Whitehorse in the Yukon

A very smooth ride at 4am takes us to the airport and we fly into Whitehorse on a blue skies and sunny day of 24C. It has been the hottest summer in this Territory in a long time, just yesterday recording 30C.

Visitors are complaining: where is the cold weather of the north but locals have enjoyed wearing shorts for most of the time! Despite the heat, the Yukon has faired much better in terms of wildfires compared to its neighbour the Northwest Territories. It has remained safe for its 43,568 inhabitants of which 34,881 live in Whitehorse. You wouldn’t think that this number would result in a real estate boom, but that is exactly what is happening, pricing the young and the older members of society out of home ownership, a new condo costing between $750,000-$1,000000 CAD.

We manage to sweet talk a ride from the motor home rental Fraserway to drop us into the Alpine bakery and pick up my pre-ordered bounty of breads and sweet stuff to last the trip. It is now being run by a German couple who came out 7 years ago in their mid 50’s seeking a complete life change from their accounting and small computer business practice in Germany. They have converted this little bakery into a treat of organic gourmet delights, different breads baked on different days and a small selection of special homemade goods produced by the local community. I pretty much sample everything including the Tom Yum soup of the day and an amazing hot panini for the road.

Food is very expensive up north and I leave a good little local contribution to the bakery of $300. It was worth the early research and we feel good as they contribute 1% of all sales to environmental causes.

Now just a quick tour of our new home, pick up the rest of the groceries and we hit the road. I am very happy with the 210L fridge/freezer to house our fresh BC blueberries and tons of fresh produce for the trip which we get at the Save on Foods supermarket. I hate to think what the grocery bill would have been in a non save on food place ! I guess it reflects how very expensive it is to get fresh food up this far north.

We only go about 150km out of town to stop at Twin Lakes campground run by Parks Canada. Surrounded by poplars that are already changing into a bright yellow we get a beautiful site , no-one around for our newly named Big Bertha home. She sure fits into the image of a North American motor home, quite the change to our Loffy but the only motor home available at such short notice .

We go for a little explore around the lake reminded that we have now entered bear country. We will be mindful to carry our bear spray with us, as daylight hours are long , sunset at 9.40pm , so many hiking opportunities will arise.

The sun sets with magical colours and we are ready for a pizza dinner finished by dessert by the campfire.

André wielding the supplied axe with great expertise prepares the logs from the wood shed into just the right size and a one match fire is blazing shortly after.

As we sit around the fire a super sonic mouse darts around the campsite, so fast it’s hard to keep up with its movements. We finish the evening with a rhubarb and ricotta streusel by the fire, it beats toasted marshmallows hands down !

Yet one more adventure awaits, as we get woken up by a scrunching, scuttling sound in the van, we are sure that Mr.Supersonic managed to get into the van. Every time we turn on the light in the deluded idea that we could bare handedly catch a mouse, the sound stops. This goes on for 4-5 times when we finally give up. I wait in trepidation to see what gets munched out of our supplies. Well in the morning we do a quick check of everything and clearly my experienced double wrapping of the food has foiled the mouse and it has left our home the same way it came in with great disenchantment around these stingy Ozzie travelers, the food untouched.