Mother’s Day in Whitehorse, Yukon

Happy Mother’s Day to all who were born of Mothers, and a special shout out to my Mom and my daughter, Emily, and my daughter in law, Nan. As for me it is great to have been given this day (among many others), and to have 3 wonderful Grandkids, Maya, Elias, and Sam.

I want to get some credit for calling my Mom two days in a row! I called Mom from the place I ended up today: Whitehorse. I called her from a bench under a totem pole.

Nice raven on the top don’t you think? The building is where the famous dog sled race starts and finishes. The narrow gauge railroad is the reason Whitehorse exists. Remember all those old photos of gold crazed miners climbing a horrendously steep hill? The railroad removed the need for the climb. Then the railroad moved on to what is now Whitehorse, arriving in 1900. Whitehorse is located at the point where that famous river becomes navigable. You know the one… the Yukon. Here it is about 100 feet from the totem pole.

Still kind of icy. The Yukon heads northwest, then across Alaska. With the railroad completed a loop was completed allowing the movement of people and resources into remote areas. By 1903 the first automobile was seen in Whitehorse. When the gold strikes diminished thousands of men went looking for work. One of the places they went was A tent city that turned into Anchorage!

More about Whitehorse later. Last night Tofu and I were in Beaver Creek. The temperature dropped to freezing. Tofu and I spent the night shivering in the van. I put on extra clothes. Tofu burrowed under the covers. About 6am we gave up, turned on the engine for the heat and streaked out of town. It was so good getting warm that we traveled about an hour before we considered going for a walk or looking for coffee, or brushing teeth, etcetera.

We saw a pair of swans, a jackrabbit, a beaver sized something, a raven, a milky type thing racing across the road. Here’s a picture from our first stop.

I don’t remember lying down to take that picture. How do I rotate? I don’t know. Anyway, next we came upon a black bear. I had great plans to roll down the passenger window and get a good close up. Didn’t happen. Instead Tofu jumped up, stuck out her head out and began barking. Instead of a picture, I got to witness that bears not only sh** in the Woods, they do so by the side of the road when barked at by a cockapoo. So here’s what I got pre-barking.

But now for the stars of the show.

Some of the horses in the first batch have cowbells around there necks. They clang as they walk. These two fatties were on the other side of the road. Don’t they look great?!

My plan is to stay in Whitehorse two nights. By then I’ll have figured my alternate route home. And I’m excited to spend more time in this town. Here are a few more shots from the riverfront this afternoon. Hey Steve Herb, I saw a couple disk golf baskets!

Lots of historic buildings, artwork, history in this town. I look forward to getting a closer look tomorrow. It’s only 6:30, but Tofu and I are really tired. We’re gonna chill and go to bed early.

Oops, I almost forgot. One more time, I love you Mom and Happy Mother’s Day. Love,