The Big Outdoors

It occured to me that I haven't mentioned that nearly all the photos that I post here are taken within the city limits of Whitehorse. There have been a few exceptions, like the photos taken on the trip to Burwash Landing, and ones the boys took on their Tatshenshini rafting trip, but I'm probably not wrong in saying that all the rest have been taken right here in the city. This is a city with a lot of green space.

This photo was taken last Sunday afternoon when I took the dog hiking along the Chadburn Lake ski trails. We're walking along the old tram line from the gold rush days that ran from Canyon city around the river rapids at Miles Canyon. The hike was about 5K (3.5 miles): from the ski trialhead to Canyon City, where there's nothing much left but the sink holes where the buildings used to be and a few trash piles full of rusty cans; then around and across the Chadburn lake road and back to the trailhead again. Five kilometers, and we met only two people: a man in a trenchcoat who spoke with a brogue and loved retreivers; and a young woman dressed in white pants, chatting on her cell phone.

While I was looking around at Canyon City, I heard a splash and the swish of paddling. It seems the retriever loves swimming in the river just for the sake of swimming, and no fetching stick incentive is necessary. It made me nervous, though--the river is cold in October, and still treacherous from the high runoff this year--so I called her back out.

It was when the dog was rolling in the dirt to dry off that we met the girl in white pants. She wasn't fond of retrievers, especially friendly muddy ones. I'll confess that I didn't feel very guilty when the dog shook a few bits of mud onto her. Someone who's the sort to hike along the river in white pants with a cell phone handy needs just a speck or two of of mud to keep her real, don't you think?

Here is the view from a spot halfway back from Canyon City. Everything you see is within the Whitehorse city limits, except for the mountains way in the background. They are just outside the boundary.

There are no excuses, when you live here, for not getting out in the great outdoors for a walk or a run or a bike ride. Some people try to use cold weather as an excuse to stay indoors, but that just makes them look foolish. We all know there is no such thing as bad weather. There's only bad clothing.