Category: Mushing

A Facebook Memory this morning sent me back into a folder of images I hadn’t looked at for a long time. It contains 222 scans of Kodachrome slides I shot in January 1991 during a dog-sled expedition into the remote Blaeberry Valley west of Golden, BC, at the western...

The final full day for my Yukon Quest tour included one of what will no doubt be one of the highlights of the trip for my guests – 4 hours of mushing their own dog sleds on Lake Laberge. We began our day at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve. Preserve...

Thursday, February 7th, was the second full day in Dawson City for my Journeys by Van Dyke Yukon Quest tour group. It was a busy day, and for me, it took an odd twist. I went down to the Dawson finish line downtown at 06:00 (3½ hours before sunrise),...

On Tuesday, February 5th, I drove my Journeys by Van Dyke tour group from Whitehorse to Dawson for a 3-night stay during the mandatory 36-hour layover for Yukon Quest sled dog race teams. This is where we really get to see what goes on, both during the race and...

Saturday, February 2nd was the main event that my tour guests had come to see – the start of the Yukon Quest 2019 sled dog race! The race was scheduled to start at 11:00, but the dog yard where all the mushers and dogs ge ready was open to...

The best way to understand what it’s like to run the Yukon Quest is to spend a day mushing your own team of sled dogs. So on Saturday, February 1st, that’s what we did. I still only had one of the 9 people in my group, the rest being...

Yesterday was our last day of activities on the 12-day Yukon Quest tour. We spent the morning at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve, and the afternoon with legendary musher Frank Turner at his dog sledding operation. We had driven from Dawson City back to Whitehorse on Friday, but there’s not...

Yesterday was the start of Yukon Quest 2017. It was a long, exciting day, and I’m posting some photos from the hundreds I shot, with few captions. It was a short night and we’ll be off to Skagway and Haines early this morning, so at this point there’s no...

Today was our day for what is the highlight for most if not all of our guests – a day of dog sledding on Lake Laberge with Ned and Jeninne Cathers of Cathers Wilderness Adventures. The temperature was about -24° (-11°F) when we arrived, with a very slight north...

I’m playing catch-up here again. Since getting home from the big trip, I’ve been having too much fun to even take time to write about it. This post is about a ride on the motorcycle down to see my friend Michelle Phillips’ new sled dog operation on the South...