If there is anybody out there who recognizes what is in these pictures, please step forward. Recently, I found myself looking more intensively at lichens and mosses. As there are no blooming wildflowers in the midst of winter and as there happened to be very little snow in December 2018, they caught my interest. Lichens …
Lichen what I see – But not always sure what to call it Read More »
The landscape east of the Klondike Highway, between Log Cabin and Fraser, B.C., is a giant jigsaw puzzle of water and rock. Large, round rocky outcrops are surrounded by water, with scattered vegetation growing in-between the rocks.
Once upon a time, “back in the days” (last year, in October) when the Greyhound bus still existed, a garter snake slithered out of the way, a pronghorn bounced over a fence, and I happened to step into cactus. This is the beginning of a most auspicious tale … In the days of the Greyhound, …
Recently I visited Kluane National Park. After a few hours of driving and only a hike through the forest, I was in my element—a world of rock and grand vistas. My friend and I were on Sheep Mountain, a very popular trail, and I can see why it is popular. We came within 100 metres …
On Sunday, December 10, you are invited to come out to the roastery at Bean North Café and listen to readings by several poets and writers.
Fall is the favourite season of many Yukoners. Avid photographer and outdoors person Jozien Keijzer provided this gallery of early-autumn scenes captured in various locations west of Whitehorse. “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun…” -John Keats: To Autumn
Heather Newman graduated from high school in 2007 from Robina State High School on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. Not exactly in 2009 and definitely not in Whitehorse. All the Whitehorse kids from the class of 2009 seem to be busy this summer; as I haven’t been running into any of them lately. Some …
I never understood how people love to go camping at the same spot year after year, or walk the same trail over and over, canoe the same river, or go to the same mall. I realize now that we all have different goals. I myself have a strong desire to explore. And finally, I am …
The calypso orchid, sometimes called the fairy or venus slipper, was already blooming by the end of May and the rest will follow soon. I suspect that the Platanthera obtusata, known as the northern bog orchid, will follow soon. The height of bloom for orchids in the Yukon is mid-June. Most Yukon orchids can be …
In May 2017, Colby Heynen drove up the highway to Whitehorse from Southern Alberta. He and his girlfriend, Karin Wall, from Coaldale, Alberta will be renting an apartment here in Whitehorse and moving in the first of June. Colby has been back in Whitehorse for two years, working at Whitehorse General Hospital as a nurse. …
On a spring hike to the ice cave near Haines Junction, we found that the ice cave looks more like a bridge. Neither did we cross that bridge nor did we go under it. After reading a CBC news story called “Once a local secret, visitors flock to Haines Junction ice caves,” by Karen McColl …
As I was trying on new glasses a few weeks ago at Northern Lights Optometry, fashion specialist Katie Pope helped me. I liked her instantly and I complimented her on her extraordinary sense of style. On my next visit (according to Katie many people take choosing a new pair of glasses very seriously, and come …
Last year we had an early spring and I found the first prairie crocus blooming on April 1st. Most years the crocus blooms near the end of April. If you want to become a crocus hunter, don’t wait for all the snow to melt. If the daytime temperature is above zero for three weeks, start …
From “Don’s Descent,” the small hill behind our house, one can look as far as Haines Junction. Mount Decoeli and Mount Archibald loom on the western horizon when skies are clear. In front of Decoeli, I can clearly make out Paint Mountain. You might know Paint Mountain as the rock face towering over Pine Lake, …
A graduate of the Porter Creek Secondary School in the Class of 2009, Nicole Grove, 26, has always been physically strong. Back in 2003, in the days of Hidden Valley Elementary School, Nicole was a gold medalist in the Annual Yukon Wrestling Tournament. In training, she competed with the boys and in a game of …
Between the years of 1991 and 2011 my husband and I used to pack up our son and drive to a mountain summit a few times every winter. They were once our favourite places to be: those white wide-open expanses. An active community of winter lovers is still going to the summits: skiers, snowboarders, snow …
Spencer Sumanik How did he get into all this fascinating stuff? He and a childhood friend got their bachelor’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering at UBC Okanagan. After that, both of them moved to Ottawa to continue their studies, each in their own preferred field. They rented a room in Ottawa with another Yukoner. Spencer chose …
Trees that naturally grow in and around Whitehorse There are only three families of trees represented in the southwest Yukon. Sounds easy enough? It isn’t, so don’t feel bad if you can’t see the trees for the forest. The willow family (Salicaceae): willow and poplar The birch family (Betulaceae): alder and birch The pine family …
Another strange phenomena occurred that happens to me in the mountains. We looked up the side hill for Nancy, but we couldn’t see her at all. We wondered where she had gone, It turned out that she indeed was climbing in plain view, and sure enough she could easily see us on the lake. We …
I use the word ‘bug’ here, to describe little creatures with … legs. Insects, but more than that. Not everything I call ‘bug’ living underneath the ice are insects, some turn out to be crustaceans. In the beginning of October, before it started snowing, there was a brief period when the thermometer dropped below zero …
I have Marie write out her full name for me. ‘Achtymichuk.’ It’s Ukrainian, where her dad is from. I compliment her on her beautiful handwriting. We have this interview in the store where Marie is a manager, we were interrupted by staff a few times. Marie is needed! Marie’s parents started the business in 2006, …
I am pleased to announce that I recently had my first encounter with a sandhill crane. I have never gone to the Crane and Sheep Festival in Faro, which is held in May, and the time and place when the cranes fly over the town. Years ago, I saw flocks of sandhill cranes in November …
On August 13, my friend Nancy Ohm and I went for a hike in my backyard. I’ve been working on a walking trail towards the mountains for 20 years. I am making slow process, using only a small ax and clippers. Lately, I have seen signs of people, probably neighbours, establishing the trail. Great! Still, …
To go where few people go: I wonder if that is why we saw four wolverines playing? Read More »
This is a story from many years ago, about the day I was followed by four bears – a close-call bear encounter kind of story. I was on a solstice hike up Kelvin Mountain with Allison Morham and Jane Vincent. Jane and I see each other regularly, but I only run into Allison every few …
For me, the summer of 2016 has been the best berry year ever. My berry season starts with wild strawberries and they were bigger than ever this year. Wild raspberries are almost always abundant. Our famous Yukon cranberries are looking extremely promising this year. The wild season ends with rosehips. I like to compare Mother …
Mushroom season starts in spring. On a hike at the end of May, I came upon some black morels. In the Yukon, morels usually only grow where there has been a recent fire, although I’ve found them growing other places. With the warm weather and rain this year, I have been picking mushrooms in earnest …
Breaking out of sheer rock, on the barren ground, or beside a mountain stream, hundreds of different kinds of wildflowers grow in the Yukon mountains. Some bloom as early as the snow melts in April, some continue blooming well into September. The seven alpine flowers described below all grow on mountaintops close to Whitehorse.
Yes, bear stories, undoubtedly a favourite topic in the Yukon and one that gets people talking. As I write here, there is a black bear poking around on our property. I have never had a true calamity involving a bear in my 30 years of hiking and living in the Yukon. Recently, I tripped and …
In 2009, Ayla Sanders graduated from Vanier Catholic Secondary School and got a summer job in Paradise Alley on Main Street in Whitehorse. She did not have plans to pursue a post-secondary education, so she wrote an essay to apply for the Rosemary Burns Grant. This was the first year of the award. Since then …
Kinnikinnick’s Latin name, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, comes from arctos and ursi meaning bear and staphylos and uva meaning bunch of grapes. Amazing: the taste of those little grapes! I just tried something I had never tried before, but had read about several times. As it happens, I was treating a certain condition I had. I always …
Boxing Day: we drive out to Kusawa Lake. My beloved lake, Kusawa. The joys of the lake for me include swimming, boating, floating, skating, to be in it/ on it or crossing the lake. I have even bicycled on it and now I walk on it. I have often sunbathed on its sandy beaches or …
Talking to my friend Mary Whitley, a fellow explorer, we started discussing how many trails we had found this summer that we did not even know existed. She was finding them on her side of town around Mount Lorne, and I was finding them on mine around the Mendenhall Subdivision. So, on one of those …
Several months ago I walked into a beauty salon for advice on a skin problem. Kayla Dewdney appeared from the back of the shop. She looked at my skin and offered her advice. It worked! Today I made an appointment with her for a facial, which involved lying down during the treatment. I felt very good …
What happened to the kids from the class of 2009? Where are they all now, six years later? They must have finished their studies or done their travelling. Do they have kids? Government jobs? I do know what life is like for Austin Davignon and Alexander Chisholme; Alexander is my son and Austin is his …
Atlin Mountain might have lost some of its white stripes, but Atlin itself is still as much fun as ever – all inhabitants 100 percent colourful, all sights 100 percent amazing. Sometimes, on a long weekend, the girl gang and I drive down on a Saturday morning, spend the night and drive back Sunday evening. …
A few years ago, my brother found an ancient tool that had migrated upward through the soil in the middle of his wheat field in Southern Alberta. It was a sure sign of human life on the prairies long before Europeans came to “settle” the land. The tool, it turned out, was a unique find. …
I recently re-visited Holland, the country I grew up in. I have learned over the years, in speaking to fellow ‘Dutches’, that how I experienced things in my childhood – or, for that matter, when I go back to the place I spent my childhood – these are just my experiences, not necessarily something uniquely …
Yes! This month, Jane Vincent is coming with me on an attempt to climb the pinnacle. It’s a pinnacle I now call Dragon Mountain. Recently, hiking there on my own, setting my own pace, very aware of my surroundings, I was in tune for miracles. The mountain was un-named; a mountain in a range of …
A smoky pinnacle beckons in a hiker’s personal Shangri-La Read More »
It’s a cold morning. While I’m writing, the twin deer are in the yard — last year’s fawns, without their mother now. May was full of summer weather and I often had breakfast outside. Yet, a deer never walked up to me during those quiet morning times. However, on one lovely morning in May, suddenly, …
For three consecutive Sundays, my husband and I have been going to a place we both fell in love with. He found it when hunting for bison, and I knew the spot from hiking up to the tors along the Aishihik Road. We discovered the rockslide while being there. Initially we liked the spot because …
As her husband describes her, Mary Whitley is an elusive mountain creature. Mary’s favorite bird is the northern wheatear. I am proud to say that Mary is also my good friend and hiking partner. Many Yukoners may know Mary as an avid outdoors woman, and for her knowledge of birds. I was happy that she …
Some people should live forever; I felt immense loss as I heard about Alex Van Bibber’s passing on November 26, 2014, at the age of 98. I first heard about Alex van Bibber when I came to Canada in 1985. I was living in Atlin and had not yet heard about all the amazing things …
When the girl-gang goes hiking, we like to do as little driving as possible. The girls live in town. I don’t. So, we try to find a hike in the middle. I’d never done this hike before. But it is quite magnificent, a little comparable to the Coal Lake area, but in my opinion, even …
I always keep hiking until the snow becomes too deep. On October 18 it was snowing. The previous day I had gone for a full day hike. Was October 17 the date of my last full hike of the season, deep in the Alpine? The week previously, someone commissioned me to paint the fire lookout …
We name her Loesje (pronunciation Lousia). We do not want to leave her home alone, so she just goes with us everywhere we go. Ours is an outdoor life, especially in summer. At night she comes into the trailer with us and sleeps on my head. I teach her not to, but Alexander does not …
It always seems that for other people things happen quite easily. They have an idea and voila — there it is. I don’t know; maybe it’s true for some, with some things. Anyway, it took me 20 years after I first dreamed about it, to finally float on Kelsall Lake, B.C. It was better than …
These photos were taken on Dec. 8 around 1 p.m. near the Takhini campground. This otter and his pals were in the Kusawa River where the river was trying to freeze up and the rim of the ice meets the open water. The otters were probably fishing, but were very playful and were clearly interested …
July 1st 2014: What a beautiful sunny day it is amidst this not-yet very warm summer. My husband Don and I are off to our neighbouring province, B.C. by way of the Haines Road to celebrate Canada Day our particular way. At Klukshu, we check to see if there are any salmon in the river …
At 3:45 a.m. we hear the local bus driver over the loudspeaker: “Good Morning. We will be arriving in Whitehorse shortly. The only restaurant open 24/7 is not…” I didn’t make arrangements to be picked up, but I am not worried. I live here. We get off the bus, an odd sort of newly made …
Meet Gabriel Rivest, a Yukoner. Last summer, Rivest and five friends spent 63 days canoeing 1,500 kilometres through the six rivers in the Peel and Yukon Watersheds. He and the team brought 220 pounds of camera equipment on the trip and they are now producing a video about the experience. On February 24 Rivest will …
I live along the Alaska Highway and when I step out of my house I am in the wilderness. Though I normally live in the wilderness, I can always find a little wilderness wherever I go. When I lived in The Hague, the North Sea and it’s beaches and dunes were within biking distance. In …
I haven’t written about Stony Creek before, even though I drink its water daily and follow its bank up to the mountains a few times each year. Once I even followed it beyond its source, overlooking Harrison Lake. The Stony Creek hike is a popular. It’s easy and close to town, about 40 km north …
The mist is seeping through the trees surrounding the house, and the sky directly overhead is starting to show blue. This would have been a beautiful morning to slide the canoe into the water through the swamp grass at Taye Lake. I long to float through the long, thick reeds of the equisetum, better known …
Last year, on a hike up Vanier Mountain nearby Kusawa Lake, my friend spotted a black and white mountain across the lake. The north side of the pyramid-shaped mountain was black and the south side white. It was mysterious to me. How could one side be black, and one side be white? I dug a …
On July 16, 2013 I saw a super big moth. I am not into moths yet, I’m just getting to know butterflies, but this Bedstraw Hawk-moth is special and it loves my garden because of the Northern Bedstraw that grows abundantly. I had not seen this moth for several years, but it is unmistakable due …
I have been on several day hikes this spring, and spring was very marginal this year. Winter just didn’t want to let go. On the day of my last hike there were flurries and cool temperatures forecast everywhere in the territory. We aimed to climb Stony Creek, but as the Johnsons, a gold mining family …
The skiing at Mount Sima was fantastic on the last weekend it was open this winter, but besides the excellent snow conditions and weather, the energy was buzzing and the hill was incredibly well prepared. Mount Sima just has to remain operational all year round. Whatever happens to Mount Sima, the hiking trail will be …
All winter I worked on a trail going due south from the house. My initial goal was to reach a little hilltop in the middle of the Takhini Valley. First, I followed the firebreak to the highway, and some days that was as far as I went. If I saw fresh elk or deer tracks, …
As I sit here looking out of my window at Mount Kelvin, a white peak above the treed hills, I dream of summer hikes past and future. A few years back on a summer day two friends and I went up Mount Kelvin. We started out following an existing trail along the grassy ridges, but …
In the summer I am forever identifying wild flowers, but in the winter it’s animal tracks. For me identifying animal tracks is a little simpler, but that’s just because I have only one reference book: Field Guide To Tracking Animals In Snow, by Louise R. Forrest. I am often puzzled trying to determine the maker …
When you drive the Alaska Highway towards Haines Junction you get glimpses of the Takhini River on your right, but it disappears from sight once you cross and it lies on the south side of the road. Being so close to the road, but out of sight makes it a good area to park a …
The history of the Jo-Jo Lake trail goes a long way back, as the people of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations can tell you. “It’s been a horse trail for hunting forever, since way before my time,” 95-year-old Alex Van Bibber tells me. According to the highly-respected elder and outdoorsman, there is an outfitter …
The highest peaks of the Animas mountains in the east are already colouring light pink. As the road dips slightly through an arroyo, there are broad rolling hills to the west. We haven’t made many miles today, but it’s time to set up camp. Carefully I drive off the highway, navigating to avoid cacti and …
The meadows lie like pearls on a string along the winding, muddy Mendenhall River. I live only three kilometres from the river as the crow flies. When there is no obvious road or trail to where I want to go, I will find one. Many years ago I created a small path for the first …
This morning I heard the grouse drumming. All these signs of spring! This drumming is the mating call of the male grouse. He produces it with his wings and it carries clearly through the forest. When you live in the Yukon, the chances that you have heard a chainsaw are pretty big. It sounds a …
With all the snow now melting, it brings back memories of spring hiking, which is soon to start. The southern-exposed hillsides are starting to clear, and by the end of April our crocuses might bloom – along with a little yellow cinquefoil here and there. Some years ago at the end of May or early …
This year the skating started for me on October 22 after I woke up to -22 C. The morning before, the yard was full of deer prints. They had come and gone without us noticing. I took my bike out to investigate the tracks, with the intention of ending up were my husband was going …
I have this mountain in my backyard. Our elevation at home, somewhere along the Alaska Highway, is almost 2,500 feet. The top of my mountain is almost 3,300 feet. Its foot is about a mile from my home. In summer I can get up that mountain and back in two hours, which sometimes is exhilarating, …
Creosote bush as far as the eye can see. We are driving out of Animas in the far south-west corner of New Mexico. Only small towns here. Animas active, almost buzzing, things do happen here. Haticha almost deserted, an abandoned church where people obviously have slept for a night, an old locked-up trailer with beautiful …
I admit I will take the fullest, bushiest tree out there, like hunting for trophy. I know a friend—bless her heart—who just takes the little scrawny tree. Maybe I should do that this year, because in the Yukon a young small spruce or pine is most often scrawny. My friend’s tree always looks beautiful in …
I Iive about a 15-minute drive from Stony Creek. Stony is well known for the best drinking water ever and, of course, for the raspberries that people from all over come to pick. There are always enough, no matter how many pickers – bears, gophers, chipmunks and humans. The raspberry season in the big gravel …
Last year I found out that a certain pink flower was not the one I always thought it was. My first encounter with a pink pincushion goes back to my first hikes in the Yukon. I can still visualize that first time I came upon this pink glory, when I was walking on top of …
What I love about writing for What’s Up Yukon is that it encourages me to do a little research about the things I write about. Even if I can’t use it in my article, I always learn a lot—mostly things to watch for next time. So I will have to walk into Spirit Canyon a …
Hiking into the Takhini Salt Flats used to mean parking on the narrow shoulder of the Alaska Highway. Now, thanks to road improvements around the Takhini River Bridge, there is a little pull-out. So ‘thank you’ to that construction crew. On a July day, after parking about a kilometre before the bridge, my friend and …
We have been enjoying an endless, beautiful fall this year. A few Fridays ago, still having lots of things on my To Do list, I knew I had to into the mountains again. As I am not much of a planner, I had not arranged to go with anyone. Now, I actually do like hiking …
A beautiful day in February – the sun was shining, and a south wind blowing. In February, the sun gains considerable strength and on days like that one can imagine spring. I grew up on the coast, and if there is one thing I miss, it’s the ocean and going for walks on the beach. …
Sunday we woke up to -40. Minus forty is the same in Fahrenheit and Celsius. To me that means everybody understands: no matter which system you use, – 40 is -40. But to really know how that feels, you have to live it. At 40 below things do change. From the usual cold it is …
In most places the river is around 20 feet wide, making it a perfect thoroughfare, even for dog sleds and snow machines, although there are snags and deadfall. The people who use it have tried to cut the overhanging trees, but as the banks slowly erode, trees keep falling across and into the river. My …
Somewhere high in the mountains there is a small, deep lake in between three mountain peaks. It’s a magical place. It was a golden summer day in autumn. More golden because the poplar leaves turned very yellow this year, and more summery because this September we had an incredible amount of sunshine and 3 whooping …
Of all the mountains around the Mendenhall subdivision, I had never made it to the most prominent, Mount Vanier. I can’t see it from my house, but my neighbour Kathi had been looking at it through her living room window for seven years, longing to be on the top. Finally, in the last week of …
At 7:40, I set off on foot through the woods towards the highway. At 8:00, Mary Whitley picked me up. She had already plucked another friend from the highway. We were going on a hike following Quill Creek on the Haines Road. We had heard that part of the bush road going northeast at Quill …
There are little leaps and big leaps, little walks and big walks. I like the idea of “keep on walking”, day after day, farther away. There are people who do that, and I don’t know if it ever will be me. I haven’t even gone on overnight hikes for a few years. Not that I …
Bogs have stagnant water and swamps have some drainage. And then there are fens and marshes. A fen is a peatland, but so is a bog. The more I read, the less I understood. I don’t know if I am capable of writing the following story, because I will have to use those terms I …
In early April, I started running every morning. I felt that I was losing stamina on my hikes, and needed to do something about it. It’s amazing, now I am in the habit of it, how easy it is to keep it up. Mind you, I only run for 15-20 minutes. Besides getting fitter, it …
October, the month of change from no snow to snow, has just passed by. In the southern Yukon the year is nicely divided into two equal parts, with half a year where snow stays on the ground, and half a year where, well, there is always some snow somewhere. Last week everything dripped with melting …
