Yes, I haven't blogged in a while so now there is too much to tell so here's just a quick list of some things that happened:
Met up with Jody (Mac outdoor club friend) in Dawson, twas lovely!
Found out that Dawson City isn't a city
Heard some GREAT music at the Dawson City Music Festival.
Let David Suzuki into the Beer Garden of afore mentioned festival - I wanted to say "ID please" but managed not to and instead just waffled a bit about working for Earth Day Canada...and did he remember Fraser Los?
Got a ride up the Dempster highway to the "end of the road in Canada" - Inuvik, in the Arctic Circle.
Stayed with Jonathan's amazing cousin Julianne
Never went to bed (well almost never!) since it was constantly light.
Caught, filleted and ate a pike (yes I know, I said a little prayer for it though, and it was wild and free until I caught it and clubbed it) (Well okay, Jonathan's cousin Julianne did the clubbing, but I watched, very Northern experience.
Went to the Northern Arts festival, lots of Inuvialuit (Inuit community) art and some Native dancing. Lots of stuff made out of Whale, Polar Bear, Caribou, Muskoxen etcetera. Doesn't look like much gets wasted though!
Got a ride back down to Dawson and then Whitehorse in an RV - wooo hoooo!
Went to Robert Service's Cabin
Harvested some peas
Went on a 2 day training run on my bike. First day consisted of 50k to Marsh Lake campsite (unstaffed) to find that the well was closed due to arsenic. Hmmm fortunately there was a house 10k down the road who filled us up in the morning. Second day consisted of a thorough soaking arriving at the campsite just in time for my entire left pedal to fall off. Everything was soaked, especially the inside of the tent. Fortunately there was a sheltered area where a nice couple from Alaska had got a stove going so we kind of dried out a bit before bed. This morning when it became clear that there was no fixing my pedal without the missing bolt they drove me to the bicycle repair shop in Whitehorse.
Philippe fixed up the bike a treat and let us camp in his back yard bicycle graveyard inside an old school bus. Random!
Tomorrow I will set off to Christina Lake in BC to spend a few days with Jonathan's family at their cabin before the Otesha Adventure begins...
Bises,
Katherine
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Dawson Music Festival
So, despite how lovely the puppies are here, and the crew, I have found that the focus for me has been more hospitality and tourism than working with the dogs and the garden. Therefore I have decided to move on 2 weeks earlier than planned, but still on good terms (at least I think so anyway!) in order to explore other possibilities.
Up next is the Dawson Music Festival. Jonathan (rather nice chap from Toronto who decided to join me out here ;-)) and I will travel to Dawson on Thursday to volunteer staff the festival for 10- 15 hours and earn free passes (woooo hooooo!). We are greatly indebted to Jody (McMaster Outdoor Club friend) for hooking us up with this rather sweet deal. Then the plan is to ride the Dempster Highway to Inuvik to visit Jonathan's cousin. This is supposed to be an incredible route and I'm very excited about traveling it. After this I'll be working on another farm close to Whitehorse for a week or so.
I'm having trouble uploading photos, but I"m working on it!
Bye for now,
K
Up next is the Dawson Music Festival. Jonathan (rather nice chap from Toronto who decided to join me out here ;-)) and I will travel to Dawson on Thursday to volunteer staff the festival for 10- 15 hours and earn free passes (woooo hooooo!). We are greatly indebted to Jody (McMaster Outdoor Club friend) for hooking us up with this rather sweet deal. Then the plan is to ride the Dempster Highway to Inuvik to visit Jonathan's cousin. This is supposed to be an incredible route and I'm very excited about traveling it. After this I'll be working on another farm close to Whitehorse for a week or so.
I'm having trouble uploading photos, but I"m working on it!
Bye for now,
K
Friday, July 13, 2007
Muktuk Kennels, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory
I have been in the Yukon a week now and it's wonderful. Here's how my first week panned out:
The bus ride was great and as well as meeting some nice people, I saw large herds of bison and mountain sheep, both with young. I also saw moose and caribou on the Alaska Highway.
Arriving in the early hours of the morning last Thursday I was greeted by a chorus of howling huskies. I let myself into the house by the front door at first, which apparently was where the retired dogs slept, so once I had persuaded them to return to their lodgings (as quietly as possible since it was 5am) I found the humans' quarters at the side door. After a few hours sleep I got up and straight to work, since I could hear 120 dogs howling and was too interested to stay in bed!
We are currently 10 in the household: The owners, the kennels manager (german), the hospitality manager (french), and 6 woofers from Japan, the U.S., the U.K. and Belgium. So we are all constantly working on our languages!
The kennels run educational tours in the summer, since there's no snow and it's too hot for the dogs to pull carts. There are visitors here from all over the world, so this has provided even more opportunity to practise French and German.
I'm basically doing a bit of everything here: working in the herb and vegetable garden; feeding, watering, grooming and poop-scooping in the yard with the dogs; greeting guests and showing them round; and kitchen and housekeeping duties. The days are hectic and long but I feel very happy to be in the countryside and it's great to be doing active work.
A couple of days ago one of the dogs had puppies and they are so lovely. I will post some photos of them as soon as I can.
There is a family of Bald Eagles close by and they regularly visit to try and steal the dogs' evening meal (Artic Charr!!!). In order to avoid this and the commotion that ensues, a separate portion is left in the driveway, away from the dogs, that the eagle is free to "steal". Apparently this practice is stopped in time for migration...
There are only a couple of hours of "darkness" each night, but even when the sun is below the horizon it's still light by my standards! This is amazing because you feel like it's earlier than it actually is and get lots of stuff done in the evenings. I.E. last night I went on a 32k ride around 10pm and it felt more like 6pm.
A couple of the woofers are really into singing, and karaoke is apparently a Thursday night tradition. I also have my guitar here so we've had a few singalongs. It seems like in most bars here you don't have to pay to play pool, which is great
:-)
Today was my day off and I went on a walk with Eri, a Japanese woofer and ecologist. There are so many beautiful wildflowers and we're trying to learn them all but there are also millions of mosquitos and I look a lot like I have chicken pox right now. We saw a beaver though which was nice. Last night the guests in the cabin next door saw a black bear wandering about right outside but I haven't seen him yet... Wolves are also about and apparently one of the dogs strayed too far in the night a few months ago and fell prey to the pack. These days the dogs are kept inside at night, needless to say.
Okay, that's all for now - photos soon!
K
The bus ride was great and as well as meeting some nice people, I saw large herds of bison and mountain sheep, both with young. I also saw moose and caribou on the Alaska Highway.
Arriving in the early hours of the morning last Thursday I was greeted by a chorus of howling huskies. I let myself into the house by the front door at first, which apparently was where the retired dogs slept, so once I had persuaded them to return to their lodgings (as quietly as possible since it was 5am) I found the humans' quarters at the side door. After a few hours sleep I got up and straight to work, since I could hear 120 dogs howling and was too interested to stay in bed!
We are currently 10 in the household: The owners, the kennels manager (german), the hospitality manager (french), and 6 woofers from Japan, the U.S., the U.K. and Belgium. So we are all constantly working on our languages!
The kennels run educational tours in the summer, since there's no snow and it's too hot for the dogs to pull carts. There are visitors here from all over the world, so this has provided even more opportunity to practise French and German.
I'm basically doing a bit of everything here: working in the herb and vegetable garden; feeding, watering, grooming and poop-scooping in the yard with the dogs; greeting guests and showing them round; and kitchen and housekeeping duties. The days are hectic and long but I feel very happy to be in the countryside and it's great to be doing active work.
A couple of days ago one of the dogs had puppies and they are so lovely. I will post some photos of them as soon as I can.
There is a family of Bald Eagles close by and they regularly visit to try and steal the dogs' evening meal (Artic Charr!!!). In order to avoid this and the commotion that ensues, a separate portion is left in the driveway, away from the dogs, that the eagle is free to "steal". Apparently this practice is stopped in time for migration...
There are only a couple of hours of "darkness" each night, but even when the sun is below the horizon it's still light by my standards! This is amazing because you feel like it's earlier than it actually is and get lots of stuff done in the evenings. I.E. last night I went on a 32k ride around 10pm and it felt more like 6pm.
A couple of the woofers are really into singing, and karaoke is apparently a Thursday night tradition. I also have my guitar here so we've had a few singalongs. It seems like in most bars here you don't have to pay to play pool, which is great
:-)
Today was my day off and I went on a walk with Eri, a Japanese woofer and ecologist. There are so many beautiful wildflowers and we're trying to learn them all but there are also millions of mosquitos and I look a lot like I have chicken pox right now. We saw a beaver though which was nice. Last night the guests in the cabin next door saw a black bear wandering about right outside but I haven't seen him yet... Wolves are also about and apparently one of the dogs strayed too far in the night a few months ago and fell prey to the pack. These days the dogs are kept inside at night, needless to say.
Okay, that's all for now - photos soon!
K
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Hiking: Spencer Gorge and the Dundas Valley
Webster's Falls freeze over the Niagara Escarpment
Dale, Maya, Jason, Brit and Katherine - thank you Jason for the lovely photos.
Don't let them tell you that Hamilton isn't beautiful!
Unfortunately, the Escarpment is under ongoing threat of quarry expansion.
To get involved in preserving the Niagara Escarpment check out http://www.niagaraescarpment.org/
If you click on "volunteer", which is the last option on the left menu bar, and scroll down, the site lists several ways in which you can help protect the Escarpment. Some of these are as simple as writing a letter to your MP. This action in particular incorporates the added bonus of discovering who your local MP actually is...;-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)