Pictures From Canada

We arrived in Whitehorse to a winter wonderland.  According to the locals, this was unusual for the arid climate of the Yukon.  It’s too cold and dry for snow, so they typically only have a small layer on the ground rather than the knee deep drifts we encountered.

We were only in Whitehorse for 4 days, but we packed as much as possible into that time.  We landed in the very early morning hours of Christmas Eve, so we knew we only had one day to stock up before the town shut down for Christmas.  After loading up on food, and getting our lost Jacket from Tito we were off to wilderness to dogsled.

   

   

I didn’t know it prior to arrival, but our dog sledding was being led by an Olympic level slender who competed in the world famous Iditarod multiple times.  Her team of guides were all wonderful lovers of dogs and nature, and were excited to share their passion for the sport.

Fun fact about these sledding dogs, they’re actually born outside and live their lives outside until they’re too old to work without ever going into climate control.  That’s how they’re able to handle these cold temperatures.  They also don’t drink water, they eat snow to get their hydration.

 

That first day was fantastic but exhausting.  We were working off of just a few hours of sleep, so we were running on fumes.  Thankfully the next day was Christmas and we could spend most of the day resting.  We were going to need it because after a little nap we headed back out to the wilderness to try and catch the Northern Lights.

 They weren’t lighting up the sky like the astral fireworks we had hoped, but they were there.  The group we went out with had a great setup with Teepees, warm campfires and bottomless coco.

It ended up being another night that went until 4am, but it was worth it to be able to experience the natural wonder of the aurora.  Here’s a picture of Kress staying warm next to the fire.

Christmas was quiet, which was exactly what we needed.  Rest, food, board games and then off to the local hot streams for a soak.  They were kind enough to provide this helpful diagram of what needed to be washed prior to entering the spring.

Our last full day in Whitehorse was on the 26^th of December.  If we had ended our trip after seeing the aurora and dogsledding it would have been worth it, but we were able o squeeze in a VIP tour of the local animal preserve.

Our guide Andrew was the perfect spokesman for the local wildlife.  In the picture above you can see all the antlers that were shed by just one of their animals.  They leave them out so the rodents can nibble on them to get nutrients during the winter months.

  

Our time in Whitehorse was priceless, but we had a flight to catch to Japan so the following day we headed back to Vancouver and then off to Tokyo, or so we thought.

My next post is going to get into the shit-show that is Chase Bank, and their so-called “ultimate rewards.”  The only reward we received from Chase was the surprise of not having a flight as paid-for and scheduled to Tokyo.  Needless to say (and I’ll get into the details in my next post), we ended up staying in Vancouver for an extra three days unexpectedly.

Thankfully we found a fantastic hotel right on the water where we could rest, recuperate, get healthy after catching a cold, and figure out our next move.