Category: Mines & Mining

On Wednesday (May 1st), I finally made it to what had been my planned destination, the trail to the Venus mine, a few minutes before 1 pm. Then I immediately changed my plan again – there was a vehicle there. So I drove back a few hundred meters to...

On Wednesday (May 1st), I decided on the spur of the moment to do my almost-annual because-I-still-can hike up to the upper adit of the historic Venus silver mine. That’s not the way the day played out, though – here’s the first of two posts about what I did...

My focus recently has switched back to scanning my files. While doing that a couple of days ago, I found some hike reports from 1993-1995, written as I was researching the historic mines on Montana Mountain for my first book, “Fractured Veins & Broken Dreams.” I carried a notebook,...

Back in the Whitehorse Copper Belt again. As July 8th began, I posted this on Facebook: “At 04:50 (6 minutes after sunrise) Environment Canada says it’s 19C in town, but my weather station says it’s 9C here – stepping outside, I know that 9 is the correct number. I...

Summer has arrived in the southern Yukon in a major way. We’re now hovering around record temperatures (8-10 degrees above normal) every day for at least the next week, and I’m of course looking for ways to enjoy as much of it as possible. On Wednesday afternoon (July 5th)...

Last week, Tim Green offered to take members of my Yukon History & Abandoned Places group on a guided hike of the Copper Mines Branch of the White Pass & Yukon Route railway. On July 2nd, 8 people and a St. Bernard joined him – we walked a total...

I have some very good reasons to say “no” to most activities. But yesterday was an excellent day because I said “yes” to two. The first one was quite easy. Spring hasn’t really arrived at Whitehorse until I’ve been out photographing the first Prairie crocuses (Anemone patens) – that happened...

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...

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...

To the west of the city of Whitehorse lies a belt of copper-rich ground about 30 kilometers long. First discovered in 1898 by prospectors who had been headed for the Klondike gold fields, it was mined from then until 1920, and then again from 1967 until 1982. While the...