The ExploreNorth BlogThe ExploreNorth BlogThe writer is a resident of Canada's Yukon Territory with a passion for Exploring the North. This blog is one of the vehicles used to share that passion through words and images. Articles
Renovation Progress
2008-05-09 18:30:00 It’s finally starting to feel like Spring, even though the wind still feels like it’s blowing straight off the glaciers. We’re in major renovation mode now. The wood I cut is almost all removed from around the property, though I have a lot of cutting-to-length, splitting and stacking to do yet. What used to be a closet at the back door has been cut down to counter height, to serve as a serving area for the dining room, and to let more light in (combined with a new glass back door). The barn is cleaned out and half of the interior wall cut out to allow for vehicle storage (the pickup for now, but who knows in the future ). The 50 or so wheelbarrow loads of straw and horse nuggets are spread over the septic field to help raise it’s level above Spring runoff. Yesterday the Home Hardware truck arrived with $6,000 worth of doors, decking and fence supplies, and I brought a pickup load down from the cabin where I’d stashed it when we moved from the city hou... More About: Progress , Renovation
Magic Moments on the Stewart-Cassiar
2008-05-05 18:45:00 I had intended to post a fairly lengthy report about my trip home from Calgary, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day. I do want to show you a very special moment that happened during the trip, though. I left Stewart at 6:00 am (an hour before the only breakfast restaurant in town opened) and was at the Bear Glacier as the sun came up in a light-cloudy sky a half-hour later. On the way into Stewart this was a spooky spot, with avalanches coming down everywhere. This morning, though, it was -1°C so things were temporarily firmed up. There wasn’t a sound, and I sat there for quite a while soaking up all of the spirit of the place I could. Moments like this are why I travel. (click on the photo to enlarge it) More About: Magic
Spam and Blogs
2008-05-05 18:10:00 You all know about email spam, but many of you won’t know that blogs are prime targets for spammers. Not just sex ads like the majority of email spams, but anything you can imagine, from travel agents to magazine sales. The only thing that keeps me relatively sane is a Wordpress plugin called Spam Karma 2. What would life be like without it? Well, in the past 24 hours, Spam Karma has caught 887 phoney posts!!! Obviously if I had to deal with that manually, this blog would have been closed a long time ago. In my perfect world there would be a minimum 2 year jail term for spammers and taggers… More About: Blogs
Wolf Hybrids & Cats
2008-05-04 16:25:00 Kayla is a such a sweet dog I often chuckle at how she came into my life, and about the wolf-hybrid horror stories that circulate. She’s a registered wolf hybrid from a breeder in Ocala, Florida. When she was abandoned in Whitehorse, I took her in with the understanding that it would be short-term until I could find a suitable home for a dog “known” to be unpredictable and potentially violent. That was in 2000. It quickly became apparent that she was nothing like the legends suggest she would be. The photo below shows her with Latimer yesterday afternoon - I never let Kayla have puppies, but Latimer happily accepts that role More About: Cats , Hybrids , Wolf
Road Trip - Whitehorse to Calgary
2008-04-17 19:06:00 It’s time for a major road trip to see some of my family in Calgary and Kelowna. It was timed so that I could help my daughter and grand-daughters move when I reached Calgary. I left the house at 6:15 am on April 13th with the temperature at 0°C. When I turned onto the Alaska Highway I found it quite amusing to have the GPS voice tell me that the first turn I needed to make was 1,389 km away! That’s the roundabout at Dawson Creek, Mile 0 of the highway. Gas at Whitehorse yesterday had risen to $1.259 per liter at most stations, but SuperSave still had it on for $1.199. Once I lost Whitehorse radio at Jake’s Corner I fired up some classic John Lee Hooker on my iPod, putting me in a better marathon-road-trip mood Topped up my gas at the Yukon Motel in Teslin for $1.269 per liter. The photo below is southbound at Logjam Creek, Km 1165. Rancheria Lodge was open and had a survey crew staying there - gas was $1.299. Reached Watson Lake at 10:55, with the temperatur... More About: Trip , Road Trip , Road
Keep Fit by Photographing Polar Bears
2008-04-11 20:16:00 Or at least trying to photograph polar bear. This solo sport helps develop agility, coordination and mental acuity in survivors. It’s also great fun to take photos of the participating athletes. More About: Bears , Polar , Polar bears
Want More Winter? - Go To Calgary!
2008-04-10 17:09:00 I just pulled this image from the Calgary traffic cam site - it might be funny if I wasn’t leaving for Calgary on Sunday. More About: Winter
Digging our way into Spring!
2008-04-09 21:25:00 It’s not really Spring yet with well-below-freezing temperatures every night, but many folks in the North are digging their way into Spring, if not Summer. Up in deep snow country (the White Pass), the Yukon Suspension Bridge has the trenches dug into the property, now has to wait for Mother Nature to lend a hand. At Spirit Lake Lodge, they got an early start and are now well into drying out. Here at Mary Lake, I’m doing lots of digging. As well as getting the driveway dried out, I’d like to have the white stuff gone from a few areas when I get back from a road trip to Calgary and Kelowna (I’m leaving on Sunday) so I can get a permanent dog fence built, with gates so I can get my truck back to the barn and firewood shed. With a couple of huskies, I’m doing other digging as well - that’s a job that some people are able to find the humour in What we really need now is a day or 2 of heavy rain - Spring arrives very quickly when that happens, ...
Does Progress Have to be Ugly?????
2008-04-02 18:36:00 I don’t think I’m a radical at all when it comes to progress - I understand the greys, not just the blacks and whites of issues. But Yukon Electrical seems to have carte blanche to do whatever they want in the Yukon, with no regulatory and/or public input, and that bugs me. When the Mayo-Dawson power line was built a few years ago, a lot of people raised hell about the location of it - right beside a highway that used to have some great views. The result of the complaints - nada. Now another power line is being built along the South Klondike Highway (and apparently along the North Klondike as well). There is a power line along the South Klondike now, but it’s mostly back in the bush, out of sight. I assume that this is an upgrade to the line. I’ve heard nothing about it - was anybody consulted? Did they go through the YESAP process that everyone else has to go through to do anything related to the land? I’ve haven’t been in touch with Yukon going... More About: Progress , Ugly
Chain Saw + Sweat = Mountain View
2008-03-27 22:40:00 I love our new property. Most mornings, we have over 150 birds feeding at the 2 feeders or close by, and their sound filling the forest is wonderful. Renovations have started on both property and house, though, and seeing if we could get a mountain view without losing any privacy was high priority. This was the view from the breakfast nook 3 days ago. Another issue was that a tree had fallen against the barn, doing some minor damage, and a huge one that could do serious damage is leaning over the barn. I got the view cutline figured out, and the first major sweat has been cutting down trees the past couple of days. Today I’m resting - that’s tough work for an old man! This is the view looking back at the house from half way up the corral. Tah-dah! Here’s Golden Horn this morning. I LOVE mountains, and having this view has made a huge difference to both of us. More About: Mountain View , View , Mountain , Chain
That Spring Feeling!
2008-03-22 02:20:00 When I posted last Saturday that Winter was over, I must have tempted fate, because Father Winter returned the next day and got the de-icing crews at YXY back to work. We’ve had a good run of days now where the temperature gets above freezing for a while now, though, and the White Pass summit area is loaded with people enjoying what may be the best snow conditions of the year. I was down to Skagway yesterday - the summit had 4-6 inches of fresh snow, the temperature was -6°C, and there was a steady stream of RVs of all types coming down the highway. Playing hookey for half a day or so to get a good parking spot at the Summit or Log Cabin is almost mandatory with these conditions on what, for many people, is a 4-day weekend! Cathy and I were out for a walk around the neighbourhood today, and saw a few pussy willows fully out, and many of the willows are swollen. It seems pretty early, but it’s great to see them - come on Spring ! More About: Feeling
Our Best Travel Aid
2008-03-20 01:36:00 The Washington Post is running an interesting poll on what readers consider to be the best travel innovation of the last decade. The leader by far at this point is suitcases with wheels, which is what I chose. But there are a lot of great choices. For our New Zealand trip, a GPS (one of the choices in the poll) was extremely handy. We bought a Garmin nüvi 350 at Amazon just before we left, and downloaded the New Zealand map set. Now you might think that a Web geek would think right away that a techno-thing like a GPS would be hugely cool, but it was Cathy who really wanted it. I was convinced that printed maps would do just fine, as they have for all of my trips over the past 40-odd years. That feeling began to die the first time I needed fuel for the campervan. Cathy just asked “Bitchin’ Betty” where to get diesel, and she said that there was a Mobil station 1.1 km ahead, on the left-hand side of the road right past a curve on the highway. The curve was tight e... More About: Travel
Senior Sled Dogs Need Homes
2008-03-17 03:07:00 I just got this message from Michelle Phillips: I am writing concerning Thalina Tchulokvsky. For those of you that know her Thalina is a renowned bush woman. She has lived most of her life in the bush with her close companions - her sled dogs. Some of you might know Thalina also as Frances. Thalina has been diagnosed with ALS which is an extremely debilitating disease. So far she cannot use her right hand and is also having difficulty swallowing and speaking. She has 14 sled dogs right now. Majority of her sled dogs are older 10+ and they are just looking for retirement homes. There are three 4 year olds that have nice builds and lots of energy. I will be picking up her dogs on Wednesday and I am looking for homes for these dogs or fostering while I look for homes for them. Please contact me if you know of anybody that would help of if you’d like to help yourself. Take care, Michelle Phillips 867-399-4894 More About: Senior , Dogs , Homes
Sorting Through the Memories
2008-03-15 18:42:00 Back home - it feels so good! Particularly because Winter appears to be over (sorry about your luck, TamaraLyn!). Although it’s -25 at the moment, it’s a gorgeous day. My cold is worse, but our MIA suitcase is already sitting at the airport waiting to be picked up, so I’m heading out into the sunshine shortly anyway. I brought back 2 or 3 pounds of paper of various types as part of the journey documentation, and that’s now rough-sorted onto the dining room table. I’m looking forward to starting the detailed photo-journal (today?), because that’s when the real re-living of it happens for me. Huge thanks to Laura, Steve and Rachel for taking such good care of our home and family. We truly couldn’t make a trip like that if we still had to “warehouse” our fur-kids. And thanks to all of you who commented, made suggestions and asked questions during the trip - the blog has been great fun as part of the whole experience. The photo below... More About: Memories , Sorting
Our Final HoliDay
2008-03-13 06:59:00 Today was all about kauri trees, the ginormous “fathers of the forest” that were all but eliminated by loggers. We saw one of the largest remaining (with a diameter of over 13 meters) in torrential rain, then visited the extremely good Kauri Museum. I all of a sudden developed a bad cold last night, so it wasn’t a top day to start with, and I’m very tired now. This is my last post from down under. My next post about the Far North will be about the one 17,000 km north of the Far North we were in yesterday More About: Holiday , Final
A Day in the Far North
2008-03-12 07:04:00 Wednesday, March 12, 18:55 (our itinerary) Today we let someone else do the driving, and that decision gave us a much better experience than we could have gotten on our own. The tour was to Cape Reinga, New Zealand’s furthest-north point of land. Along the way we had a drive up 90 Mile Beach, took a close look at the $250,000 Snapper Classic (the adrenalin sport of fishing), went on a wild ride down a huge sand dune on a surfboard, hiked to the Cape reina lighthouse (where the photo below was shot), played in the surf…. and took about 250 pictures! Tomorrow we begin the 6-hour run down the west coast back to Auckland (we don’t have to be in the city until about 4:00 pm) - there is, of course, lots to do along the way. More About: North
Water & Wine
2008-03-11 07:01:00 Tuesday, March 11, 18:53 (our itinerary) Our “down day” was wonderful. The day began with rain, and showers were forecast to last all day, but after some indecision we decided to go back to Maitai Bay (note the correct spellng this time - our Lonely Planet guide spelled it Matai). A school group was there, but we hiked to the far end of the right-hand cove and were alone the whole time. On the walk we encountered the poor little stingray below, dead (very recently) just above the high tide line. The tiny cove where we stopped now has my vote as the best all-round beach in New Zealand - the scenery, the water temperature and clarity, the ability to be alone, and the combination of great swimming and great snorkelling side-by-side surpass any other beach we’ve spent time at. The Free Beach Group agrees At about 2:30, we stopped in at the nearby Karikari Estate winery for lunch and a tasting. The food and 2 of the wines in particular were superb, as is the loc... More About: Wine , Water
Lots of Exploring Still To Do
2008-03-10 09:35:00 Monday, March 10, 21:25 (our itinerary) When we board the plane home on Friday, there’s going to still be so much that we’d like to have done, but we’re trying hard to keep in mind that we’ve seen and done more than we dreamed possible a few years ago. Here’s a quick look at yesterday and today: This is the best dolphin view we got, and it just lasted a split second. Darryl’s Dinner Cruise at Paihia was a lot of fun and the food was excellent. A view of Matauri Bay from the side of the road. The site where the document that essentially formed New Zealand was signed by Maori and British representatives in 1840 was a must-see. We’re having a down day tomorrow, relaxing at Matai Bay (seen below) and the nearby winery. More About: Exploring
More Beaches - w00t
2008-03-09 20:24:00 Just a quick note as we head out. Th dolphin swim tour yesterday was a dud, the dinner cruise was great. Tonight we’ll be at Whatuwhiwhi, in the middle of “incredible beach” country, and the sun is still shining. More About: Beaches
Glorious Sun and Endless Beaches
2008-03-08 19:11:00 Sunday, March 9, 07:10 (our itinerary) We’re down to our last week now, and have mixed feelings about that. We both miss our home, our family and our friends, but we are really going to miss New Zealand - the land and the people. The weather has turned gorgeous, with temperatures hitting about 24, and we’re passing by (and dipping into) a seemingless endless line of spectacular beaches. We’re sticking to back roads whenever possible - going 100kmh among lots of other vehicles is not our idea of a good explore. Our first major stop once we got off the motorway that took us through greater Auckland was the Goat Island Marine Reserve, where we finally got our snorkel gear wet (that’s Cathy in the picture below). This is a great diving/snorkelling location, with lots of large fish coming almost within reach (though illegal, apparently they get fed by many swimmers). We also took one of the better tour deals in the country, a 45-minute trip around the island in a ... More About: Beaches , Endless
From Beaches to Caves, Rain to Sun
2008-03-05 09:51:00 Wednesday, March 5, 20:20 (our itinerary) We’re now wandering as the mood and weather dictate. Yesterday we started north from Wellington on Highway 1. We had hoped to take a boat trip to the Kapiti Island Nature Reserve, but it didn’t work out, so stopped at a charming roadside cafe (The Red House, at Te Horo) for a breakfast that included free range eggs with bright orange yolks and other ingredients that all tasted like they were harvested in the back yard of the place. The weather started to clear, so we headed west a few miles to Waiketere Beach, where we had to share the 8 kilometers of beach with about 6 other people. A sign at the ramp onto the beach said that the beach is a road, so we drove 4 or 5 k down it - the fine sand packs down like concrete. We tried to get some sun at Waiketere, but the wind was still howling so that didn’t last long, and we decided to go inland to Taupo, one of the most popular holiday destinations for Kiwis. The weather... More About: Beaches , Rain , Caves
Heading North
2008-03-03 19:18:00 Tuesday, March 4, 06:45 We’ve been in Wellington the past couple of days, touring, visiting with friends and their families, and in an hour or so we’ll be heading north. Internet access has been less common than I had expected, but that’s partly because of the region we were in the past week. We’re keeping to our rough itinerary so far, but we’re changing it from here on due mostly to continuing unsettled weather.I won’t attempt to try to tell you at this point about all that we’ve done and seen in the week since my last post. The fact that I’ve now taken 2,249 photos may give you a hint of how long the list is! The touring highlight so far, though, has been the day trip to White Island, a privately owned active volcano. It was astounding, totally blowing away anything that much more famous Rotorua has to offer. Many people online recommend avoiding East Cape due to poor roads and limited facilities, but we really enjoyed it. Off... More About: North , Heading
Variety is the Spice….
2008-02-25 10:02:00 Monday, Feb. 25, 21:20 (our itinerary) The past 24 hours or so has been incredibly varied, and it’s been planned as by far the most expensive 24 hours of our trip. Last night we went to the Mitai Maori cultural show and hangi, an extremely good and varied series of presentations and dinner that went on for almost 4 hours. It ended with a long walk through the forest to see glowworms, which I thought might be silly but was actually very cool. We had some rain, but nothing too heavy. It rained heavily most of the night, but under clearing skies this morning, Cathy and I took a walk to the city park next door to see what initially made Rotorua famous - the hot water in its many forms. It’s quite a sight to see steam coming out of everything from ponds to storm drains and people’s back yards! Then I went back into crazy mode with the folks from Wet & Wild, this time running the Kaituna River with its 7-meter waterfall. The photo below shows us in mid-drop - ... More About: Variety , Spice
Wet & Wild
2008-02-24 05:30:00 Sunday, Feb. 24, 17:20 (our itinerary) The storm intensified overnight, and waking up in Mt. Maunganui was not a particularly pleasant experience. There were still lots of joggers on the boardwalk in front of us, though - the locals seemed to be little bothered by a tropical storm. Although it didn’t cause us to miss any activities, by 09:00 we were on our way a half-hour west to the pick-up point for rafting the world-famous, Class 5, Kairoa River. The Kairoa was an incredible experience, as much for the spectacular beauty as for the world-class whitewater. Not having a camera at the put-in location at the foot of McLaren Falls (a Class 6) made me a little nuts - it was a slot canyon drenched in rain and full of very colourful rafts, kayaks and people. The river can only be run for a few hours on 26 days each year when water is released from a power dam. The river is very different from others I’ve run, in that you have relatively calm pools below each set of ... More About: Wild
Surf’s Up, Dude!
2008-02-23 05:36:00 Saturday, Feb. 23, 17:17 (our itinerary) Mt. Maunganui is hugely popular with Kiwis, but doesn’t show up very often on the itineraries of international travellers. When we arrived, we didn’t have high hopes, but we’re having a great time here. A strong tropical depression has given us screaming winds and now rain, but I climbed “the Mount” this morning (only 232 meters, but on a very impressive track), then Cathy and I watched a big surfing competition for a while before walking the beautiful and varied 45-minute trail around the base of the Mount. With the rain coming down sideways now, we’ve got a load of laundry on the go, and after dinner we’ll be going to the geothermal saltwater pools next door. All in all it’s a great destination for folks like us who want to experience New Zealand rather than merely see it. More About: Surf , Dude
Life is a Beach
2008-02-22 10:12:00 Friday, Feb. 22, 21:10 (our itinerary) Here we sit in our cozy little motorhome in Mt. Maunganui, on the edge of one of New Zealand’s best surfing beaches (that’s our rig on the right). It’s very windy and we’re just listening to the surf and wind now, but for a while we listened to an excellent classic rock station, Radio Hauraki, after a walk on the beach to watch surfers trying to ride the wild waves. We’re heading south down the east coast now, though we were sorry to leave Hahei (pronounced haw HAY). Last night, we had a superb meal at a historic church that now houses a restaurant. My beef filet and Cathy’s rack of lamb were both incredibly tender (my filet was served with a butter knife to cut it, and it worked just fine). As we were leaving Hahei this morning, we took a slight detour to the carpark where the track (hiking trail) to Cathedral Cove begins - the photo below will no doubt explain why another week or so here would be most w... More About: Life , Beach
A Postcard Wedding
2008-02-21 10:14:00 Cathy and I are now married. While we’re sorry that we couldn’t have had some of our family and friends with us, it was a perfect day - Cathedral Cove is both a spectacular and a spiritually powerful place, and the JP, his wife and our witnesses (a couple from Denmark) were wonderful to share our day with. More about our travels as time permits! More About: Wedding , Postcard
Under the Sea & On the Sea
2008-02-18 15:20:00 The city was very quiet on our first day because it was Sunday. Yesterday was very different, but we weren’t downtown much anyway. At 9:00 we met the shuttle bus for Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic Encounter & Underwater World. This was one of Cathy’s must-sees, and I’m now glad it was. From a recreated polar camp to an incredible underwater viewing tunnel and penguin tour by snowcat, it was excellent, well worth the admission (discounted to $26.50 at the Skytower iSite, the New Zealand Tourism office). I shot 214 photos tday, but there’s quite a few duds from Tarlton’s due to the tough shooting conditions (even at ISO 1600, hand-held down to 1/4 second in places), so there are only 153 keepers. It’s hard to decide what to show you - we saw so many great sights. After getting back to town, we walked to the harbour and boarded a Fuller’s ferry ($9 return per person) for the 12-minute ride to Devonport, a charming seaside co...
Whitehorse to Auckland - the Adventure Begins
2008-02-17 18:00:00 I’ve already completely lost track of time. It can’t possibly be only 44 hours since we walked out of the house at Whitehorse on the way to the airport. We’re now well into our exploration of a warm, vibrant city some 14,000 km away. We’re meeting wonderful people, seeing beautiful sights and eating excellent food - we are simply having a ball! Our Air Canada Jazz flight was over an hour late, but we had lots of free time in Vancouver and got a free beer on the flight so it wasn’t a big deal (some folks on the flight missed their connections, though). It was +5°C, raining and dark in Vancouver - yes, I remember the Vancouver winters that I hated. Just before 7:00 pm, we boarded a new Boeing 777-200ER (Extended Range) for the 14.5-hour flight to Auckland . It was quite a shock to walk into this huge plane. The flight was nearly full, so there were almost 320 people, seated 3/3/3 across. The seating is quite tight - maybe that’s the ... More About: Adventure
Spectacular Wilderness Property
More articles from this author:2008-02-12 18:30:00 The Yukon Territory still has remote wilderness property available for purchase that is so incredibly beautiful that many people in the world aren’t even able to form a dream that compares. By world standards, these properties often list for very low prices - here are a couple of examples currently being offered by people I know: At Kluane Lake, you’re only a 3-hour drive from Whitehorse, yet a world away in terms of your surroundings. This log cabin, built and equipped for year-round use, sits on about 2.5 acres, with a sandy beach and a spectacular view of the mountains of Kluane National Park. The asking price is $350,000. Click here for more information. If you want to really get away from the rest of the world, this 10-acre property on Frances Lake is only accessible by floatplane or boat (or snowmobile in the winter). It has about 1/4 mile of beach, and all the modern equipment that makes year-round living comfortable. The asking price is $550,000. Click here for m... More About: Property , Wilderness , Spectacular 1, 2, 3, 4 |
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