Issue: 2015-05-21
“Two Wheels, One Uke, and No Inhibitions”
“ABC Quick Check.” It is a phrase that easily rolls off the tongue of Peter Czerny. “ABC Quick Check.” Before starting a season of riding his bicycle, and even before starting a trip to work in the morning, this phrase reminds him to check the air in his tires — and the tires. That’s the …
Recently we went down south for a family visit. At the time it was still very much winter here in the Yukon. Down there the snow was melting, there were puddles everywhere and it felt like spring. If it had been like that up here we would have already been in the garden. But no one …
Jacob Scheier wrote his first collection of poems about the loss of his mother; he was 20. She had gotten sick when he was in high school. It was part of his shift from writing as a hobby to writing because it felt very necessary. And, ultimately, writing about his loss was an important part …
About 11:00 p.m. I finally got a glimpse of McClure when our trail passed near the deep ravine the river made. I had been vainly looking for it for the last few hours, but it was hidden in the canyon. The lake is about three miles long and is a skinny one. It’s sort of …
Amelia Merher, also known as the ukulele-slinging songwriter Big Mama Lele, has ambitious plans for her 30th birthday. “I’m putting a new spin on fatbiking,” she says. On May 26, her birthday, Merher kicks off a 16-gig bicycle tour of the Yukon and B.C., including stops in Atlin, Carcross, Haines Junction, and then Vancouver, Surrey, …
Peep this — the word cigar comes from the Latin word cicala, which means “large insect”. When the Spanish started discovering cigars in the 1700s, they turned cicala into cigarra, since cigars resembled the shape of a cicala. The French put their spin on it and called it cigare, and by the 1800s the English …
On a sunny Saturday a few weeks ago I joined 70 other curious souls at a bourbon tasting and barbecue cohosted by the Yukon Chamber of Commerce and the Yukon Liquor Corporation. Seventeen different fine and rare bourbons were set up at three tasting stations in Waterfront Station, while a long table of crispy chicken …
Tatooed: Telek Rogan. Have a Yukon tattoo that’s important to you? Inspired by the Yukon? Submit yours and show it off!
Welcome to the first of four articles on beginner bike touring around the Yukon. I’ll share a rundown of trips and some tips, as well as the official judgment from my quads, on which hills are the absolute worst. I’m a musician, not an athlete. “Built for pleasure, not speed,” I like to say. I …
WE WENT IN THE BUSH TO FIRE FIGHT BUT THERE WAS NO FOOD TO BITE. BUNCH OF US WERE ON A FIRE CREW BUT WE HAD NOTHING TO CHEW. SMOKE CHASED THE ANIMALS OFF AND IT MADE US COUGH. WE NEVER ATE FOR ONE WEEK AN’ WE WERE GETTING WEAK. SOMEONE FORGOT ABOUT THE GRUB …
The circus arts are some of the oldest performing arts: acrobats, contortionists, the bearded lady, bears pedaling bikes, clowns, and juggling. The big top, pennant flags waving in the wind. The smell of wood chips and animals. It’s mysterious, glamorous. Magical. From the outside. In reality, “everyday is the same” — a new town a …
According to Marc Paradis, it’s starting to resemble a mini-music festival. He should know. The Whitehorse drummer has performed at pretty much every major music function since he arrived in the Yukon 35 years ago. “We don’t have an Alsek festival any more, which used to be the highlight of early summer for a lot …
