ADRENALIN-PACKED ADVENTURE
Whether your sledding behind a pack of dogs, viewing the northern lights or flying above untouched snow-capped mountains and glaciers, it’s hard to resist Yukon’s siren song
A young woman dressed for crosscountry skiing glides past us and flashes a big smile. Her poles are tucked by her side and she’s leaning back, effortlessly plying the set tracks on Fish Lake, a half-hour drive outside Whitehorse. As she waves at us, her two grey-white Huskies turn to look at our line of dogsledders. Then they gallop on, pulling the skier who’s harnessed to them for a day of skijoring.
It’s a glorious sight, the frozen, snow-covered lake providing a pristine foreground to the Pacific Coast mountains surrounding it. But we don’t enjoy the view for long; our four-dog teams are jumping and barking, lunging for their opportunity to carve the trails. In a flash we’re off, cruising through the bush and over the lake, the brisk, clean Yukon air slapping our faces.
Sky High Wilderness Ranch, planted on the shores of Fish Lake, is one of many outdoor pursuit operations around the Whitehorse area. On a cold November day, I thought perhaps it would be a quiet retreat from the comparative hubbub of Whitehorse (population 25,000) but the place hums with activity.
After a lunch of locally farmed Arctic char and bison sausage in their heated yurt, we head out to our sleds. Teams of snowmobiles arrive from the bush at the same time, a local group returning from a morning trek, while another bunch prepares to go out on skis for a weekend camp-out. Our dogs are selected from a gang of 160 eager pooches and we’re off, but not before stopping at the entrance to let a cavalcade of arriving vehicles enter the parking lot. (Dog jam!)
Winter in Whitehorse is busy. Any thoughts of bucolic summer nights filled with the midnight sun along the Yukon River are quickly erased by winter wanderers look- ing for a glimpse of the northern lights or a dip in the Takhini Hot Pools ( hot body, frozen hair) or a visit to the Yukon Wildlife Preserve to view the lynx and Arctic foxes. For sure it’s cold — about minus 25-30 C while we’re there — but Yukoners are ready for it.
Winter gear has improved immensely over the past few decades. Outfitting companies rent winter overalls — the current rendition of snow pants — moon boots, mitts with glove liners and bulky parkas. Made with synthetics, they’re much warmer, lighter and less restrictive than former models. Add a few hotshots in the boots and mitts and you’re as toasty as a summer’s day.
Then there are the vehicles, seemingly left running all winter. Big and with huge winter tires, they master the snow-covered highways and gravel roads with ease. Those roads are plowed nonstop, too; the Yukon understands winter and is ready for it.
“Pristine” is a word that pops up frequently on our four-day visit to the Whitehorse area. It seems so clean here that chefs step outside to gather fresh-fallen snow to add to a display of raw tuna and sidestripe prawns flown in from Vancouver. At just over two hours from either Calgary or Vancouver by air, fresh product is abundant — and not exorbitantly priced — in the territorial capital.
Staying at the Edgewater Hotel in the epicentre of Whitehorse, across from the White Pass and Yukon Railroad terminal and the Yukon River, is an education in the history of the region. There’s been a hotel in this spot since the Gold Rush of the late 1800s. Not this one, though — it has burned down twice since the original was built. The current one is from the 1960s and was boutiqued last year.
One of the highlights of The Edgewater is server Ella Rose, who imparts her local wisdom with passion in The Edge Bar & Grill. She tells us where to get the best of almost everything because, as she says, “I love it here so much I want you to love it, too.” Her feelings are infectious and something we run across continuously in the Yukon. The locals love it.
YUKON FROM C9
The streets around the Edgewater are wide and calm, with diagonal parking the rule. There’s a Starbucks just down the street and a couple of Tim Hortons a few blocks away and they’re busy, but locals flock to Baked Cafe & Bakery, directly across from the Edgewater.
Local and seasonal, the mantra of chefs everywhere, is big in the Yukon, where it could mean the moose you just shot or the morels you gathered in the hills or the fresh snow on the raw seafood.
Chef Miche Genest, known as the Boreal Gourmet, forages for spruce tips, low bush cranberries and dandelions outside her house, creating recipes for northern fare. (Look for her book, The Boreal Feast.) Jennifer “Free Pour Jenny” Tyldesley, a former military pilot, handicrafts cocktail bitters with fireweed, rosehips and rhubarb and has collaborated with Genest on a cocktail-and-savories cookbook called Cold Spell.
Another great Yukon pastime is viewing the northern lights. Viewing stations have been established outside the glare of Whitehorse’s lights and every local has a secret spot for the best gander. Air North is even pondering the thought of marketing aurora flights that will take you into the sky at midnight for a view of the lights at eye level.
Another flight worth taking is the “flightseeing” tour of Kluane National Park.