Whitehorse

Today I got on a plane in Vancouver and flew north for two and a half hours to land in Whitehorse, Yukon. The views from the plane were impressive - save a few roads, it was a landscape barren of human activity. Vast forests, mountain tops thrusting their treeless peaks towards the sky, ice fields, immense lakes, meandering rivers with their former courses etched into their floodplains. It was a geographer's sketch of the pre-human landscape come to life.

Whitehorse looks from the air like an ugly sprawl in an otherwise pristine landscape. Newly cleared areas for building lots on the outskirts of town, industrial areas and squares of land cleared for one reason or another. I landed right in the middle of it all and was met at the airport by Ramesh, a friend of a friend and an incredible person. I cycled across Canada but Ramesh hand-cycled across and did interviews and meets and greets along the way to raise money for polio eradication. 

Ramesh took me into town, we went for lunch and he showed me around. Downtown is nice, they still have the wooden buildings built by the first European settlers and the whole place feels like a friendly village. I'm staying at a campsite just out of town and can walk the 3km into town on the millennium trail along the banks of the Yukon.

I think I finally have to acknowledge the change that's coming in on the wind. The aspen trees' leaves are turning yellow, the fireweeds are shedding their flowers and releasing thin pods of fluffy seeds to be carried off on the wind, the sun rises later and sets earlier. Autumn is here. And as I felt a change in myself with the arrival of summer, I feel a change with its departure. 

The trip that felt like it would never be over is coming to an end. I find myself thinking more about the future - the return to work, being back with Dave, musing about what path to steer our lifes down... but I must turn my attention to deciding how to make the most of my week in Whitehorse.