Monday, April 19, 2010

I was going to say, "Go Habs!", but now it's more like, "Montreal, pull it together!"

Tonight I'm at the KPI watching the game with the locals. Unfortunately, Montreal is about to lose 5-1. This is not good.

Here is the last bit of my Whitehorse trip.

As you know, I made it to the Wade Davis presentation. It was excellent. He is the Explorer In-residence for National Geographic and the slide show was amazing. Just a series of National Geographic quality shots. The talk was a condensed version of his newest book, the Wayfinders. I bought a copy and he signed it for me.


The next day I went to the Beringia Interpretive Centre with two of the girls I met at the hostel. It is a really well done museum all about the Ice Age in this area. The displays are all very simple and quite beautiful, really. They have all sorts of these giant quotes from local elders talking about their stories. This quote refers to the story about finding the first ancient mammal preserved under the ice.


These little guys were my favourite Ice Age mammal. They are related to antelope and have giant nose sacs to warm the air before it enters their bodies and capture moisture as the air leaves their bodies. These guys actually still exist, in Siberia, I think, but the last two groups are endangered.


This is a fossil of a giant land sloth. There were herbivores. And huge.


I really liked them too, so I took a couple pictures. I started reading Life of Pi the other day and the story starts by explaining a lot of sloth behaviour and it's really interesting.


And, of course, the woolly mammoth.


The Centre also has an ancient horse hide that was conserved at the Canadian Conservation Institute in Ottawa. Some of you may already know about this. I couldn't take pictures as it is light sensitive.

The week after I leave there will be a display about the local clothing and dolls. These mukluks were a little display to promote that upcoming event. I would have liked to see that.


This morning one of the girls and I walked all around a part of the Yukon River. It runs right through Whitehorse. The ice is just breaking up and it was a really nice hike with a lot of things to look at.


This boat, the S.S. Klondike, is a local historical site. It's not open right now, of course, but it just received a fresh paint job and looks very nice. The German girl told me that the same boat is also in Dawson City and only half of this boat is the actual boat and the rest is restored. The other half is in Dawson, restored to the same state.


The giant orange paddle wheel.


And we found this along the walk. I'm wearing my Manitoulin Sweater, now known as my Town Sweater, since I only wear it when we go into town on Fridays.



This is the Whitehorse Utilities building. It's nice because it's so blue.


They also make their power with this dam and turbines.


I'm about to head back to Squirrel Camp. Short week, only three days till I'm back in town. Wish me luck, Cass

1 comment:

  1. YAY!!! Manitoulin aka Town sweater is done??? Can't wait to see the finished product close up!!

    Good luck this week.

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