I wanted to a helicopter or plane flight over the glaciers.  I called a ton of companies before I left home to see if I could join an existing tour.  None of them had existing tours.  I didn’t want to pay for the whole plane/helicopter.  So I booked an atv tour with a different company.   I won’t get to see glaciers, but it should still be fun.

I woke up feeling miserable.   I felt like I had a hangover even though I didn’t drink the night before.  I didn’t get back from the Aurora tour until 4am.  Some people on the Aurora tour bought packages of more than one night.  They are doing this every night.  That might kill me.  The tour was great, but mother nature didn’t cooperate.  They take you about 45 minutes outside of town to the “Aurora Center”.  They have a cabin, several huge yurts, and some tepees.  They had games, books, snacks and a wood stove in the cabin.  They set a fire in one of the tepees.  You could hang out outside or in while you waited. 

The tour was 15 people, but the center could handle 50+.  I mostly hung out with the three ladies from Australia.   The rest of the people were from Asia, Japan mostly.  It was cloudy and the clouds never lifted.  If you took a picture with a camera, you could see green and pink clouds.  Some cell phones took ok pictures.   Mine got nothing but a grey sky or just all black.  The lights were happening, just not for us.

I almost canceled the atv tour.  I almost called to see if I could do the half day instead of the full day.  Instead, I sucked it up and went.   I didn’t read the driving directions until I was on my way.  After reading the directions: “turn into the driveway of the blue house, drive past the blue house and we’ll be the next cabin.”, I thought this might be some dude’s house, not an ATV facility.

I got to the cabin.  It was a tiny cabin where Fabian, his wife Raphaelle and their young daughter live.  Two ATVs sat out front.  A sled dog greeted me.  It was definately a private tour.  I’m so glad I didn’t cancel.  He outfitted me with a helmet and gave me an overview of what the day would be like.

We rode to a couple different lakes.  We rode through the river.  The fresh air was exactly what I needed to feel better.  We could go as fast or slow as I wanted.  We went up to the top of one of the hills with great views over the whole area and stunning views of the mountains all around.  The hills appeared to be lit from the inside with reds, oranges, and every hue of yellow.  At the top, we had lunch, which Raphaelle had made – an omelet sandwich with cheese and kale from their garden.  There was also tea made from plants in the area.   This was the best part – the attention to detail and the personal touch.

We went back down to another lake. We accessed it from the property of a friend of his. It was another cabin. This was a whole neighborhood of small spaced out cabins. All of them were pretty simple. All of them had outhouses. I find it funny that I can’t get the idea of living with an outhouse out of my mind. If I had to go out into the Yukon cold several times a night…… brrrr…. Maybe an outhouse is easier than plumbing, I don’t know. Maybe it’s a factor of what you are used to.

As we sat by the lake, I learned more about Fabian and Raphaelle. They came out from France for dog sledding (they had 12 dogs then) and loved it so they stayed. He works as ski patrol in the winter and bike patrol in the summer. He also leads people on tours – atv, BC ski, dog sled (he has 5 dogs now), and snowmobile. He is hoping to make a good business of this so he doesn’t have to do patrol anymore. I love this and hope he does. As we sat, he pulled out berry muffins made from berries they picked. I’m very glad I found this company and didn’t cancel.

On my way back to the hotel, I stopped at Miles Canyon in Whitehorse for a couple of pictures.