Some Rendezvous photos

Colin was holding down the fort at the Yukon Made Store while Rendezvous happened a few steps away in Shipyards Park (where the Outdoor Market is held in the summer)

Here are some nice things in the Store

This is poorly-photographed wild tea made by Kim

Maximally soft alpaca wool

Goat milk fudge, mmm....

A spectator at the Chainsaw Chuck, with the best hat ever

Snow sculpture made by Yukoners

Finland

Japan

Somewhere in America

Michigan, USA

BC

France

Alaska

There will likely be much better photos posted on the Yukon News website soon (http://www.yukon-news.com/) :)

Bye for now,
Love Lauren

Mt Lorne (partial) ascent

Hello all,

We strapped snowshoes on our feet, asked Smiley and Cookie to stick with the pack, and set off with Kim and Smokey to climb Mt Lorne for some good views yesterday. It was a nice temperature for a long hike, and although somewhat overcast, we reached some incredible lookouts.

No leash- no problem!

Those tracks are Smiley and Cookie running at top speed across a little lake. When we called them to come back, instead of running back the way they left, they ran around the circumference around the lake, and were hardly out of breath when they reached us!

They did eat a whole bunch of snow to cool down, though

Re-evaluating our route

Understandably, navigating through a forest with no trail maps is a bit of a challenge (see Colin's face)

Who cares where we're going, as long as I can run in the snow! Let's go!

Kim and the pack. Her dog Smokey is an older lady, and has amazing stamina! 

The deep sugar snow slowed down the dogs once in a while, and they would try to follow our snowshoe tracks for about 30 seconds. Then they would decide that we were going too slow, and bound through the snowdrifts like rabbits :)

Whew! This was the steepest hill we had to climb. Wait until you see how fun it was to get down...

Almost there!

Cookie was the first one up, and probably ran up and down the hill 3 or 4 times as we all slogged up 

Fantastic view from the halfway point

Ready to go yet?! Come on, time to get going!?!

As far as we got, just before the treeline

Hello down there!

That big hill turned out to be impossible to snowshoe down...

...and we all ended up surfing in the snow

I'm not really posing, my right arm was stuck between snow and the backpack strap

Thankfully there are no photos of the struggle out of the snowpile

Last few steps home. Yes, Smiley and Cookie did make it back with us :)

Happy weekend,
Love Lauren and Colin

Rendezvous Holiday Miracle

I was corrected by an old Yukoner yesterday- our territorial holiday should be called 'the Rendezvous holiday', not Heritage Day, as it says on our calendar. The Rendezvous holiday spirits seem to work in mysterious ways- Colin was at the Sally Ann yesterday, and scored a jackpot:   

An insulated, hooded work onesie, complete with a Yukon patch!

A rabbit fur cold-weather hat!

Colin is out in his insulated onesie (I know he would not like me calling it that!), grooming the ski trails at the community centre. I would love to wear my hat, but the forecast for today is -8 and snowy, which is just not cold enough. It's a bit ironic that as soon as we figure out cold-weather dressing and get our gear (my mukluks arrived a few weeks ago), it is Ontario-warm! I really hope it gets cold again soon.

Happy Rendezvous holiday!

Love Lauren 

Ready for Rendezvous!

We have been looking forward to the Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous ever since we heard about it last year. Here are some reasons why:

Snow sculpture competition

Maple syrup, just like home!

Lots of fantastically strange contests: flour-packing... 

One dog pull...

Swede sawing...

Chainsaw chucking...

And of course, can-can dancers (ubiquitous in Yukon)

We will be in town on Saturday and Sunday, taking in the sights and syrup. This Friday is a territorial holiday, Heritage Day, and we hope to spend most of the day outside, visiting friends and skijoring with Cookie and Smiley. And maybe a visit to Deb's pups- it seems like a perfectly fitting way to celebrate Heritage Day, spending time with husky puppies :)

Our firefighting basic training went well, and we have a few more things to review with our own firehall members, plus lots of practice and studying, before our test in March. Our session on fire behaviour on Sunday was interesting, and was held in the new fire hall in Whitehorse- what Colin remarked as "the biggest building I have been in since leaving Toronto!"

March is shaping up to be a good month for music- we have tickets to see Royal Wood at the Yukon Arts Centre, and we just heard about a performance next Friday by CR Avery- here is a description of what we are in for: 

"Beat-box poet, punk piano player, hip-hop harmonica player, C.R. Avery emerged from Vancouver’s slam poetry scene in the mid-nineties and has been going further and wider ever since, with fellow wordsmith Shane Koyczan in Tons Of Fun University, and on his own wings across the world stages."

The musician Tom Waits is quotes as saying "He's blowing my mind" about this guy, so we are really excited to see his performance. Thanks for the tip, Dylan! Here check him out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y3bPOCeQD4&feature=fvwrel

Bye for now,
Lauren and Colin

Hose Lines and Hose Lays

If this is your favourite colour, you should have been carpooling to Whitehorse with me this morning! The sunrise turned the night sky into a brilliant blue before the sun came up over the mountains. The snow reflected a blue hue, and even the black spruce forest looked blue-black. There was a 'toenail moon' in the sky, with some stars too, and it was incredible :)

While I was looking online for the right blue colour to show you, I remembered about a fundraiser that I heard about recently that really stuck out as being clever- the paint company Dulux wants to name each and every one of the 16.7 million colours that the average computer/smartphone can display, to raise at least £1 to raise money for the children’s charity UNICEF: http://www.ownacolour.com/

The firefighter basic training that we are taking in the evenings this week has been a great experience so far, and we have more interesting thigs to look forward to- on Friday we are learning all about water supply and hoses, and on Sunday we are spending the day at the new firehall in Whitehorse, doing a session on fire behaviour with the service's best instructor. Our class last night was on personal protective equipment (including our bunker gear that Colin is modeling above) and the self-contained breathing apparatus. The practical testing is in March, and by then we will have to don the whole kit in 2 minutes to pass!

Bye for now,

Lauren