Tag: Yukon

ATV Tour

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Things, Travel1 Comment

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.

 

Kluane

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Things, Travel1 Comment

Today, I did a day tour of Kluane National Park. The tour description mentioned going to the visitor’s center, a lake, and a small park. How can that take 8 hours?

There were only 5 of us on the tour. We went to the visitor’s center, two lakes, two hikes to overlooks, an old bridge, and multiple roadway overlooks. We saw dall sheep, although you needed binoculars to know they were sheep.The mountains are stunning, rugged, snow-capped, and wild. There are no roads into the park. The only way in is to hike or fly. The whole area is a UNESCO world heritage site and contains Kluane National Park, Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park, Glacier Bay National Park, and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

I’m glad the hikes were short. My ankle did real well for only having surgery a month ago.

We learned a little about the history of the area, the First Nation’s tribes, the gold rush and the construction of the Alaska Highway.

It was a 10 hour day. I went straight to dinner after we got back. I iced my ankle after dinner and fought hard to stay awake. Now it’s 11:30pm and I’m back on the tour bus heading out of town in hopes of seeing Aurora Boreals. There’s 15 people on this tour. We get back around 4:00am. I may have bitten off more than I can chew.

Runners

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Things, TravelLeave a comment

Another “short” drive – only 4.5 hours.  I checked out the sign post forest on the way out of town.  It was far more impressive than pictures online showed.  I stopped in another town for breakfast.  No animal sightings today.  It was a pretty drive, but not spectacular.  The leaves started changing to brilliant yellow and orange.

On my way into Whitehorse, I saw a race.  There were people running along the highway with race bibs on.  People and motor homes lined the highway, cheering them on.  It was not as unique as chatting with a bear, but it was interesting.  

After I checked into my hotel, I did laundry. The dryer worked and dried things in one go. That’s a new experience in travel for me. Laundry made my day!

I had dinner at a packed restaurant downtown.  There were hardly any cars in town, but all restaurants seemed packed.

I had an 8:00pm reservation for Eclipse hot springs, which was about a half hour outside town.  Again, hardly and cars, but packed with people.  They have at least 4 warm pools, maybe more.  And there is a cold pool nearby each warm pool.  They have steam rooms and saunas also.  It was a bit of a process:  take shoes off, check in and get your locker key, get a blue bin, take a shower using your blue bin as a shower door lock and way to hold your stuff, put everything in locker, choose a hot pool and sit and relax, then get in a cool pool, repeat pools.  The first warm pool I chose was covered in people. As I sat, they all seemed to know each other.  Was this the party place of Whitehorse?  It was adults only – fan of that!  With some time, I realized it was many large groups of people.  They were the racers I’d seen earlier.  It was a relay race or team race.  I tried the cold pool.  I remember trying it in Norway and thinking it was ok.  Now, it was not ok.  It stung my feet and legs.  I gave up after 30 seconds and went back eavesdropping  on the race.  Every other pool I tried was also filled with runners.    I only counted 4 other people who didn’t seem to be racers.  It was a beautiful place.  It would have been awesome if it had only been 5 of us.

I looked it up online later.  I think it was the Klondike Road Relay Race, which is a 175-kilometer race from Skagway Alaska to Whitehorse Yukon.  Running over mountain passes is not on my bucket list,  but I can appreciate the skill, coordination,  and training that goes into this.