On the May long weekend my mind was filled with images of greenhouses full of plants, guys in bright coloured SGC shirts running from truck to tractor, the smell of fresh manure, and the warm heat of the summer sun on my back. Our Yukon May long weekend was a little different. We headed north on the Klondike Hwy. towards Dawson City. I've never driven that highway and it was so good to just get out of Whitehorse after the long winter. It was our first big trip with our new Subaru Crosstrek which made the trip feel even more rewarding- just knowing that we wouldn't have to second guess if it would make it. We headed to a friend's cabin with two other couples on a beautiful lake called Fox Lake. It was still frozen, but some brave boys did manage to paddle a bit of the perimeter of the lake, while using a canoe paddle as an icebreaker. It also snowed much of the time and we were very thankful for the woodstove inside the cabin. We ate good food, played games, went for hikes, and just spent time getting to know each other. It was really great.
Since that weekend, spring has blossomed in Whitehorse! The Yukon river is almost all the way melted through, the trees are budding filling the parks with vivid greens, I've put on shorts and flipflops a couple times, and the tourists are here! I'm sure the population of Whitehorse has doubled in the last month. Walmart is full of RVs and traffic has slowed considerably. There are a number of parking spaces that are reserved only for tourists from May to October and our PEI plates are long gone so we can't take advantage of that anymore. There is also a restaurant called "Klondike Rib and Salmon" that opened on Mother's Day and every night there is a lineup out the door of people waiting to get in! We went once and the ribs are delicious!
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| Beavers are hard at work along the Millenium Trail. |
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| High Season has arrived. Population = doubled. |
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| The way I get around. I wll not be using this for the bike race :) |
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| Beautiful crocus flowers- the first to bravely poke up their heads in May. |
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| The Whitehorse Rapids- now the Hydroelectric Dam. If you look closely people are fishing and there is even a red canoe out exploring! |
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| It is still very dry in Whitehorse. This area is normally flooded with water. We don't get the same kind of downpours as Ontario and I miss the thunderstorms. |
School is coming to a close and the kids are restless! The longer days really does affect everyone too. Kids are up later and tired during their first classes. I have found it difficult to sleep and so we have to put a blanket over our bedroom windows so that it is dark enough to sleep. The hours of daylight are from about 11 pm to 4:30 am. It's incredible!
Marcel has started golfing every Monday night with some buddies of his and he is really enjoying it. We are also training for a 240 km bike race that happens in two weeks. It is the Kluane Chilkat International Bike Race and it begins in Haines Junction, YT and finishes in Haines, Alaska. We are on an 8 person team that I've been told is not competetive. I'm hoping it stays non-competetive when it gets to my leg because I'm the anchor, rider number 8! Marcel is rider number 6 and has to come down some crazy steep hills on his 30 km ride. My ride is pretty flat, but I may be riding into the wind since I'm headed towards the water. It's going to be fun! We've been borrowing a friend's roadbike to train a little bit and it is pretty incredible how fast those roadbikes can go! It'll be a great experience!
This week I've been working at the MacBride Museum a bit already getting prepared for the kids camps I will be running. There are seven different camps and each are a week long. I have two weeks off in the summer and then school begins again in mid-August already! I'll write more about the MacBride camps in future posts. I'm excited about teaching kids about Yukon legends and history and becoming certified to give tours on the National Historical site of the S.S. Klondike!
I'm also so excited that Marcel and I are taking a week off this summer to travel a bit in the Yukon and hang out with some visitors from Ontario. Marcel's parents are coming first and we are hoping to head up to Dawson City with them and tour them around Whitehorse. Right after Marcel's parents, my brother and his wife are coming up for a few days. It is going to be so nice to see family!! And it will be so great to be able to show them the beauty of the Yukon and have some time to enjoy it with them!
Twenty-one more days until Summer Solstice!!
