Doug Sack

What's Up Yukon contributor Doug Sack is the former sports editor of the Yukon News and the Whistler Question and longtime columnist for Ski Canada magazine. Before that, he was young.

Fitness by firewood

A Yukon retiree, 75, has three readily apparent options for a productive summer fitness program: 1. Fishing, 2. Golf or 3. Firewood.

The weight of Firewood

We averaged wood-buying sites. The approximate weights of a cord of Yukon firewood: 4,250 lbs for green and 4,050 lbs for seasoned.

Junk Food

It’s another junk food season, especially for those suffering from cabin fever.

The lost camel of an ancient Persian fairy tale

In Persia, there once was a wise king with three sons. He mock-banished the young princes from his kingdom so they could go out and test themselves against the dangers of the real world. Their journey became a fairy tale known as “The Three Princes of Serendip.”

Words are a writer’s tool box

People who write a lot have different perspectives and relationships with words than those who simply read or say them. If the pen is truly mightier than the sword, (as said English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839), a writer’s tools could be favourably compared to the mightiest of weapons if he or she was out …

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The ballad of “Buck” Choquette

Buck Choquette spent his last days and hours in Dawson telling Jack London true stories of his long pioneering life in the Northwest. Is it just coincidence, then, that the main character in his most successful novel, The Call of the Wild, is also named Buck?

2019 World Series Primer

Based on their 107 regular season wins, the Astros should meet the Nationals in the 2019 World Series. Yes, the Washington Nationals and Seattle Mariners are the only two MLB franchises currently playing which have never won their league’s pennant and have therefore never played in the World Series. The Nats, which Grandpa refers to …

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The Joy of Northern Kleptoparasiticpredation

There are two sides to every story, sometimes more. Entry-level journalism students are taught, ad nauseum, by wizened old editors to strive to present both, or all of these sides, to their readers in order to honour the elusive literary gold standard called “objectivity.” Of course, there is an opposing viewpoint which proclaims that objective …

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Saved by The Caribou and wolves

Considering the Caribou RV Park at km 1403 of the Alaska Highway was established in 1974 and your humble correspondent lived in Atlin from 1977 to 1984, I must have driven right by it hundreds of times over the years without giving it a look or even a thought. I knew it was built by …

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Interview with the raven

“Our favourite human EVER was Genghis Khan. That man knew how to put on a spread.” Raven Mythology #5 by Joe Ben Raven via Doug Sack Doug Sack: Do you solemnly swear the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you Odin? Joe …

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Forgotten Town: Dyea, the town Alaska forgot

Two prominent American tourism publications hit the streets recently. Neither included much of a mention of Dyea, except to list the Dyea Campground in Skagway and note that it is the start of the Chilkoot Trail to the Klondike. Considering your roving RV reporter proclaimed from the top of the Golden Stairs last summer that …

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Raven kronks, Leprechaun croaks

I remember my first conversation with Joe Ben Raven like it happened yesterday. It was the winter construction season of 1972-73 up on the Eagle Plains of the Yukon’s half-built Dempster Highway in a borrow pit south of the Oasis in the Wilderness—a hotel which is itself only 35 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle. …

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Ink on ink

A tale of two tattoos Raven Mythology #4.5 “It’s not known which came first, the penny or the flag.”  Cam Brewster’s World Famous Tattoo Studio on Centennial Drive in Porter Creek, located between a daycare centre and a pawn shop/second-hand store, plays the game by the rules. This includes a $100 deposit, pre-inking interview, a …

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Steiner aces the rut fluff to win

March 15, 1986 at the men’s downhill in Whistler, B.C. – The Inside Edge Memoirs #1 By the time the 1986 Molson’s World Cup men’s downhill and Super G, aka The White Circus, rolled into town on March 15, 1986 to close out the 85/86 racing season, I was well-established as the first-ever sports editor …

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The London Tower ravens

[two_third] You may have noticed the above quotation comes to you without attribution. That’s for good reason. Nobody seems to know who muttered it or even if it was ever uttered at all. The Tower ravens of London are arguably the most famous birds in history. They’re also the most difficult to explain because of …

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Ravens and Poe

Very few writers throughout history have bonded with their subjects quite like Edgar Allan Poe and the Yukon’s territorial bird – the Raven

There is more to Raven mythology than clamshells and Odin

One of my many favourite Bill Reid carvings, Raven and the First Men, is part of a Haida creation myth which is permanently displayed in the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. It depicts the exact moment, on a remote Pacific beach, when Raven found a clamshell full of tiny human beings desperate …

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Alaska history

From now on, whenever Valentine’s Day pops up out of a snowbank in mid-February like a lost and lonely holiday heart/fart, my thoughts will be of Elizabeth Peratrovich and what she accomplished for all northerners.

ZHOH – The Spirit of the Wolf

Previews are supposed to pique your interest and entice you to buy the book, not tell you how it ends, but there is no harm in quoting the final sentence if it is a good one:“In the distance, snow-covered peaks rose through the whiteness. Far off, somewhere below in the fog, a wolf howled.

Ship of Sorrow: S.S. Princess Sophia

The S.S. Princess Sophia (So-PHY-Ya) under full power in a north-wind whiteout blizzard ran aground on Vanderbilt Reef, halfway to Juneau.

Superbirds (a.k.a. ornithology, a.k.a. birdlore)

This quiet, reserved and thoughtful corner of the year-round Yukon has gone to the birds this week, namely Arctic terns, the all-time migratory champions, not only of the bird kingdom but also the entire non-human animal world, including bugs and butterflies. You won’t believe what you are about to read but, first, you have to …

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Doomsday camping on Top of the World – Part 5 of 6

Grandpa, if a giant asteroid was on target to collide with Earth and everyone knew the exact day and time of the explosion to blow up the planet, where would you want to go camping for the last night?

Yukon gold at the Games of Fundy

At the time of our print deadline for this edition, the 2018 Canada 55+ Games team was shaping up as 143 athletes competing from five Yukon communities.

Kathleen & Kokanee in Kluane – Part 3 of 6

Kathleen Lake, which is the only place in Kluane National Park you can sleep (legally) if you have rubber wheels for your mode of transportation (rather than flying machines, skis, hiking boots or birchbark).

A Kenai kickoff to a new series – Part 1 of 6

Homer, on the west side of the Kenai Peninsula, is the farthest south you can drive and became my favourite place to RV camp in Alaska because of this surprise: it felt like California.

Yukon census missing centenarians

The Yukon’s Lost Centenarian

I was astonished to learn that the Yukon Territory currently is without a card-carrying centenarian, male or female, according to the most recent age data on record which is the 2016 census.

The Ravenmaster: My life with the ravens at the Tower of London

“Christopher Skaife is both a raven master and a master storyteller. Compulsively readable, I devoured the book in a single sitting!”—Lindsey Fitzharris, author of The Butchering So did I! From 4 p.m. to midnight on the very day I found the last hard copy of The Ravenmaster for sale in Whitehorse. I bought it as …

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The sordid saga of ‘Shoeless Joe’

Shoeless Joe is the only player in baseball history to win multiple World Series as a pitcher for one team and a home run hitter for another; a distinction that will last forever.

Jack ‘n Sack

This is part four of a four-part series. In part three, the writer had been invited to caddy for Jack Nicklaus for the second time in his life, via their mutual friend, Vancouver entrepreneur Caleb Chan.

The Wisdom of Yogi the Berra

Other than Samuel Clemens, who wrote as Mark Twain, few historical Americans are more oft-quoted than former New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra, who died in 2015 at the age of 90, but will live forever for the things he said while he was alive. His only real competition as the best American malapropist was …

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Jack ‘n Sack

Although I can’t absolutely verify the factual accuracy of the following “claim to fame,” if I’m not the only person who had the unique opportunity to caddy for Jack Nicklaus both before he won his first professional major (1962 U.S. Open) and after his last (1986 Masters), I’m certainly one of the very few fortunate …

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Memoirs of an Atlin School Marm

Simply stated, the best narrative I’ve read about country lifestyle in the contemporary north and the only one featuring Atlin and the Yukon.

Gertie’s First Season

Once upon a time, long ago, a young truck driver in Whitehorse found himself with five days off work to celebrate the May long weekend and decided to finally visit Dawson City for the first time. It was either 1971 or ’72, and he had been listening to his coworkers talk about it all winter. …

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Jack ‘n Sack

I knew on the Saturday morning warm up on the driving range I was in for a unique caddying experience. This was the days of the “shag bag” when caddies would stand out on the range serving as targets for their golfers and often catch their shots in the bag on the fly. Not so …

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Jack ‘n Sack

Although I can’t absolutely verify the factual accuracy of the following “claim to fame,” if I’m not the only person who had the unique opportunity to caddy for Jack Nicklaus both before he won his first professional major (1962 U.S. Open) and after his last (1986 Masters), I’m certainly one of the very few fortunate …

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Ode to Mosquitos

I love blood-sucking mosquitos In my eyes, ears and nose; On my chips, nachos and tacos, In my hair and between my toes.

Baseball’s Only Perfect Season

As a retired sportswriter who bleeds baseball Red and could steal second base before I was able to walk to first, I was recently deep into the internet researching the history and origins of the game when I stumbled on a fact that had somehow escaped my attention as a young writer: “The Perfect Season.” …

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Honeymooners Head to Augusta

When Abbotsford’s Adam Hadwin, 29, defeated American Patrick Cantlay on the final hole of the Valspar Championship in Florida on March 12 to win the first PGA Tour title of his career, his life changed forever when the winning putt fell into the cup. All of a sudden instead of going on his honeymoon to …

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Super Bowl LI

By every statistical quantifier known to man or beast, less one, the upstart Atlanta Falcons don’t have much of a chance against the New England Patriots in Sunday’s 51st issue of the NFL’s Super Bowl or “LI” to those who still count like Romans. The lone exception is Atlanta’s offense, which finished atop the league …

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Predator and Prey 14,000 Years Ago

Zhoh, the Clan of the Wolf: Fiction of the first humans to inhabit The Yukon. I knew Bob Hayes novel would be physically accurate.

Ian Tyson

Atlin’s Ian Fest

Ian Tyson, iconic minstrel of life in the West/North. 68yr old hearing an 81yr old singer at Atlin Arts and Music Festival felt young again.

The Ultimate Guide to Yukon Sport

John Firth’s massive Yukon Sport: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, published in November 2014 by Sport Yukon, is a heavy book. It must weigh 14 pounds. If you’re brain isn’t strong enough to read all of it, mine wasn’t, you can throw out your old barbells and dumbbells and incorporate it into a new fitness program. Little …

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Techno Challenged

If it’s true there are seven wonders in the natural world, then surely this is the eighth. The world’s most incompetent techno-challenged is boldly composing this on a brand new, state-of-the-art iPod. It’s his first, and is called by its given name: Apple Air Pad 2 — a way-ward present Santa Claus must have left …

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Neil Young’s Wild Ride

If there is anyone left in Canada still interested in figuring out how Neil Young’s brain functions, his second memoir Special Deluxe, A Memoir of Life & Cars, is not likely to clear up the fog. Young, 69, is just not wired like the rest of us. He may possess too many talents to be …

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Up Ghost River Without a Paddle

When Edmund Metatawabin’s (Ed) residential school memoir, Up Ghost River, jumped off the new-books shelf of the Yukon Public Library and landed in my book bag on top of Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe, I was tempted to blow my whistle and send him to the penalty box for obstruction. I was hunting for some …

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Tibetan Peach Pie

It’s not often I give myself an impossible writing assignment but I’m doing so now because I’m intrigued by the challenge. Book reviews often have aim to provide a concise summary and make the reader want to read the book. Not this time. I’m only halfway through Tom Robbins’ non-autobiography called Tibetan Peach Pie, and, …

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