Foodies in the North

When we really sit down to think about it, I'm not sure we could have moved up here 10 years ago, 5 years ago and, well, between now and then is questionable. There have been remarkable improvements to the Whitehorse culinary experience even within the past year which culminate to make this a very, very livable city. And while there are undeniably dining experiences we all crave for when we go outside, the day-to-day experience here is so much more than livable.

There is, in town, very good sushi, authentic and Americanized Mexican, as well as pub food, Swiss/German food (yumm...fondue) and 3 fabulous coffee shops with delicious, delicious food. This has recently been joined by very good Thai and Middle Eastern food and there remains good pizza and very edible Pho. In summer, there is, of course, Klondike Rib and Salmon and all of their fabulous offerings.

This past week, we had an exceptional "fancy dinner" - steaks, king crab, pasta, etc. which was worth every penny. While the presentation might not be up to Southern standards, the far more important taste was (as was the amazing array of veggies on offer). Both Mike and I had been to Giorgio's before for an ok dinner, so this was very good news. And of all the very tasty Chinese restaurants in town, this week we found our Mecca (thank you Carmen!), the place that will allow me to live between opportunities for DimSum.

Recently, a cake shop was added in town - I should specify an affordable cake shop - and Mike's test run of their wares was positive. The owner has offered to try and make sugar-free treats for me.

And amidst all of this, there remains a great many places I have not yet tried - the Caribbean restaurant, Henriette's Taverne, the Wine Bar at the Edgewater and I feel obligated to try Antoinette's new restaurant, Volaire. I am debating a return to the Indian restaurant - a horrible experience our first time, I have heard better reviews and wondering if I can rationalize a second chance (it was that bad).

All in all, it makes for a very enjoyable city with many potential culinary adventures.

Part 2 coming: Shopping for Foodie Ingredients.

More New Gear

Sometimes I think Mike agrees to try new things just so he can buy new gear. Last week, it was snowshoeing. This is something we've been talking about all winter, but thought we'd start with skiing.

Anyway, last week we decided to go out to Log Cabin. Log Cabin is nothing more than a parking lot en route to Fraser, BC and is a bit of an unofficial

access point to the Chilkoot Trail. We went to the store to rent snowshoes for

the trip and, "fortuitously" they were out of rentals! They did, however, have one pair of male and one pair of female snowshoes. Sigh. You all know where that went.

We tested out the 'shoes behind out house and really, really liked it. Then Sunday we hit the highway and drove 1.5 hours south into Northern BC. Unlike Whitehorse where we mostly need our snowshoes to cut through the ice, Log Cabin had gotten 30+cm of snow the day before. Lucky for us, our friend Steve cut the entire 8km trail (yay Steve!!). The day was gorgeous - sun shining, very mild temperatures and incredible views, Clare made delicious hot chocolate and we brought homemade soup. We were pretty exhausted by the end - especially Maui!

Snowshoeing is so nice in its simplicity, we just strapped them on and went for a loop through the hills behind out house. They really helped cut through the crust on the rapidly melting snow and made for a lovely Saturday walk.

Skiing

This fall, all I could think of was cross-country skiing. I don't know why, because it has always seemed to be altogether too much work. Downhill, with the benefit of the chair lift and the ability, usually, to simply glide back to the chalet seemed so much more desirable.

I think, because of the beauty of the terrain up here, the endless trails, a sense of "everyone else skis" and the need to get out in winter made me change my mind. Even Mike was onboard, which was very surprising. He has long banned ccs, some childhood nightmare (although I suspect he still secretly harbers those memories given his moderate to less than enthusiastic willingness to actually go out)

Anyway, I bought us skis during some package sale just before the holidays and gave them to Mike for Christmas and a thank you for all the work he does for me at the preserve. It took us nearly a month to finally get them on (lots of reasons) and now the season if more or less over (unless we get more snow!)

Getting a bit of a groove on pretty flat ground turned out to be pretty ok, it felt pretty good and Mike said it looked good - even in areas without tracks set. Naturally, because I'm me, I don't bend or stretch nearly as much as I should. But rather quickly, my brilliant husband got the brilliant idea to head into the hills behind our house. Having only ever seen them through eyes of a walker, I agreed.

Grrr...

The terrain was just fine for him (those childhood skills coming back from the depths). For me, not so much. Again, flat is fine, VERY minor downhill is fine, uphill is relativ

ely ok (save the BIG hill), but downhill was terrible! I keep expecting to be able to treat them like my downhill skis and, at the very least, have the opportunity to snowplow. I used my backend far too often as a brake, and my head once too. A moderately less exciting adventure, I have since kept to relatively flat ground.

While it seems positively mind-boggling, I am sure, to our friends in the East, I would love another dump of snow, something to last us until April. That will give me time to keep working on my form, and perhaps tackle those hills with somewhat less pizzaz!

Here is a photo from a shoot we did at the preserve. Not right for using, but fun!

Slow Going

It has been really tough to get started again after Christmas. I think by then, we were both exhausted and we took the holidays to rejuvenate. Then we whisked off to Ontario for a couple of weeks, and came back to a slew of work and the increasingly frenetic pace that occurs when Spring is in sight.

Having said all of that, taking time to consider it, I think there are two other reasons we haven't written too much. There have been several times over the last many months when I have simply not felt there was much to write about. I think a lot of what I do day-to-day, the stuff that fills 9,10,11 hours has become, well, become day-to-day. Even with my job, and that hardly seems worth writing about.

Recognizing how quickly we were slipping away from the exploration and adventure we'd moved here for, and how much my work was demanding from me, we have been trying to get back exploring the territory and really focussing on establishing a life here. And so, I have been trying not to spend too much time on the laptop (which inevitably leads to checking work email or remembering something I didn't do) and am trying to get out and do more stuff. Ironically, as we begin to have more to tell, we have less time for writing about it. But we'll try. Please be patient.

Better Late Than Never?

So, it has definitely been a while since we've updated, so here are a few words on what's going on. The weather has been practically tropical with highs near or around 0ºC for a couple of weeks now. There is a good base of snow on the ground which was actually sticky enough to build a snowman by rolling it in the time-honoured way. How unusual is that for the Yukon you ask? Unusual enough that a neighbourhood kid asked "how did you do that?". He had never made a snowman before.

We finally test drove our new cross-country skis along the nearby trails and had a great time. We could not have ask for better conditions, even if the terrain is a bit hilly for those of us who are a bit out of practice.

Another nice bonus was the live Dungeness crab for sale on 4th Ave. Fresh caught crab is a great winter treat no matter where you live so we feasted and froze our fill.

That's all for now. Enjoy the pictures!

Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! And many happy holiday wishes to you all!

We have been thinking of you, our family and friends often. For those who got a Christmas card this year, I hope it arrived in time. For those that didn't, our apologies, Christmas arrived far more rapidly than we were prepared for! Yes, I realize it happens the same time every year, but 2009 has certainly flown by. We even took a special photo for an e-card, and even that didn't get sent!! So here it is.

I don't think this week has been a "typical" Christmas, but it was a lovely couple of days. Good food, good friends and great company. We enjoyed old and new traditions and way, way too much food. We've played games and taken doggie walks. We've probably had more to drink than we should, and we definitely gave each other too many presents! (yay!). The weather has been perfect - blue, sunny skies, a bit of snow and moderate temperatures.

It was definitely different without our family and friends back east. But as we sit here at the end of a very, very lazy Boxing Day, I can't help but be grateful for all of the hospitality we have received over the last few days. And am grateful for how lucky we are.

Best. Christmas Tree. Ever!

Last night we went and cut our Christmas tree from the woods behind our house. While surrounded by trees, finding a Christmas tree is no easy feat. For starters, several of the varietals up here smell like cat pee which, essentially, one just has to accept. Also, we're in the very northern boreal, so trees are generally very, very skinny and sparse, so you are really looking for the least sparse as compared to a full one. Finally, it is dark by like 4pm, so you are nearly always looking in the dark.

The alternative is a traditional tree for $60 at Canadian Tire. Sixty!! Again, we're like 90% boreal ecosystem.

And so, for several dog walks this week we scoped out trees. Few were even contenders, but we did find two and decided on one. We went out to cut it last night and Mike changed his mind - we were going after the other, significantly more challenging to reach, tree.

So off we went so Mike could hand cut a tree on the side of a cliff from underneath - with essentially no method but holding the tree to stay in place. Fun! Until the hand saw snapped. We trecked home, got the reciprocating saw and returned with a tree. Dragging it through the woods all old school and fun!

I would never suggest that looking at a tree from underneath, particularly one in a somewhat dense patch, may overstate how many branches there are on the top of the tree. I wouldn't say that, but I will add photos.

Regardless, this is our tree and we love it! And the hunt was a lot of fun!

Olympic Training

Today, we had a film crew at the preserve to get some Olympic footage. Each province and territory is responsible for a pre-medal ceremony production. This is a combination of live action and video and the Yukon will be on February 20th. (Mark your calendars).

I am pretty sure they are sending half the territory to be in the show, and the other half is represented on film.

Today, the artist creating the video was at the preserve to interview Bou. There is a funny balance with animals that have been bottle raised. They are perfect in that they are not afraid of people and they will let you get quite close. Having said that, they get really, really, really close and it is nearly impossible to get any kind of shot when they

are nuzzling against you, the camera, the vehicle - anything.

Bou spent a great deal of time nuzzling Celia and seemingly smelling her boots, legs, coat, arms. She nuzzled and nuzzled and nuzzled and I can only imagine how the footage is going to turn out. At one point, Celia was lying on her back in the snow with Bou rubbing her head and antlers across her belly.

Fortunately, no one lost an eye, and despite some antler/sweater/coat/ arm/leg tangling, nothing got damaged. I also think, the crew had a lot of fun!

Being loved by a caribou, there ain't nothing like it.

(Here are some photos of me and Bou with Bou behaving a lot like she did today)

No messing around

So, the ground has been relatively white since the end of October - but we have gotten very little cumulative snow. In well over a month, we have had no more than a centimetre or two. However, this is no way has slowed down the road work that takes place all winter long.

I have the impression that there are conditions particular to the temperature and the type of snow that we get that are different from Ottawa and require different road clearing techniques. For instance, leaving any snow

around at all, especially if it has been driven on and tracked will ensure it stays like that, frozen all winter. No thaw, no chance to fix. At least that is why I think I have been warned to get rid of the snow, any snow.

Yet still, when I came wheeling around the corner to our street this week, I was surprised to see an enormous pile of snow and ice resting in the middle - and was very glad to have been going slow enough to miss it!

As I mentioned, we haven't had any accumulation for weeks, but this has not prevented the city from scraping down to the core. Frankly, it kind of makes the streets like ice rinks, but they sure are smooth.

Hoar Frost

Every week our northern life seems to have a new surprise in store for us. Ice fog and hoar frost are just two of the newest additions to our Yukon vocabulary. Ice fog, it turns out, is literally ice-depositing fog. Think of it as the arctic equivalent of freezing rain with the added bonus of being as thick as pea soup.

Hoar frost, though related to ice fog, is a little more appealing. Yes, it makes the roads a bit slick and is virtually impossible to scrape off your windows, but man, is it beautiful. It ranges from fine and fuzzy like a peach, to coarse and feathery.

Hoar frost happens when exposed objects rapidly lose heat, becoming colder than the air around them. Moisture from the air is then deposited in the form of leafy ice crystals. Okay, I'm no meteorologist so here's a link to a good Wikipedia explanation. And here are a few pictures from a recent walk in our "back yard".

FireSmart

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to take part in some field work with Parks Canada. Although it was a bit of a departure from my normal desk job I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go back to one of my favourite places on the Chilkoot Trail.

Bennett, B.C. is situated on the south end of Bennett Lake and at the northernmost end of the Chilkoot Trail National Historic Site of Canada. During the 1897-1899 gold rush it was a bustling hub of up to 10,000 people known as Bennett City. Hopeful stampeders spent long winters building rough-hewn boats of all descriptions in anticipation of a spring launch towards Dawson and the Klondike goldfields.

Today, Bennett is all but abandoned. It is home to only 2, Walter and Edna Helm. The Helms spend a good part of their year in a quaint cabin on the old town site from which they operate a back-country trapline which has been the livelihood of Edna's family for generations.

The only structure from the gold rush period that still remains on the Chilkoot Trail is St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. It stands sentinel over the ruined building foundations, bottle and tin middens, and sandy lakeshore of this once burgeoning town. Its rustic wooden construction, though seemingly robust, is extremely vulnerable to fires, both natural and man-made.

In the past few years Parks Canada undertaken preventative measures through their FireSmart program to help reduce the risk of catastrophic damage. A combination of selective tree cutting, brush clearing and strategic burns are used to strategically reduce the amount of fuel available and redirect a fire should it strike.

This year's program involved: four of Parks Canada's fire crew, Jen, Charlie, Nick and Warren; Christine, the Chilkoot Trail patrol person who coordinated the operation; and me. With the promise of being "worked like a rented mule" I set out to lend a hand however I could. Mostly I spent the week dragging branches and 8' logs like, well, a rented mule. I shared a wall tent with lead hand Warren and learned an awful lot about what it means to work in the field every day. Let's just say I had to rewrite my definition of hard work.

I'd like to say that the work was its own reward but to be honest, nothing could top the 45 minute helicopter ride back to Whitehorse. I always thought that Yukon was scenic from the ground but nothing compares to seeing it from low in the air. Score one for professional development.

The benefits of short days

Our days are definitely getting shorter! Official sunrise this morning was 9:21 and sunset will be 4:12 with about an hour on either end where is it bright enough to still do things without a headlamp.

That may sound dramatic, and in some ways it is. But I have recently discovered some of the benefits of these short days.

The most obvious, naps and sleeping in is easy. Even Maui is relatively uninterested in going outside until late morning.

There are interesting phenomena attached to these short days. Driving to work one day, an enormous full moon hung in front of me while the spectacular blazing of the rising sun blinded me from behind, via my mirrors. Also there is lots of time to stargaze - and the complete darkness make the millions of stars incredible.

The real benefit, though, is getting to see sunrise and sunset. The sun makes the mountains glow pink and creates colours and shapes in the sky that are unbeatable. The sky glows; it is simply spectacular.

Last week I was driving to the office and had to pull over to take some photos (not that they do justice). The view was such that it literally took my breath away. Imagine that, getting to see the sunrise every day, a sunrise so pretty there is no

choice but to stop and enjoy.

Feeding

I got to feed the animals this week - for three days in a row! It was kinda awesome.

It was cold the first day, lovely the second and progressively colder the third. I got to feed with Mike and our neighbours (Dave, Susanne and Emma) the first day and my co-worker Clare the next two. It was all a ploy to get my vet and operations manager to FINALLY take a day off. It dubiously worked.

Feeding the animals is very cool. The animals are so happy to see you - literally, they run when they see you - even the lynx.

When it comes to feeding, the preserve is kind of like a great big farm. We haul hay and scoop pellets - just on an enormous scale. And, of course, the animals are very different and really spectacular to get close to. Also, between the hay and the pellets comes some less than ordinary opportunities - feeding the kestrels that we are rehabilitating, for instance.

Ironically, the part I struggle with the most is counting the animals. There is a real art to finding and counting the animals. They move, they hide, they blend into their surroundings. More than once, I had to loop around and around before finally finding all the animals I needed to. Imagine, an enclosure of 9 caribou and I couldn't find one!

Overall, though, I would say we did pretty good. I followed instructions very carefully and did everything I think Maria wanted us to do. The animals were happy, healthy and I only got locked into an enclosure once (in the caribou enclosure, Clare thought I had left, it was hilarious)!

Getting in there and getting my hands dirty, figuratively and literally, is a great way to remember why I work at the preserve. Certainly, I was not born to do manual labour for a living, but I'm really thrilled I get to do this once in awhile, and I think I just may make it a regular thing.

Muskox Art

We tried to create muskox art this week. It turned out being a pretty good lesson on what is not really going to work.

So in October I attended the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums conference in Edmonton and I paid, umm, enough money at a charity auction to buy Emma a pink and purple painting done by a red panda for Christmas. Ironically, Emma had been at the Toronto zoo that same weekend and saw her own red panda, which "is not a panda mommy, pandas are black and white."

We've had some substantial cost increases and have been brainstorming about fun ways to raise a little extra money, and we began to think about art done by the animals. In zoos, painting is used as a stimulus to keep the animals' mentally active. At the preserve, we don't have those same behavioral issues, we just think it's fun.

So, we bought the water soluable, non-toxic paints and we tested it out on Jesse, knowing how popular she is. (my staff also joke that the fastest way for us to raise money is to sell Mike Jesse-related items. Not helpful!)

We trudged out into the snow (perfect for washing away any paint), paper on plywood, camera in hand and some red and green paint. We brought Jesse into her own enclosure and tried to encourage her to "draw." We did get her to walk across the paint a couple of times, but only in an effort to get to more food. Turns out, we can't compete with all the grass in the enclosure! To move from one area that has been mowed down into grass heaven - and to have it all to herself - we had no chance (you can see the difference in the photos). If anything was painted at all, it was mainly Jesse's nose running across the page en route to more food.

Sigh. No art yet, but I think we have a pretty good idea now of what not to do, and some ideas for next time.

The Olympic Flame

The Olympic torch came through Whitehorse this week. It was landing by plane, to be run throughout town and was scheduled to go by the S.S. Klondike at 5:30 to arrive at Shipyards Park for 6pm with a party until 7pm.

Like so many other things, we were about to miss out on it. It's easy with life as busy as it is. But around 4 or so I called Mike and said we're going and so we both rushed home.

To set the stage, there are 2 main streets in Whitehorse - 4th Avenue and 2nd Avenue. First, I got stopped on 4th Avenue by...the torch! All traffic was stopped as the torch changed hands not far from me (ironically in front of McDonald's).

We grabbed Maui and headed up to Shipyards Park for the party and, alas, nearly missed the official arrival (again) as we got stopped on 2nd Avenue for quite awhile by the torch exchange!

There was quite a party when we eventually got to the park and it was a lot of fun. There were food vendors, bon fires, and sponsors handing out cow bells, flags, lights and free cokes. There were singers, dancers, artists, techno music and some speeches by dignitaries and others. It's pretty cool, apparently there is an artist traveling from city to city creating art, I didn't see close up and we were a bit late, but it appears to be variations of the women found on the torch flags and banners. The stage photo we've uploaded shows the painting underway and the banner to the left. It was presented immediately to the our mayor.

The mascots were on hand for photos, as were several torch bearers who were very happy to pose for pictures. There were also lots of dogs for Maui to sniff - which was great because she was not so sure about the mascots and not a huge fan of her cow bell. She did, however, love the gazillions of people loving her.

A definite highlight was getting to hold the torch, which are beautiful and surprisingly light. A little known fact, or perhaps just something not really thought about, it is the flame that is passed from person to person, not the torch. Most runners actually get to keep their torch.

It turns out, most runners have a corporate sponsor, often their employer, and that sponsor buys them their torch as a souvenir. Whitehorse being as small as it is, there were quite a few runners, most of whom were walking around with their torches post-run. We met a couple, including the final carrier, and posed for photos. The final torch bearer, Ramesh Ferris, is an inspirational soul who recently crossed Canada to raise awareness of polio. He was kind enough to pose with us.