#8 YUKON
Who would have believed I can do such a hard hike? I'm in Kluane National Park This is Kluane Lake, with a water color just incredible, and a 360 view And a glacier just behind We deserved that view, we hiked up for 4 hours Knowing that half of the hike was only like 2km But it was steep like that, on a 500-600 m elevation gain I never did such a steep and long hike But it was worth it, I'm so happy to have made it I think it's the first time I'm truly happy to deserve my amazing view We are all alone, the view is breathtaking And you can't come here otherwise than hiking, so 100% deserved Welcome to the Yukon! I'm actually cheating, I already arrived 2 weeks ago But it's easier for me to do the explanation part all in one So I left St John's, Newfoundland on the 1st of July And I went for a looong 15h journey, literally through all Canada First I had a 2.5h flight to Montreal, with a 3h stop in Montreal Then a 5.5h flight to Vancouver That's when we started to have nice aerial views from Canada When we crossed all the middle provinces -Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta - it's the Prairies, there are only fields That's why I voluntarily skipped these provinces and directly went on the other side And around the Rockies it really started to be beautiful 1h stop in Vancouver - and it's funny because normally I'm supposed to stop 4 times in Vancouver before really stopping there for real And finally 2.5h to Whitehorse, Yukon This was such an incredible flight, flying over the Pacific mountains during 2.5h When I left Vancouver the sun was setting, and as I was heading straight north, we just followed the sunset for 2.5h
So I arrived in Whitehorse around midnight, but not my suitcase With 3 different flights it was obvious it was gonna happen But when we landed in Vancouver I saw it coming off the plane, so I knew it made it to there, it just didn't take the last flight So it was a mess, I waited for an hour the time to see that my suitcase wasn't coming through the carousel I had to file a report to Air Canada so that they can give me a tracking number They told me that it was usual lately, that it could take a few days to arrive It's rarer but it could even take a few weeks - Sorry??? Travel troubles meh But another thing is that I traveled on July 1st, which is Canada Day So I spent it in the plane, too bad but doesn't matter But the problem is that my host family couldn't pick me up directly in Whitehorse, because it was too late and they live a few hours away And as it was Canada Day, everything was fully booked in Whitehorse, or over expensive I had a backup solution for that: A few weeks before I posted a message and a Yukon helpers Facebook group To ask if anybody could help me and host me just for one night And I found a very sweet couple with a baby, who picked me up at the airport They waited for more than one hour the time I didn't get my suitcase I slept at their house, and stayed in the morning, they were super nice, people are so helpful They were coming from Ottawa, they were francophones so it was cool To end up the suitcase story, while I was in Whitehorse I went to Walmart To buy basic stuff like 2 t-shirts, underwear, toothbrush... Normally it will be refunded by Air Canada to compensate the fact that I didn't have my stuff Ironically I was lucky when I left St John's, because my suitcase was too heavy They told me to lighten it but that I can have a second carry on with me I already had my backpack, so I took a purse from my suitcase and stuffed it with a lot of random stuff And I thought that I should take a few basic stuff just in case something happens with my suitcase So I brought like an extra t-shirt, underwear, sweater What a good call it was, it came out very useful And finally they took 5 days to return my suitcase 5 fucking days I didn't have my stuff Adventures started already while I just arrived Then my new Workaway family finally came to pick me up I'm in Haines Junction, 1.5h west of Whitehorse It changes from what I've been doing usually, I'm in a family with Meghann and Ryan They have 2 kids - Margaret, 9 and Benji, 7 And there's also Ryan's mom who's here during summer to help them They have a small hobby farm in a large property with a lot of animals They have 3 house dogs + Jan's dog (Ryan's mom) 3 sled dogs, because Ryan used to be a musher He had a whole kennel, and now these are the 3 old remaining They are totally deaf, it's an elderly care for sled dogs There are a cat, 2 horses And a few pigs who will become bacon And there's also another girl in Workaway, a German girl who's a bit younger than me, called Melina And she comes from Kehl, just next to Strasbourg It's crazy how it's a small world, we lived 10 km away from each other in Europe and we meet on the other side of the world It's really nice that she's here, so we can do the chores together If we want to go hiking we can go together, to not face bears alone We can have access to a car from time to time to explore the surroundings, which is convenient The chores here are mostly farm chores Lots of gardening, collecting dog poop, horse poop, feeding the pigs I also cleaned the cars and the fridges Also taking care of the kids, I helped them sorting out their toys and clothes So it's quite hard work, I think it's the Workaway I work the most compared to the others I did before But at least it changes What's also funny is that Ryan is hunting bisons, so for a lot of meals we eat bison meat It replaces beef, it kinda tastes similar to beef but dryer, but it's good So I have the wild culinary experience So little brief about the Yukon: it's not a province but a territory, completely North West of Canada, bordering Alaska It's really not populated, there's about 40 000 inhabitants in the whole Yukon And 25 000 of them are living in the capital Whitehorse, so it's really deserted And where I am in Haines Junction there's not even 1000 people living The Yukon in summer is also about the midnight sun Well it's not exactly the midnight sun because we're not beyond the Arctic circle But still, the sun sets around 23:30 and rise around 4 am But it's still very bright, the only "night" time we have is between 2 and 4 am The rest of the time there is daylight, or it's very bright at night I thought it would disturb me to sleep but finally you get used to it quickly It's nice because you can enjoy being outside a lot But what I wasn't expecting is that when I arrived, it was 30° What is this world, if I come to the Big North it's to have cool temperatures, not 30° It's quite unusual, but for a few days it was really hot Ironically, the only time I could have used my real summer clothes - tank tops, shorts, swimming suit - I didn't have my stuff And obviously, as soon as I got my stuff back it started to get cooler, so too bad The following days were more around 20°, now it's even down to 15° and more bad weather But I'm fine with it, I still prefer it than the 40° you have currently So we're good in the Big North But what is hell on Earth here are the mosquitos I never saw that many mosquitos, I'm being eaten it's awful It's mosquito's hell on Earth So I have spent 2 weeks here, tomorrow we're going with Melina to Whitehorse and surroundings for the weekend At the end she will leave me in Whitehorse, she will come back here and I will get picked up by my new family For my new workaway where I will stay one week, so I'll catch you there Second workaway in the Yukon, I'm now in Marsh Lake, about 40 min away from Whitehorse, by a lake I'm at Kristin and Ron's place, but I will not talk forever about it because it's not the most incredible Workaway They are super nice, but the house is really dirty You can see the mess behind me, but if it was just messy I wouldn't mind But inside it's really gross, anyways And I'm not doing a lot here, initially my main task was to care about the kids They have 2 kids who are 7 and 9 I was watching them and playing with them, but after a few days they left to their aunt's So I didn't have anything to do anymore They had a rental mobile home that was returned and needed a clean up, I'm stacking wood It's really a chill workaway, but I'm good with it after the previous one in the farm They also have kayaks and canoe that I can use, I couldn't use them before because the weather was bad or too windy Maybe I will use them today (finally no) And they are very nice because they lend me their car to go exploring Dawson City I'm in Dawson City! I went very North compared to Whitehorse & co, I drove for about 8h As it was a long drive and pretty pricey in gas, I posted on a Facebook Yukon rideshare group I found a woman to come with me on the way up I asked her 40$, it was about half the gas price, but she gave me 70$ And in addition a guy asked me to get his fridge order in Whitehorse and drop it here, he gave me 100$ So the whole drive up and my hotel night have been paid up And tomorrow I also get someone someone on the way down to split the cost, so it's really worth it There's a really special atmosphere in Dawson, as you can see it's really a western town The roads are made of dirt, the sidewalks are in wood Dawson City is known for being the Gold Rush theatre in 1898 It's in the Klondike, where they started to find gold and it attracted a crazy amount of people In 1898 there was 40 000 people living here People were coming from all around the world to try finding gold It was the biggest city in Western Canada, it was even called the Paris of the North Even nowadays there are French Cancan shows, but I messed up my organization tonight, I was too late There is a series about this Gold Rush story, it's called Klondike It's only a few episodes, it's with Richard Madden from Game of Thrones I recommend this series, it sets up in Dawson City, that's how I discovered the Yukon when I watched it a few years ago It's worth the long detour when you're visiting the Yukon Even I tried to look for gold At the visitor center you can rent a pan (a big plate to pan gold) And there are free claims by the river where you can pan gold yourself and keep it So I got amused and I went gold panning by the river, that's how I will build up my fortune in Canada I didn't find a lot, but still a few flakes Little tutorial for gold panning with the pan I get water in the river with a bit of sand I shake to get rid of the dirt Then I rince, and as gold is a metal it's supposed to stay in the bottom Normally all the gold flakes are staying And there is a tiny gold flake, it's the beginning of the wealth There's also dirt but I still got a few gold flakes, my precious! There's another special tradition here, it's the sourtoe cocktail There's a bar here where the tradition is to take a shot with a mummified human toe in it - yummy The rule is that your lips must touch it, but you shouldn't swallow it or you get a 2500$ fine Who wants to swallow that it's gross No I didn't do it, I just went to take a look at it, it was all black so gross There's also the writer Jack London who lived here, who wrote "White Fang" and "The call of the wild" I was also looking for gold It's funny because the last third of the drive was through the mountains, and it just looked like the Vosges A bit disappointing to go up to here to finally look like the Vosges I think I will end it here for the Yukon, and Alaska will come pretty quickly
2022-08-09 21:55
