all soon! (On the blog, that is)

Yukon river in the background...




More tomorrow - trip's going great!

Hi from Whitehorse!

And sorry for the delay! And sorry for no pictures, but I think I'll be getting some up in an hour or so. I'm at the Midnight Sun Coffee Roaster in downtown Whitehorse. We took Pat to the airport at about 6:00 this morning then came back and went to sleep for a couple more hours. Then we got up again and took about a two hour walk. We just go downstream on the Yukon for about ten minutes from our hotel then cross a bridge over to the other side. We walked for half an hour or so down that bank to a footbridge and cross back over to our side. Then we walk back up to our hotel. I have to go to Radio Shack and get a flash drive for my computer so I can transfer files to this computer. Including some pictures. So I'll be doing more posts soon. Until then,

Jay, Ivory and Nicky.

Leaving Fort Nelson, BC in a little while...

According to the GPS it's only 593 miles from here to Whitehorse, which we could do in one day if we had to. But we're slightly ahead of schedule so we won't have to push quite as hard and we'll probably stop for the night somewhere between here and Whitehorse, then go the rest of the way tomorrow. Teslin looks like a possibility. Today we'll only be going a little bit north, but mostly west. I don't know if we'll have an internet connection when we stop, so the next note may come from Whitehorse. Anyway, you'll be hearing something in the next day or so. Until then,

Jay, Ivory and Nicky

Brief update

Two images from a lunch break today in the middle of God-knows-freezing-where. Pat made great sandwiches. Click on the pictures for bigger views.


Did this last night in Prince George, British Columbia:

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From Prince George, British Columbia, Canada…

February 8, 2006

After a long haul today from Vancouver airport, where I picked up Pat after his 1230 arrival. And we left for here and now it’s late; our mileage is 115,498 and our elevation is 1,982’. And the car is parked at N53º54’29.0” x W122º46’47’7”. You drive for miles and miles up here and basically don’t see a thing and suddenly you come to these big, busy towns with tons of people and what appears to be lots to do. But it’s late and we’re leaving early and I still haven’t walked these dogs so until later,

Jay, Ivory and Nicky

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Currently (2/9/06, Thu, 8:30 PM Pacific) at Super 8 Motel, Fort Nelson, BC. Precisely:
N58º48'10.9"
W122º41'20.5"
Elevation 1,296'
Current mileage: 116,007

It went down to around 12º F on the drive up here but when we got into town it was around 19º. We're going out for some food now.

Just keeps getting better...

...at 1150 the guy came out and said "I don't know if you're pressed for time but I can have our guys wash that up for you." You can imagine what it looks like after the trip we've been on. I said "I have to be at the airport at 1230." He said "no problem - we'll have it ready in plenty of time." How can I not be happy about that? This is just great. Starting week two with a clean car and an oil change. Wow.

Route map, courtesy of Shane.

Check out this map of our route.

Is this a great world, or what?

Could this possibly be any more fun? Run outside, snap a picture, put it up on the web. Now I'll check is Pat's flight is on time and pick him up at the airport. Wow. See you in Whitehorse.

Blogging from another Subaru dealer!

But this time just for an oil change. And this time from inside Canada! We're at Don Docksteader Motors in downtown Vancouver. It's 1030 local time and Pat's plane lands at the Vancouver airport (1.1 miles from here) at 1224. So that's outstanding. The border crossing took three whole minutes. It would have taken two if the border guard hadn't said "What does NEW FAZE mean?" Anyway, did a brief entry last night from the Motel 6 in Bellingham, WA:
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Nearly in Canada!

February 7, 2006

We got to the Motel 6 in Bellingham, WA after a very long day’s drive – over seven hundred miles. It was a great drive, though. When I parked the car at 8:00 PM PST, the mileage said 114,933. 3,188 miles, home to here. And the car is parked at N48º44’04.3” x W122º28’05.3”. The person at the desk here tells me it’s around 18 miles to the Canadian border. And I think it’s around 55 miles from here to Vancouver. Pardon the abbreviated entry – we spent a whole lot of time on the road today! And I’m not even sure when I’ll get this post up – maybe not even until Whitehorse! But maybe I’ll find a spot in Vancouver tomorrow. And I promise once we’re settled in Whitehorse – which will probably be Saturday the 11^th or Sunday the 12^th – I’ll make good on my claim of a picture and a paragraph a day. Until then, we’re looking forward to hearing from everybody and seeing you in March,

Jay, Ivory and Nicky.

PS 1045 PM – I need to get in bed. But I’ve actually gotten a load of laundry done which is a pleasure after six days of travel – it will be nice to go into Canada with all clean clothes. Pleasures are very simple on the road. Plus I’ve found the address of the Subaru dealership in Vancouver and left a message with their service department that I would be bringing my car in the morning for an oil change if they could fit me in. And I’ve found it on my Vancouver map; it’s about 1.1 miles from the airport. And I’ve programmed it into my GPS which says it will take around 59 minutes to get there from here. Of course I’ll have to cross the border with these two no-good mutts but I doubt that will present a problem. So I can sleep!

Also, I nearly forgot to mention today we had another little geography lesson. It seems like so long ago… we were driving on the interstate and we passed a regular green interstate sign with white lettering and it said “Now crossing the 45^th parallel – halfway between the equator and the north pole.” Only about six weeks after the winter solstice and in the northern hemisphere, there was plenty of snow on the ground – it looked a lot closer to the north pole than the equator. Perhaps on March 21, halfway between winter and summer and halfway between the equator and the north pole it will be different.

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Anyway, I don't know how the blogging will be between here and Whitehorse, so this may be our last entry until Saturday or Sunday. Pat's plane flies out of Whitehorse at 7:00 on Sunday morning so we'd better be up there by then! And thanks for all the emails - it's been fun getting notes whenever I've had the opportunity to download them. We're probably going to be here another hour or more so I may put up another entry but if I don't, I'll probably see you next in Whitehorse. By the way, this is the hotel where we're staying in Whitehorse: River View Hotel. And this is the Yukon Quest.

Also - I think I'm going to switch this to weekly archiving so it's not so huge each time it opens up. If you want to see earlier weeks you'll have to look on the side somewhere. Also, I'll be getting more pictures up when we finally stop for a while! Take it easy,

Jay, Ivory and Nicky

Leaving today!

The mechanic named Bill worked through his lunch and we're leaving today! Should be in Boise tonight. They have really, really treated me right at this place. Talk with you all again soon,

Jay, Ivory and Nicky

If you're going to have car trouble...

...have it in Ogden, UT and if you have the opportunity, take it to Ogden Subaru. And while they're working on it, get something to eat at Moore's Family Restaurant! If this wasn't going to squeeze my time for picking up Pat in Vancouver I'd actually be having fun. A sales guy named Jeff hung out with us and checked out the dogs and just chatted and he suggested the excellent place (Moore's) for lunch, about three minutes walk up the street. They loved Ivory and Nicky up there and the food was fantastic. I knew I would like it when I walked in and looked at the menu and it said "Moore's - where you're only a stranger once."

The people here at the Subaru dealer have all been fantastic. Jeff helped out with finding a place to eat and our mechanic's name is Bill; he brought out the old head gasket and showed it to me and told me all about it. Jeff let me use his phone so I could make a new hotel reservation at Motel 6 - where they're giving us the same room we had last night - and a person who works in the office here named Erin (I hope I spelled your name right!) is giving us a ride back to the hotel. Southern hospitality has absolutely nothing on Utah hospitality.

Anyway, see you all again soon,

Jay, Ivory and Nicky.

Yay! I'm online!

In Rawlins, WY, outside a Comfort Inn. Sweet. Hard day w/the car running hot, etc., but nice. A couple pre-written posts:

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February 4, 2006

Made it to Laramie…

…after a great dinner in Denver with Shane’s friends Brian and Jennifer and their two daughters Lauren and Kaela – their son Logan slept through the whole thing – plus their yellow Lab Bascombe kept Ivory and Nicky entertained. And Brian fixed a missing bolt from my car top carrier and their daughters held the flashlight while I put water in the radiator! The car heated up a lot coming into eastern Colorado and I had to put some anti-freeze in it. It made it into Denver without a great deal of difficulty. I didn’t check the elevation at Brian’s house but just call it 5,280’. When we got onto I-80 W between Cheyenne, WY and Laramie WY, we went up to 8,640’ and that car was running way too hot. Even though it was only in the low-thirties out and I had the heat going full blast. Then it finally cooled off as we had around a ten-mile downhill into Laramie. The altitude here at the hotel is 7,160’, so we practically coasted down here. The car is parked outside room 145 at the Motel 6 in Laramie; the parking space is at:

N 41º17’41.4” x W105º35’23.7”

So we’re definitely getting out west.

Sorry about not putting pictures up; I have a few that Ruth took and a couple that one of her students took and two we took at Brian and Jennifer’s but I haven’t been able to upload them! Soon, though. And when I get to the Yukon I’ll have a reliable connection so I’ll be more reliable about posting.

I nearly forgot – the mileage when we parked outside the room today is: 113,622.

Since we started at 111,745, we’ve driven 1,877 miles. Three days of driving, averaging 625 miles/day. Anyway, time for bed. And if I haven’t said this before, thanks for all the emails. Perhaps when we get up to the Yukon and settle down for a couple of weeks I’ll have more time to reply. And I’ll have a reliable web connection too!

I actually enjoyed driving through Kansas today. The weather was nice, the sky was blue, the music was pleasant, it was an enjoyable way to spend a few hours.

Well, the dogs are sacked out – I need to get some sleep myself! I look forward to seeing you all again,

Jay

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Car trouble!

February 5, 2006

Coming into eastern Colorado yesterday and climbing up to about 4,500’, the car got real, real hot. So I cooled it off and topped off the radiator and cut my speed down and it made it to Brian’s house in Denver with no problem. The radiator was down a little bit there and I topped it back off before I left and it ran fine out of Denver and all the way up to Cheyenne then when I turned west toward Laramie and began climbing more, the heat went back up! It ran hot the whole way to Laramie but we made it okay. We’ll see what our next move is.

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Anyway, back on the road. Life is good!

Surprise post!

The dogs and I are in the parking lot of a Motel 6 in Columbia, MO (N 38º57'39.8" x W092º17'12.8") and were able to get online - we weren't last night - so here's last night's post. And we're moving on; it's only 2:30 CST and we've only gone 293 miles today. So here's the post, and I don't know when the next one will be. So let me put this up while we still have a signal. Theh trip's going great. Talk with you soon,

Jay

PS Ruth! Send that picture! I'll put the other one up when I connect my PC to my camera. See ya.

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February 2, 2006

If the rest of the days are HALF as good as the first one…

…this is just going to be an outstanding trip. Wednesday night before I left, Skye and Betsy and John had me over and fixed me an incredible going-away meal, and Skye and Betsy gave me a wonderful gift – they’re so thoughtful! Then I got home and my old friend Holly called and I had a great conversation with her, then finished packing and went to bed. I got up at 4:00 this morning and had a big breakfast and when I went to throw a few last items in the car, there was a great note from my friend Charles under my windshield wiper! So I’m already thinking what a great sendoff I’m getting and I load the dogs up and we head down to “our” Starbucks. We arrive about a minute before six a.m. in the pitch dark and freezing cold and my old friend Cris shows up! So we’re just sitting down for a cup of coffee and my river walking friends (who never arrive at Pony Pasture with anything less than five dogs) show up too! This is just too, too much fun. So finally we hit the road and pull out of the driveway at Starbucks at 6:30 on the dot. The dogs – mainly Ivory, of course – politely asked me to stop a couple of times on 64 on the way out of town and when we made a stop on a mountain top in West Virginia we talked to the first people on the trip, a couple from Ontario. Canadians first thing – who would have guessed? We had a great talk with them and they loved the dogs and of course the dogs couldn’t get enough of them.

So after a while we called our old friend Ruth, who I have been in a little bit of email contact with over the last year or so. But the last time I saw her was when my family lived on Braddock Road in Silver Spring, MD and her family lived next door. And that was in the late sixties or early seventies! So we hadn’t seen each other in thirty five years and now she’s teaching photography at UK in Lexington, KY and she saw she’d be right on our route and graciously invited us to stop in for a late lunch or early dinner. Lexington was around 500 miles from home and her dog Kenna was very considerate and allowed Ivory and Nicky to stretch their legs in the backyard while Ruth and I went out for dinner. While I was driving Ruth back to pick up her car, she was programming a shortcut out of town into my GPS! You don’t get service like that just anywhere you go.

Tonight we stayed at the Motel 6 in Evansville, IN – 4321 Highway 41 N, Evansville, IN, 47711, to be precise. To be even more precise, N38º 01’ 04.2” x W087º 32’ 16.7”. A little bit north of home and a lot west. We’re also in the central time zone. The mileage was 112,444 when we arrived. And I know we arrived precisely at 8:42 PM Central (9:42 PM Eastern) because that’s the time it says on my cell phone when it rang the second I was pulling into my parking space when my friend Andrew called! Perfect timing!

The desk clerk asked what kind of dog I had and I told her it was a Husky. She told me she’s had a lot of experience with Huskies – she lived in the Northwest Territories in Canada from 1975 to 1978! I don’t know if any of you recall the geography I’ve talked about regarding this trip. Key West at 24º, Richmond at 37 º, Whitehorse at around 60 º or 61 º. She lived at 78 º for three years! Wow. What are the odds of going on a driving trip from Virginia to Canada and the first people I talk to when I leave VA are from Ontario and the last person I talk to before I stop for the night lived in the Northwest Territories. Crazy.

Anyway, the dogs have been outstanding travelers and they’re ready to go to sleep – and so am I!

February 2, 2006

February 2, 2006

Yukon bound!

Starting mileage: 111,745. It’s pitch dark outside and in a couple of minutes I’ll be turning this computer off, packing it up, throwing it in the car, then the dogs and we’re off to: Starbucks! The car is already fueled up and the dogs and I are eating breakfast right now – this minute – and we’ll head down and fill up the thermoses and head up to 64 west and head for the Yukon!

I’m nervous – I’ll admit it. This is going to be a long trip and it will be hard to be away from all my friends and loved ones for so long. But thanks for the great, great support I’ve gotten as I’ve prepared and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again in March.

If I miss a night or two of writing, don’t be concerned – it’s because the place where I’m spending the night doesn’t have an internet connection. But no matter how tired I am, if I have an internet connection I’m going to put up at least a paragraph and a picture.

Also, I pick Pat up at the airport in Vancouver, British Columbia at 12:30 PM on Wednesday, February 8. And once I leave BC, that’s it for cell phone service until I get back to BC, probably at the end of February or the beginning of March. But my hotel in the Yukon has an internet connection, so I’ll definitely be in e-contact the whole time.

You’re all great – I’ll be thinking about you when Ivory and Nicky and I are up in the Yukon shivering! See you in March,

Love,

Jay

One week from today…

…when we’re parked at this Starbucks it will be 6:00 in the morning – an hour and fifteen minutes before sunrise and too dark to take a picture! But this is where we’ll be, our last stop in Richmond before we hit the road. We plan to be on I-64 West with the cruise control on by 6:30 AM. So when the sun rises around 7:15, we’ll be almost to Charlottesville. By lunchtime a week from today we’ll probably be almost to Charleston, WV and stopping for a bite to eat and the first of many, many tanks of gas. Hopefully by dinnertime on that day (Thursday, February 2) we’ll be pretty far west of here and finding a good place to spend the night, and hopefully it will have an internet connection so I can update this blog!

Packing is going smoothly, and I’ve got the car washed and the roof rack up. The car looks so shiny and beautiful in these pictures – I can’t imagine what it will look like when we return in March!

Just FYI, some people had inquired about our general route. Due to uncertainties about weather and road conditions and so forth it’s impossible to tell where we’ll be sleeping each night. But our approximate route will be:

Richmond, VA (N37º x W77º)

St. Louis, MO (N38º x W90º)

Denver, CO (N39º x W105º)

Cheyenne, WY (N41º x W105º)

Salt Lake City, UT (N41º x W112º)

Boise, ID (N44º x W116º)

Portland, OR (N45º x W122º)

Seattle, WA (N47º x W122º)

Vancouver, BC (N49º x W123º)

Whitehorse, YT (N61º x W135º)

According to my Trip Tiks from AAA, that route will take 4,761.9 miles. Of course, that doesn’t take into account stops for gas, food, coffee, restrooms, hotels, etc. I’ll be surprised if it’s less than 5,000 miles to get out there. I’ll have a lot of what my brother Shane referred to as “Zen time,” as in driving across Kansas and seeing a sign that says “State line, 423 miles” and there’s nothing but grass and fence and sky (hopefully not filled with snow clouds) as far as the eye can see.

I’ll post my location every night I’m able. I’ll give the address or whatever for “normal” people, and for you geeks (that would include all males in my immediate family, and a few others) I’ll give my location by latitude and longitude, as in the list above. If you don’t understand that but you’re interested, there will be two numbers: an “N” with a number after it and a “W” with a number after it. “N” is northern latitude, or degrees north of the equator. As the number gets larger, we’re going farther north. “W” is western longitude, or degrees west of Greenwich (London) England. As the number gets larger, we’re going farther west. The numbers following the degrees are just smaller and smaller “slices” of a degree. Here are some approximate examples of places, just to help you get oriented:

The Equator: 0º

The North Pole: N90º

My house - Richmond, VA: N37º 36’ 09.8” x W77º 33’ 16.0”

Key West: N24º x W81º

Atlanta: N33º x W84º

Chicago: N41º x W87º

Seattle: N47º x W122º

Vancouver: N49º x W123º

Whitehorse: N60º x W135º

On the chart of our route that appear near the top, notice the number after “N” grows larger as we go North and the number after “W” grows larger as go West.

Also, if you’re not from Richmond, or if you are from Richmond and you didn’t see yesterday’s Richmond Times Dispatch, Mark Holmberg wrote a very nice article in the Metro section about the dogs and me and this trip (among other things). You can read the complete text of the article if you click the link that says “VIEW MY COMPLETE PROFILE” near the upper right hand corner of this blog. Once there, look to the left and under our picture (that picture was taken by Shane up at Mom and Dad’s house around Christmas) there is a space that says “Contact.” Below that, click on the link that says “My Web Page.” You’ll see a couple of pictures of Ivory and Nicky and a picture of my house below them. Just go down a little bit farther and you’ll see links to three nice articles that Mark has written in the past. The one from yesterday’s paper is up there now too.

I may be updating a little more frequently between now and the start of the trip – no promises, though. Until then, have a great day,

Jay

Sixteen days until we leave...

January 17, 2006

Sixteen days left until departure. I haven’t posted anything in quite a while so I just thought I’d put up a picture or two and a quick note. One picture is of the stack of boxes I’m going to be taking on the trip – pretty boring, and they’re all still empty. But another picture is of the James River in downtown Richmond. I took it last Thursday (January 12) when Tom and I were down there.

Packing is going well (even though the boxes are still empty) and the rest of the trip preparations are about where they need to be with sixteen days left. I still need to wash the car and get an oil change and put the roof rack up, but we’re well prepared. Sometimes it seems like the time is flying by but sometimes it feels like it’s going really… really… slow…. But it will be here before we know it.