Fall

On Goat Mountain, just north of my childhood home in the Kootenays, there is a small patch of deciduous trees.   You wouldn’t be able to spot them on the mountain side during the summer, but starting sometime in September, that patch of mountain turns yellow and then silver as the leaves change and then fall off.

In Vancouver, Fall means giant chestnut trees quickly changing colour and unceremoniously dumping their leaves in the street.  Over the next week the leaves quickly decompose, creating a kind of bio-sludge in the streets.  Cars spin their tires trying to parallel park on the slightest inclines, and eventually the city sends out their snowplows  to scoop up the goo.

Here in the Yukon, Fall happens in full force.  Mountainsides turn glorious shades of yellow, orange and red, and every type of ground cover or leafy tree gets in on the action.  If you blink, you might miss the whole spectacle, but if you go far enough north, you get all this, plus a bit of snow.

(click on image for full screen slide show)

Alaska

The Yukon is beautiful, and unlike anywhere else I have ever been.  The slogan of the territory is Larger than Life (Plus Grand que Nature for our Franco Friends), and its true.  The vistas up here combine massive mountains with expansive views.  Growing up in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, I only ever expected to be able to see as far as the next bend in the road.  Living in Vancouver, I came to love the leafy green and ocean aesthetic.

I love the Yukon, but I miss the west coast rainforest.  Luckily, just over the historic Chilkoot Pass is Haines, Alaska, which would fit right in on northern Vancouver Island. Being in Alaska, however, it boasts some pretty badass features.  Like Grizzlies.

Food’s Not From Here

The Alaska Highway, Whitehorse’s main link to the outside/southern world was washed out by heavy rains this past week.  Over the next few days, we watched the grocery store empty of produce and meat.  Superstore’s (Whitehorse’s main grocer, and food outlet for many of the outlying communities in The Yukon) claim, Baked Fresh Daily, displayed proudly over racks upon racks of empty bread racks now seems slightly suspect.  Baked Fresh Daily, maybe….but not here.

Brass Band Explosion!

To mark the beginning of summer music festival madness, I decided to go back and dig up some of my favourite band shots.  These are of Vancouver’s Orchestar Slivovica and Mariachi Los Dorandos.

Kluane Park

Photos from a weekend hike in the Slims River valley in Kluane Park.  There were a lot of bear and wolf tracks, but no bears or wolves. 

The Story Thus Far

Photos from my new home in northern Canada. 

Home Again

For this post, I went back in the archives and pulled up my favourite photos of Thetis.  I tried to limit the photos of my dog, but you’ll have to endure a few…