Yukon Road Trip August 2007

In August, we headed up to the Yukon for three weeks of camping, hiking and wildlife encounters. In Whitehorse, we visited Alison who kindly shared her home with us, showed us around town and took us whitewater rafting on the Tat. From Whitehorse, we headed down to Skagway, Alaska and took the ferry across to Haines. We stayed there for a couple of days, exploring the inlets, watching wildlife and hiking. Then we drove North, through BC and back into the Yukon (where we saw the first of many grizzly bears) to Kluane National Park. In this park, we decided to go on a multi-day hike along Slims West to Observation Mountain. If you like grizzly bears, this is the place to go. This is also a great place to go if you like route-finding, quick mud, crazy “creek” crossing and complete isolation. And the scenery is stunning. Unfortunately, due to the stress caused by our grizzly bear encounter (and constant signs of fresh bear droppings, diggings and paw prints), we did not summit Observation Mountain. Instead, we walked back out from Canada Creek Campground where we spent one restless night. We were relieved to make it out without seeing another grizzly and headed back to Whitehorse to recover from our adventure (and to get our flat tire fixed).
Here is a link to photos from the first leg of our trip. If you want to see the full size photos double click on the slideshow.



To see a map of where the photos are click HERE (Hybrid mode is the best) or even better use Google Earth

The second part of the trip was much more relaxing. We drove from Whitehorse up to Dawson City where we panned for gold, met some crazy miners and watched can-can girls dance at Diamond Tooth Gertie's Gambling Hall. We also drove up the Dempster Highway, past the Arctic Circle and all the way to the North West Territories border. Our favorite part of the trip was camping in Tombstone park and hiking in the tundra just off the road. From Dawson, we took the "Top of the World Highway" into Alaska, drove through Chicken and then slowly back down to Kluane National park, where we sun tanned on the shore of Kathleen lake (spooked a black bear) and hiked up King's Throne. Then, it was time to fly back home, but not before briefly stopping in Calgary to visit George (who cooked us a fabulous meal).



To see a map of where the photos are click HERE or as before take a look with Google Earth

Peru - August 2006

In August 2006, We went off on our Honeymoon, a three week hiking and camping trip to Peru. Since this was supposed to be our honeymoon we signed up with a tour company, Les Karavaniers to go backpacking in style and we were not disappointed. It was absolutely FANTASTIC. The three week trek included visiting the Cusco, Lima and utterly breathtaking Machu Picchu, a 4 day trek in the Urubamba Valley and a 10 day trek around the Cordillia Huayhuash. Some great photos and a similar itinerary can be found on the specific trek page of the Karavaniers website.

Over the next couple of days I plan to update the blog but until then click on the picture above and select slideshow for a (very) condensed selection of photos from our trip.

A Trip out West - March 2007

During March 2007 we took a trip out West to ski and visit friends . Although we struggled through a tough Saturday, on Sunday George took us out to visit Bow's Summit in Banff National Park for some avalanche training and ski touring. It was a perfect day; Warm, sunny and a lot of fun.

After saying good-bye to George we spend a cosy night in the the town of Banff and skied Lake Louise the next day. It was an OK day but unfortunately it was overcast which meant the snow never soften up so it was quite challenging. We decided to stop early and enjoy the scenic drive into the town of Golden, BC where we met up with Geoff. An exploratory visit to Overwaitea, the best grocery store in BC, gave Lia another reason to move out west.
The three of us spend two really fun days at Kicking Horse; Skiing nice chalky snow up top, warm spring mush at the bottom, breaking bindings in inopportune places, visiting Overwaitea and generally having a great time.

At the end of day two Geoff headed home, narrowly avoiding a major slide that closed the Trans-Canada and we drove to Radium Springs to have a well deserved soak in the hot baths.

Feeling great after the hot baths and a good night sleep we were on the road again, towards Fernie for three more days. When we got within 20 min of Fernie it started snowing like crazy and we were getting a little excited because this was the first fresh snow of the trip. Arriving in the parking lot we saw a little bit of snow on the cars and it was very wet and heavy. Luckly the snow was much lighter up top and we had a great day of fresh tracks. The next morning we could here them blasting on the mountain and when we looked out window we could see the remenants of slides that came down Lizard Bowl. Lia took a well deserved day off (after 5 straight days of skiing) and I went out to explore the mountain by myself.

George met us the next day in the parking lot and although the conditions were really difficult (very wet and heavy powder) me still managed to have fun. An incindent initiated by an evil customer service manager and a collision with a drunk skier getting off the lift notwithstanding, good times were had in Fernie.

Arriving back in Calgary that night we had a late dinner and George arrange another ski touring day for the next morning. Not only did we get to bed really late and have to get up really early but we also switched to Daylight Savings Time, thereby losing another hour. After about 4 hrs of sleep, George and I grudgingly got up and drove to Canmore to meet a couple of his friends who were going to show us around. After getting to the bowl we dug a pit, had some lunch and did a couple of fun runs. In the end it was good that got up so early because the weather turned around lunch and it wouldn't have been a good idea to stay much longer.

Although it was snowing and raining were we were, when we arrived back to Calgary it was 18 C and a blue bird day. It was a great way to end the trip, in shorts and basking in the warm sun.