From Dawson we drove back down south about 50 kms and then an hour into the mountains.  We camped one night there at the territiorial park.  The area is definitely up there as one of the best places we’ve ever camped.  The campground sits where 3 valleys converge, giving great views in all directions.  It’s about as good as it gets for being so close to a road.

We started the day with a hike up the Goldensides trail.  It’s great for kids, it’s only a 3 km drive from the camp, we start above the treeline so the views are great right from the first step. and it’s not too steep.  We hiked up for about an hour and had some snacks and played with some snow.

A little artsy shot using Doug as a prop:

In the afternoon Kirsten, Sarah and the kids went for a hike down the river.  The headwaters still had quite a bit of ice.

We took advantage of the extra cameras being around and tried to get family pictures whenever we could.

Kirsten and I took pictures of each other taking pictures.

I’ve noticed a lot of pictures of people taking pictures while going through the last couple of weeks.  Like this one I took of Kirsten taking a picture of Sarah taking a picture of Ben while Spence takes pictures of his own.

I took a few photos with the idea of creating a panorama, once we got home I stitched them together with photoshop.  Click on the photo to see the high res version.

What a great visit with the Millers.  It was fun to have kids around all the time for Owen to play with and it was fun to have Doug and Sarah here for us to hang out with.  The 2 weeks flew by but we also made sure to fit in some days to chill out and enjoy the day without driving all over the place.

First post is Dawson City.  It takes about 6 hours to drive up there, we arrived in the late afternoon, camped one night in town, watched a can-can show, drank the toe, explored the town the next day and then left in the evening to go camping in the Tombstone mountains.

Kirsten and Sarah went to the early show at Gerties to see tyhe can-can dancers.  Doug and I heard that maybe we should wait and see the late show because it might be a little more daring.  Nope.  We saw a freakin 50’s dance show.  Same singers and dancers as the early shows but the music was Rock Around the Clock and stuff like that.  Booooooo!

We toured around town the next day, took some photos, saw a little play put on by Parks Canada, and checked out the shops.  We decided not to pay to go gold panning.

We took a quick tour of town in a horse drawn wagon.  Spence and Paige rode up front, the rest of us rode in the wagon.  And Caveman Bill hopped on to tell us a few stories.  Bill has lived in a cave across the river from town for a few years.  He’s highly educated and likes that caves retain more heat in the winter than cabins.

We checked out the visitor centre.

We were walking up to the local First Nation cultural centre and they just happened to be having a teddy bear picnic for the pre-school/daycare kids.  They invited us to join and it was great.  The kids listened to stories of bears and ravens, talked about the lessons learned and then had water melon and bannock.

And here’s the toe!  Doug and I were the only ones there (it was Monday night) and I went first.  Of course I threw the whole thing in and drank the shot around it.  Then I dropped it into Doug’s drink and he did the same.  Good times.  I don’t have a picture of Doug yet.  When I do I’ll add it to this post.

Playing a little catch-up…here are some photos from the 24h of light race.

Our camping setup - it rained 3 or 4 times during the 24hrs that we were biking - the first rain we had seen in weeks. It actually hailed during one of my laps. Tim was our only fair-weather biker, he managed to miss all the storms for his rides.  

Owen and Gillian waiting for something exciting to happen:

Waiting for Tim at the finish line:

Tim rolling in after his first lap:

Midnight at the start/finish area:

Finishing up after a 6 am lap:

Some of the beautiful singletrack along the ridge:

My bike, the morning mist, and the view from the trail - lovely.

Doug and Sarah and the kids rolled into town Thursday morning and it’s been pretty busy ever since.  We’ve finished the deck and had a party on it, we’ve headed down to the water park on the river, we hit the Canada Games Centre for the pool, lazy river, and water slide, and today we hit the beach.  As you might guess by all the water activities the weather up here right now is fantastic, sunny and in the 20’s every day.

Tomorrow we head up to Dawson City.  We’ll post a few pictures when we get back later in the week.

This weekend is the 24 Hours of Light mountain bike festival - think 24 Hrs of Adrenaline but with no headlamps allowed. We’re riding on a team of 5. The course is about 14 km long. The first 2 km is all climbing on some wide doubletrack trails, then the singletrack starts. Lots of variation on the singletrack - roots, rocks, quick transitions, tight trees and a beautiful exposed ridge ride. It’s technical in spots but mostly loopy and fun - Tim raced it on Wednesday and we both rode it last night to try it out.

Check out the race details at:
http://www.24hoursoflight.ca/main.html

We had a pretty enthusiastic support crew for the race. Here are a few pictures of our support crew for the weekend.

I think Tim had the best way to describe bike relay weekend - ultimate on wheels. Except biking isn’t as much work as 5 games of ulti :). There were lots of people there to try and win it, teams like ours that wanted to do their best and push hard, some teams that had to use everything they had just to finish, and then the costumed folks.  When we remembered to look around the scenery was amazing in all directions all day long. It was a great weekend - good weather, we all rode well, no injuries…well, minor biker’s crotch injuries for some team members that haven’t been riding much lately but that was it.

Our team finished 28th out of 81 in a total time of 9:48:35.  Dustin was our best rider, finishing 1st in his leg out of all the 8-person mixed riders. Yay Dust! After the race there is a big camp out on the parade grounds in the town of Haines, seafood chowder for dinner in a potlatch house, and generally a good party. Sound familiar?

I have been to Haines before but only for this bike race, and in other years I think I was more focused on the party than on anything else. This year though we spent some time exploring Haines on Sunday, and it it an absolutely beautiful place. We will definitely be back soon.

Here are some photos of race weekend.

Leg 1: Dustin

Leg 2: Dave

Leg 3: Tim

Leg 4: Kirsten

Leg 5: Hector

Leg 6: Drew

Leg 7: Denny

Leg 8: Morgan at the finish line

We had one adopted team member as well. Here is Jess (with the green boa), riding for GangGreen, the Green Party team:

We’re heading off tomorrow morning to ride the Kluane to Chilkat International road relay. The relay is on Saturday but we’re camping on Friday night just outside Haines Junction (the starting line) and we’ll be camping in Haines, AK (the finish line) on Saturday night.

Road biking is not really my thing, but the relay is a lot of fun. Beautiful scenery, killer hils both up and down, usually some wildlife, and a great solstice party at the end.

The race website at www.kcibr.org has good info and some photos of the course. Tim is riding leg 3, which according to the race website goes like this:
“The hills begin in earnest on this leg. Shortly after leg 3 starts, riders climb beside a beautiful wetland on the right and continue to climb with some short downhill sections. The road climbs slowly toward the Pringle Tower ending on a gradual uphill.”

I’m riding leg 4. Based on this description, I probably shoud have done some more training:
“The leg starts on a long, fast and potentially dangerous downhill to Million Dollar Falls, on the right side of the road at the bottom of the hill. Then riders begin a 7 km ( 4.3 mile) relentless climb, which begins steeply at the bridge with shallower grades at times. There are great views over the Tatshenshini River on the right, if your eyes aren’t too glazed over with the effort. Riders then drop down to the Blanchard River and pass into the wider plains of the plateau. There are a few steep sections and the leg ends on a steep uphill guaranteed to turn your legs into jello.”

Our 8 person team is named Fuji Mocha Madness at the Apollo (a combo of our mostly-vintage road bike names). Woo hoo!

Tim’s parents came up for a visit in April. They hadn’t seen Owen since he was just a wee thing, so we were not sure if he would recognize them or not. He was a little shy at the airport but was smiling and making eyes at Grandma 5 minutes later in the car…and he hasn’t stopped talking about them since!

We had a great visit with lots of playtime for Owen and some sightseeing, work around the house and general relaxing for the rest of us. Tim and I even managed to get some time to do work at the same time. Here are some pics of the week.

Owen and Grandma at the park:

 

 

Lots of reading:

A big highlight of the visit was a road trip on the Carcross-Tagish loop to see the swans. At this time of year hundreds of swans migtrating north stop to rest on any open water that they can find. It was a beautiful spring day and we saw lots of swans, some cariboo, and the largest loaf of bread I’ve ever seen.

Owen and Grampa on the Tagish bridge:

 

Swans:

Views along the way (credit Terry for this photo of Bennet lake):

Family photo (don’t worry, the snow is gone now):

Spring is trying to take hold in the Yukon, but it is fighting a tough battle with the piles of snow we had this year. We’ve had some beautiful sunny days and some completely unpredictable weather. One day while Owen and I were out walking we saw sun, rain, hail and snow - all in under an hour. There is some bare ground in the tree-wells now though, and we have regular avalanches of melting snow from our roof. One avalanche was so heavy that it busted the shelf on our barbeque - guess we’ll move it a little futher from the house next year.

Since it will be awhile before we see bare ground around here, Owen and I did a little gardening indoors recently. We repotted some struggling plants and started some herbs from seed. Getting Owen to help with anything is a great way to turn a 15 minute job into an hour long adventure. He loved helping put soil in the pots, and we have to look at the baby plants (herbs) every day now.  My favourite photo is of Owen “planting” seeds in his own pot - maybe the shaking helps aerate the soil?