For the first week of February, 2012, Celene and I went to Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories of Canada. I joked that we wanted to get away from the Vancouver weather. (Most people go south to get away from the rain, we went north). Our friend there, Christine, had our trip all planned. The first evening she showed us around 'Old Town' , which is down the hill from the main 'downtown', beside the lake. There are several house boats frozen into the lake. The winter is spent building a giant ice castle on the lake, which in March is home to a huge party.
The next day, we did the touristy dog-sledding thing. The main surprise here was that the dogs seemed small and short-haired - not like Huskies at all, more like muts. Despite that, it was a neat experience. I got a feeling for how quiet it would be to travel a distance by dog-sled.
The next two days were a cross-country ski trip to a cabin of the Yellowknife outdoor club. About 14 of us did the ski in. We had a amazing luck with the weather, as it was only about -5 degrees C, compared to the -20 C that would have been normal for that time of year. Not only that, but the skies were clear as well, which is very unusual when the weather is warm, so we could see the Northern Lights. This was a highlight for me, as it is one of the reasons I wanted to go to the north in winter.
In the cabin, we stayed up to 2 or 3 am playing games, and the next day skiied out in fine weather. On our last full day there, we tried a bit of ice fishing. That means we drilled holes in the ice - which was over a metre thick - and built a fire and hung out without any real expectation of catching anything. This day had more normal temperatures of -20 or -25 degrees C, so we got a taste of things.
Overall, a fantastic trip. I've always been fascinated by the Arctic, and I hope there will be more trips there.
The next day, we did the touristy dog-sledding thing. The main surprise here was that the dogs seemed small and short-haired - not like Huskies at all, more like muts. Despite that, it was a neat experience. I got a feeling for how quiet it would be to travel a distance by dog-sled.
The next two days were a cross-country ski trip to a cabin of the Yellowknife outdoor club. About 14 of us did the ski in. We had a amazing luck with the weather, as it was only about -5 degrees C, compared to the -20 C that would have been normal for that time of year. Not only that, but the skies were clear as well, which is very unusual when the weather is warm, so we could see the Northern Lights. This was a highlight for me, as it is one of the reasons I wanted to go to the north in winter.
In the cabin, we stayed up to 2 or 3 am playing games, and the next day skiied out in fine weather. On our last full day there, we tried a bit of ice fishing. That means we drilled holes in the ice - which was over a metre thick - and built a fire and hung out without any real expectation of catching anything. This day had more normal temperatures of -20 or -25 degrees C, so we got a taste of things.
Overall, a fantastic trip. I've always been fascinated by the Arctic, and I hope there will be more trips there.
