Category: History

In my last blog post, I mentioned that I didn’t think that anyone canoes the Watson River that I posted a photo of. A friend of mine in Whitehorse said that she canoed it many years ago, and that there was a canyon to portage around, with a lovely...

I finally got out on an adventure worth sharing yesterday, exploring 7.8 km of the long-abandoned White Pass & Yukon Route rail line from the Lewes Lake Road to Bear Creek. Much of the line is in terrible condition, difficult to walk, much less ride a bike, but this...

When I lived in BC (the first 40 years of my life), I spent an ever-increasing amount of time in the spectacular Chilliwack River and Skagit River valleys. In 1988 I had an idea that a trail guide would be a useful addition to BC bookstore shelves. By the...

As I get older, the Yukon’s historic Venus silver mine (the primary subject of my first book) has become my fitness test. On Wednesday, I made my third attempt in a month to reach it. I made it. At 71, it was my slowest ever for the steep climb...

The drive down the South Klondike on May 17th whetted my appetite for more mountain time in a big way, so on the 19th I headed down the South Klondike Highway again, with a more ambitious plan. I left Bella and Tucker at home because although it was a...

For the past 31 years, I’ve wondered what was down a road that leaves the Alaska Highway at Km 1633.7, just west of Boutillier Summit. On September 7th we drove 6.3 km of it, and I know enough about it now to plan a further exploration, probably on the...

The number of historic mining sites in the Whitehorse Copper Belt is quite astonishing when you have a guide like Tim Green who is a fount of knowledge about it, and loves sharing what he has discovered. On Sunday we spent 4 hours in a very small part of...

On Thursday (August 5th), I drove to Teslin and back to have a look at the George Johnston Museum and to meet a staff member I’d been talking to online, and the director. Part of my reason for going was the firm up a basic template for showing each...

As we were descending into Whitehorse on our Air North flight last Wednesday, I could see that much of the flooding that stopped me on my e-bike ride on June 10th had receded, so I decided to give it another try on July 30th. I’m using 2 apps on...

In my wanders around Vancouver last week, I came across a memorial to the victims of the Indian residential school system. It was initially created by First Nations artist Tamara Bell with 215 pairs of children’s shoes, but it appears to have become less an organized effort than a...