Tag: sabbatical

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#5 – Tombstone Park and Dempster Highway

After a great time in Dawson City. we headed north for Tombstone Park, 70kms up the Dempster Highway. The Dempster Highway is well known for blowing tires, huge pot holes and long distances between fuel stops. It traverses the arctic for over 700kms through the Northwest Territories to the Arctic Ocean.

We wanted to explore it a bit, but not go all the way. Plus, the Northwest Territories were closed to non residents. We decided to just go to Tombstone Park, a beautiful valley 70kms north of Dawson City.

Our Camper all setup for the sun!

We stayed for four nights as the weather was phenomenal and our site was fantastic. We were right beside the early North Klondike River, when it was still more of a creek. Every day was sunny and hot, above 30 degrees Celsius. We loved every moment there.

A panorama of the valley we stayed in.

We did lots of hiking from this camp spot. Just above us was the Goldensides Trail, and it provided amazing views.

Staying cool beside the North Klondike River.

We saw lots of wildlife during our stay in Tombstone. We saw a cow Moose just 400meters from our campsite, as well as a flourishing beaver den with a beaver swimming around collecting dinner. We saw marmots, foxes and thankfully, no grizzly bears!

Looking north from the Goldensides Trail
We harvested a bunch of wild blueberries and made some Jam. Delicious!

We were at the right place at the right time and the wild blueberries were in full harvest. Everywhere we hiked, we snacked as we went. One night we collected a bunch and made some Jam. It was my breakfast of choice for the next few weeks!

Looking west towards Tombstone Mountain (in the middle) from the Grizzly Lake trail lookout.

South of Tombstone Park, we hiked the Grizzly Lake trail, or at least half of it. We hiked up into the alpine to the “lookout” and were rewarded with this amazing view, looking over Grizzly Lake to Tombstone mountain.

After these hikes, we were a little sore and ready to head south, back towards Whitehorse to resupply, shower and map out our exploration, into the Kluane region and Haines Junction.

Here are some photos from this part of our trip! https://photos.app.goo.gl/aL6rcCuiaD4gZsU19

Here is the video we’ve put together of our experiences from this amazing place:

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#4 – Dawson City!

Riding our bikes into Dawson City

We made it! Dawson City was a big part of our Yukon trip and what we were heading for right away. We had a long weekend planned for lots of fun, exploration and some gold panning! We stayed at a RV park on Bonanza Creek, just out of town, and we took full advantage of the programs and tours that were available around town.

Lots of good advice around Dawson

We settled into our site and were enjoying the very sunny hot weather. The drive up was a little bumpy with a couple of construction segments and small detours. Our first full day was spent exploring Dredge #4, one of the largest dredges from its era and very well preserved to this day. We got a guided tour as a part of a small group.

Dredge #4

We also got a tour of the SS Keno, a much smaller paddlewheeler that will go from Dawson up to Mayo to collect ore and other resources. It was a interesting tour through the boat and our guide, a local paddler was very informative and entertaining!

SS Keno

The other big historical site outside of Dawson is the Bear Creek worksite. This was a huge village of workers who would build, maintain and support all these dredges and equipment. They also cleaned up the gold and kept everything locked up. It felt like a time capsule into a long past era of hard work, lots of noise and dirt to produce thousands of ounces of beautiful gold.

Some gold we panned on Claim #6

The other important things to do in Dawson are more entertainment based! We explored the town, did some shopping, biked all the streets. We happened to be in town for the very famous Dawson International Outhouse 5km Race and Dirty Limerick Contest! We saw the launch and were impressed with the creativity of the teams, the “Harry Ploppers” vs “Skid Row”. It was hilarious and a fun activity.

The other big activity for a lot of people who visit Dawson is to have a drink with the Sour Toe at the Downtown Hotel. I made sure we did this, as Caroline was not interested. A shot of Whisky with the Toe and the famous call: “You can drink it fast, or you can drink it slow, but your lips must touch the Toe!” I enjoyed it and am fully certified if you need to see my certificate!

Earned my certificate!

Our four nights in Dawson went by so quickly. We tried to make it into Diamond Tooth Gerties, but with Covid restrictions, they were at capacity, so we did not get to catch their popular show. All the more reason to come back again. We got to see Moose swimming across the Yukon river, we explored the old cemetary on top of the hill, and we got a good feel for the town and met some locals. Overall, we loved it and would come back in a heartbeat.

Next we are off on the Dempster highway to Tombstone park for some hiking!

Click here for some photos from Dawson City and of our trip!

Here is our video from this segment, enjoy!

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#3 Into the Yukon!

Rancheria Falls, Yukon Territory

We finally made it to the Yukon Border! We’ve been pushing to get through most of BC quickly as we’ve seen a lot of it, and the wildfires were not good. We decided on the Cassiar highway, definitely the road less traveled to get to the north, but we appreciated the views and experience.

We crossed over the territory boundary and went through a checkpoint to register us and fill out some forms. It was quick and easy. We were happy to be fully vaccinated and elgible to enter!

Our first day driving in the Yukon on the Alaskan Highway was great. Good weather, empty roads and lots to see. We saw a moose and 4 Chinook Helicopters fly over us.

We stayed at Teslin Lake Campground that night and also were able to reposition our camper on the back of the truck as it had shifted to one side a little bit. We’ve gotten pretty good at it now!

Testing out her bug helmet. This was the only time its been used.

Our next day was a drive into Whitehorse and some touring of the SS Klondike, a massive paddlewheeler parked right as you enter Whitehorse from the south. We had a great day exploring Whitehorse and we were staying at an RV site, so we could shower, get some laundry done and recharge the camper batteries!

SS Klondike

Here is a video of this part of our trip. You can follow along on YouTube and subscribe for notifications when we publish new videos.

As well, here is a photo album of our adventures during this segment. Click here for Photos

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#1 – Heading North!

We are ready with out first video from our grand adventure! We have been exploring northern BC and the Yukon for the last two weeks now and have seen so many beautiful and amazing places. We have driven over 3000km so far and everything has been going great. We are spending lots on gas, but we are appreciating every moment we have.

I’ve got a couple of videos completed and ready to share of our trip so far. Wifi is rare up here, and wifi with any kind of upload is even more hard to find! We are settled into an RV park in Whitehorse for a night to do laundry, have showers and upload a couple of videos!

Our first video is from the beginning of our trip, as we left Vancouver and headed north, with route unknown, as the forests were on fire in southern BC. We drove the Coqihalla #5 highway until 97c and then headed north through Williams Lake and then onto the Hundred Miles Houses. We drove almost 800kms that day!

We hope to be sharing videos and posts a little more frequently going forward. Its been so good to disconnect up north, where the cell phone signal is non-existant. We’ve been enjoying being in the present more, and to slow down lots. We have been to some remote spots, rough roads and beautiful vistas and can’t wait to share them with you.

We’ve got lots more fun content, videos, and photos to share over the next few weeks as we continue to explore the Yukon!

I’ve got some photos from this leg of our trip that you can view here in this link!

Follow along on my twitter account if you want to see a few more up to date photos of where we are! @aaronmueller

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Check out our Camper!

Hi Everyone!
We hope you are well, staying cool, and enjoying the start of your summer.

Below is a video tour of our camper. This camper and truck will carry us north to the Yukon, east across Canada, and hopefully south, through the USA on our way back home to British Columbia by December 2021.

Our camper is a older Northern Lite 9-6 “Lite” Camper from the mid 90s. Its got everything we need, as you’ll see in the video and provides us with a home away from home, in the back of our truck.

Check out our Camper!

We are spending this first part of our trip visiting with Family that we haven’t seen in a while. We have been to Gordon Bay, Cowichan Lake, Chemanius, Burnaby, and Gibsons, and will be heading north in a couple of weeks. More videos to come of our adventures!

Hope to see you sometime soon!

#A&C

https://twitter.com/aaronmueller

Our Youtube Channel

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Update and New Camera!

Hello Everyone!

Well, its been a while since we’ve posted an update and rightfully so, its been a strange and confusing year in regards to our postponed trip. We’ve had to adapt, pivot and plan for multiple scenarios and situations, but we are still taking our delayed sabbatical next school year. Obviously, everything is dependant on our vaccines, travel opening up and opportunities to go visit our friends and families. We are optimisitic and hopeful that we will have the opportunity to drive north, east and across Canada this summer/fall and perhaps travel internationally for early 2022!

In the meantime, we’ve been planning, plotting and preparing for our trip and have recently purchased a new Camera to help capture fun moments and special places along the way. We got a new GoPro Hero 8 Black:

Its a pretty neat camera with lots of great features (Image Stabilization, Waterproof, 4K) and lots and lots of accessories to help attach it to different things and options for filming. It should allow us to easily capture our hikes, views, drives and adventures. In playing around with the camera, I made a few videos already:

Here is a short video of our evening walk around the neighbourhood. I used the GoPro app on my phone to automagically put this together with intros, edits and music in the background.
Here is a “Time Warp” feature of my morning commute on my E-bike.
And here is my bike ride home!

As well, here is a picture of our truck and camper setup we are using this summer to hopefully drive around Canada. We are so excited and hopeful our trip goes as planned, but we also know we need to be flexible and adaptable and patient as things slowly get back to normal.

We hope this post finds you all well, healthy and safe! We plan to be posting more often as we get into the summer and officially start our delayed sabbatical year!

Cheers!

Aaron and Caroline

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