A spectacular Winter drive, and getting ready for a tour
I went to Skagway yesterday on a bitterly cold but 10/10 day, and today I’m getting ready to pick up a group of people from Ontario. This afternoon, we start 12 days of touring the Yukon and a bit of Alaska, with the Yukon Quest sled dog race being the primary focus.
First, though, a puppy picture 🙂 Bella may be growing up physically but she’s still just a baby in many ways. She loves having a “soother” when she wakes up, and this giraffe stuffie is one of her favourites.
The temperature was sitting at -34°C (-29°F) and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky when I left home just before 10:30 yesterday. The temperature bottomed out at Robinson (as is often the case) at -36C (-33F), and had warmed up 1 degree at Emerald Lake.
From the fog at Bove Island, it appears that there was still open water until last night.
Ptarmigan Point stopped me as it often does. This was shot and processed as an HDR image. The temperature was climbing much slower than I had expected – it was still -29C here (-20F).
I didn’t stay in Skagway for long – although it was beautiful, it was still -9°C (+16F) and windy, so a short walk was enough. Both the gulls and harbour seals seemed to be enjoying both the sunshine and some sort of dining experience at the mouth of the Skagway River.
There were a lot of ore trucks on the highway – I probably met a dozen on my way north. I expect that there was a blockage at the mine (from the recent heavy snow is my guess) and they’re running hard to catch up now. The one in the distance is seen from Km 50.4.
We made our usual stop at Tutshi Lake, but it, too, was a short stop. The humidity must be very high, judging both by how cold it felt, and by the thick frost-feathers on everything.
This is the motorcycle jacket I went to Skagway to pick up. Now I’d like to get some good use out of it by having Mother Nature raise the temperature 130 degrees Fahrenheit (the forecast was for a wind chill of -62F yesterday morning). 130 degrees warmer to get comfortable – that’s a bit bizarre, isn’t it?
There’s a lot to do to get ready for a tour like this, both physically and mentally. Among the many jobs was buying thermos bottles for each guest and washing them. Hot liquids will be very welcome at the temperatures we’re going to be travelling in.
By 10:00 this morning I had picked up one of the vans, the luggage trailer, and special Yukon Quest jackets for each of our guests. After a photo stop at the SS Klondike, it was home to load more gear, mostly in the vehicle care and emergency categories.
I’ve now got another van to pick up and get both to the airport for the group’s 3:05 arrival. Let the fun begin 🙂
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