Dogsled Pictures

Dog Sledding

We had the opportunity to go dog sledding with Sky High Wildreness Resort last weekend. It was absolutely exhilerating!!!! The dogs are so so cute and so so so crazy strong!!!! Even when I had the brakes on going down a hill, they were running full tilt. We went out for 2.5 hours and went almost all the way accross Fish Lake. We went up and down some steep hills and around some sharp corners. There were a few times where it was almost scary how fast the dogs were running. Our sleds even tipped on their sides a few times!!

Here are a few pictures of our adventure!

The Great North

I know we are a few weeks behind in posting any news, but the internet is quite slow here and it is extremely difficult to upload pictures and information to the blog.

We apologize for the gap but now we will fill you in with what we have been up to.

After we went to the Wilderness Preserve we had the opportunity to drive to a place called Swan Haven on Marsh Lake. It is a 30 minute drive from downtown Whitehorse and is beautiful! Swan Haven is a spot on Marsh Lake which happens to be where thousands of Trumpeter Swans pass through each year on their migratory pass. We learned that 25% of the world's swan population stops at this particular spot each year. You have to walk about 30 minutes over the frozen lake to see the swans clearly, but you can hear them from miles away. Trumpeter swans can grown up to be 30 pounds, and are quite vicious.....who knew???

Enjoy the pictures, you can't really see the swans...but Marsh Lake is beautiful!!!

The Yukon Wildlife Preserve

Today we went to the Yukon Wildlife Preserve, it was awesome! It is a 5km loop that takes you past some of the Yukon's coolest animals. We got to see Elk, Mule Deer, Musk Ox, Caribou (which we learned are the same as reindeer), mountain goats, and prairie dogs. The trail was very scenic and took us about 2 hours to complete. We made friends with a Musk Ox named Jesse, he was orphaned as a baby and loves people. As soon as we started walking by the pasture he ran to catch up with us. He even climbed up onto the fence to have a better look. Unfortunately the Moose were not feeling social and kept to the back corner of their area in the park, but we bought a year membership so I am sure we will see him eventually. They will also be welcoming a Lynx at the end of the month, and we are looking forward to seeing her too. Have a look at some of our pictures from today & enjoy. We will write again soon!

The Yukon River

We are lucky to live so close to a great trail that runs along the Yukon river. We have become regulars along the river banks and Cortez absolutely loves it! Both Friday and today, we awoke to a fresh blanket of snow. We put on our new winter boots and our cold weather gear and headed out for a walk. For those of you who know Cortez, you know how much he loves the snow-so he was THRILLED! Enjoy the pictures of our walk!

Northern Lights Tour

Last night we had the opportunity to witness the most amazing light show...put on by mother nature herself. We drove about 45 minutes north of whitehorse at 11:00pm until the city lights were miles away. It was such a clear night that every star in the sky was visible, except for when you looked North where there was an eerie green arch like a rainbow spanning accross the sky. It started out quite faint but within 20 minutes 2 other arches formed as well and the green became brighter and brighter. Just when we thought we would never see anything more spectacular, the green began to shootup from the arches in all directions. The green was joined by purple and red and the colors began to dance and twirl accross the night sky. It was hard to believe that what we were seeing was au natural and not man made. When we began to freeze we headed into the log cabin with a roaring fire for some hot chocolate to warm up. We stayed out until 2am and are still amazed by what we saw. Gas: $20.00, Winter boots: $200.00, Sitting on a frozen-snow covered lake watching the Northern Lights dance around us: PRICELESS.

We have arrived!!

After a two and a half hour scenic flight through the snow covered mountains, we arrived in our new hometown of Whitehorse, Yukon. The mountains around us are beautiful; and the air is so crisp and clear! My friend Dylan met us at the airport and once our bags and Cortez were collected we made our way to our new (temporary) home; the High Country Inn. We got ourselves sorted and then headed out for a tour of the town. We drove to all four courners of Whitehorse, the local ski resort Mt. Sima and then to the hotsprings. We checked out the local recreation centre which is absoultely amazing! For dinner we ate the deck, a local pub which is conveniently located downstairs. We enjoyed some grub, took Cortez for a walk to the Yukon River, and then passed out from pure exhaustion (after waiting to see what time the sun would actually set-FYI it was 10pm).
Today we both started our new jobs and everything went quite well. It was a lot to take in but I am sure that we will be in the swing of things in no time. We had dinner at the local sushi restaurant which was delicious but CRAZY expensive!! We went for a little walk with the dog and are now getting ready for bed. We are going on an Aurora Borealis tour on Saturday from 10pm-3am to see the Northern Lights. We are going to be heading ourside of the city and hanging out in a big heated tepee from what I'm told. We are looking forward to it and will post pictures! Will try to write again soon! We will post pictures soon, our internet connection is really bad and is taking too long to upload them now!