We are on a mission to find a shop that carries the battery operated socks this early in the season. We try a few workware shops, it’s too early. We then hit the street that has a number of hiking and skiing shops. They all draw a blank and we are down to the last shop “Valhalla”. Now André and I have been to a few outdoor shops in our time but this one is awesome. It carries gear we have never seen before and yippy, a full range of heated socks! We do draw breath at the cost of a pair but having been told how vital they are with the ice Bears and having experienced close to frost bite in Chilcotin, we pull out the credit card and do the deed.
Now a first charge up over night, a nice dinner with our friends in Vancouver and an early start for our flight to Whitehorse. We are staying at the “Urban Carribou ” a neat little apartment in which we can reorganize the gear. We will leave a bag behind as we are staying here at the end of the Yukon trip and there is a strict weight restriction on the flight to Dawson City. We arrive and what a surprise, they have a 6 month old Golden Retreiver Barkly. We stock up on lots of licks and cuddles for a good puppy fix.
I am really looking forward to stepping into my Sorel boots that we have been lugging around in our third bag. André had decided at the last minute not to bring his because of weight, but I am smirking now thinking of my warm toes.
I pull out the first boot and with a little concern notice it seems rather large, a quick inside check and yes it is André ‘s boot , too big for me. I pull out the other one and it’s mine, too small for him. Then I put them side by side and yes we have two left boots!! I must have muddled them up in the last minute change over back in Australia.
This will have to go down in the family history album of travel as the most ……. knuckleheaded error. Thank goodness for the electric socks, the future wellbeing of my toes will rely on them.
We go and supplement a few more hand warmers from the local shop and we are now seriously overweight for the luggage allowance. Luckily it’s winter here already and André has many secret pockets for his lenses in his vest. We rearrange everything from his pack including the big computer and we saunter in for check in. They still try to check in André ‘s camera bag but we manage to convince the manager to allow it into the cabin. We look like Michelin men with our pockets bulging but no one notices.
Dawson City here we come. Only a slight delay on the tarmac so as to de-ice the engines of our Hawker Sisley 748 plane and we are off. We will not have internet at Bear Cave Mountain so I will check in when we are back.
