Back to the (kinda) Cold of a Yukon Winter

Happy Sunday, friends and family.

Sunday morning outside our window

January ended up being a very full month that just flew by at lightening speed, and it doesn't look like the rest of the winter is going to be any less action packed.

A little later out the same window

If you have been watching the national weather reports or looking specifically at Whitehorse weather forecasts, you would have noticed that some time on Wednesday morning we  were subjected to a southern warm front that brought the temperatures up enough to teeter-totter near or above zero until Friday afternoon. In that time we got slushy sidewalks in town and soft snow around the house. It is interesting how we have become accustomed to cold dry snow and did not fancy the warmer wetter (Ontario-like) conditions (no offence, Ontario). Usually when we come in from being out in the snowy minus 25 conditions you can just brush off the snow and all you gear is still dry, but that was not the case this week. Luckily the weather is getting back to normal, (minus 18 this morning) and it is much easier to deal with snow, driving and not having to scrap ice off the car windows. On Friday, when the high winds and rain came in, lots of roads in the mountain passes were closed due to avalanche risk; good thing we were not headed those ways. Okay that is enough about weather - but it has been big news around these parts this week.

Yesterday was the start of a very exciting dog mushing race called the Yukon Quest. It is a 1000 mile (1600 km) endurance challenge between Whitehorse and Fairbanks Alaska. I think we have mentioned it in earlier blog posts. There are 23 mushers in the race this year, 4 Canadians (all from Yukon), 2 of them Marcelle Fressineau and Yuka Honda are from Lorne Mountain. So we will be tracking them closely on the Yukon Quest website (http://www.yukonquest.com/site/live-tracking/). So far they are both in the front half of the pack. Our friend Deb and her handler Erin are going to be meeting Yuka in Dawson City which is a 36 hour mandatory stop check point. They will be going ahead of Yuka's arrival to set up a tent and straw beds for the dogs in the territorial camp ground on the west side of the river. Each musher gets a site at the camp ground to rest their dogs and give them some TLC. Here is a bit more on this story, sorry the CBC reporter has such an annoying tone (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2012/02/04/north-yukon-quest-start.html).

Drive to Skagway

Tushi Lake in BC

The little mountains after you drive north over the big mountains from Skagway

Back home before the snow clouds did their thing

Lauren will be writing tomorrow about a fun volunteer firefighting training session she had this week, as well as  some local news.

Bye for now,
Love Colin and Lauren