Wifi and cellular data is sparse, so it's been sketchy trying to post anything.
Unlike Europe, really describable things are sparse (ooooh! There's another Douglas Fir!) - not a single cathedral so far. And, it's hard to give a sense of the drama of "big" views - Wow! Look at all that water, and all that forest, and how far we can see into the distance.
Vancouver Island: southern part of the island seems to be one long strip mall surrounded by wilderness. Even small towns (like 10 houses) we sometimes see Electric Vehicle charging stations. Victoria seems to have no taxis that are not Prius. Northern part of the island gets a bit more remote: like 60 km from one building to the next.
Then, the ferry. BC Ferry, nice well kept up, tours of the highly computerized bridge with very tight control by the crew, good food. Then to the Alaska ferry, rusty, awful food, slacker lookouts who seemed to use the binoculars to look at everything but what lay ahead. USA, USA! Ho hum, another couple whales swimming around and spouting.
Now, we're oficially in The North (actually, to the real Canadians, we're not really there yet). Boulder is at 40 degrees North latitude, we crossed 50 on Vancouver Island, and are now at 60 deg in Whitehorse (the rapids that stopped navigation here on the Yukon River were said to look like the manes on White Horses). At Inuvik, we'll be just north of 68 degrees.
The ride from Skagway on the ocean up over White Pass at 1003 meters (3300 feet) and then down the other side to the Yukon River was great - pretty clouds, glaciers, great geology. Thick fir forests that would be hard to walk through, with ferns, moss (and of course, mosquitos galore) on the wet West side. Then, above treeline everything was scoured by glaciers until a few thousand years ago - so lots of exposed rock and glaciated features, and moonscape, then down below treeline into forest more like home - short needles pines (?lodgepole), spruce near the streams, open forest that you could see for hundreds of meters. Momma and baby bear walking across the road - took one look at me and ran for cover.
Whitehorse is the territorial capital - 25,000 people and the whole Yukon Territory has 35,000 folks in an area 1.5 times the size of Texas. Nice liitle town with a great bike shop (seem to specialize in those super fat tired Surly bikes that they ride in the snow when it is 40 below - that's a nice number because it's the same in Celsius and Farenheit). Yukon is a big, fast river.
We'll be heading to Dawson City, the Yukon's second largest city at about 1500 permanent residents.
Next campsite down is a motorcycle rider with a "plush" fiber seatcover. Little squirrel has been working away at it, pulling out tufts of the padding - should have a nice warm nest for the winter at 40 below whatever - thanks to Microfiber.
Unlike Europe, really describable things are sparse (ooooh! There's another Douglas Fir!) - not a single cathedral so far. And, it's hard to give a sense of the drama of "big" views - Wow! Look at all that water, and all that forest, and how far we can see into the distance.
Vancouver Island: southern part of the island seems to be one long strip mall surrounded by wilderness. Even small towns (like 10 houses) we sometimes see Electric Vehicle charging stations. Victoria seems to have no taxis that are not Prius. Northern part of the island gets a bit more remote: like 60 km from one building to the next.
Then, the ferry. BC Ferry, nice well kept up, tours of the highly computerized bridge with very tight control by the crew, good food. Then to the Alaska ferry, rusty, awful food, slacker lookouts who seemed to use the binoculars to look at everything but what lay ahead. USA, USA! Ho hum, another couple whales swimming around and spouting.
Now, we're oficially in The North (actually, to the real Canadians, we're not really there yet). Boulder is at 40 degrees North latitude, we crossed 50 on Vancouver Island, and are now at 60 deg in Whitehorse (the rapids that stopped navigation here on the Yukon River were said to look like the manes on White Horses). At Inuvik, we'll be just north of 68 degrees.
The ride from Skagway on the ocean up over White Pass at 1003 meters (3300 feet) and then down the other side to the Yukon River was great - pretty clouds, glaciers, great geology. Thick fir forests that would be hard to walk through, with ferns, moss (and of course, mosquitos galore) on the wet West side. Then, above treeline everything was scoured by glaciers until a few thousand years ago - so lots of exposed rock and glaciated features, and moonscape, then down below treeline into forest more like home - short needles pines (?lodgepole), spruce near the streams, open forest that you could see for hundreds of meters. Momma and baby bear walking across the road - took one look at me and ran for cover.
Whitehorse is the territorial capital - 25,000 people and the whole Yukon Territory has 35,000 folks in an area 1.5 times the size of Texas. Nice liitle town with a great bike shop (seem to specialize in those super fat tired Surly bikes that they ride in the snow when it is 40 below - that's a nice number because it's the same in Celsius and Farenheit). Yukon is a big, fast river.
We'll be heading to Dawson City, the Yukon's second largest city at about 1500 permanent residents.
Next campsite down is a motorcycle rider with a "plush" fiber seatcover. Little squirrel has been working away at it, pulling out tufts of the padding - should have a nice warm nest for the winter at 40 below whatever - thanks to Microfiber.
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