First impressions.

When I arrived to Whitehorse at 2 am Monday morning I had no idea what I would do with a week in the city. At 3 am, when the sun started to rise, I fell asleep accepting that I might be in Whitehorse for a week with no place to stay and nothing but the clothes I was wearing, a toothbrush, my camera, and a water bottle.

Luckily, events of the next day shifted my outlook at bit. First thing in the morning I found a campground just outside of town to spend a night before any rooms opened in the city's hostel. My bags arrived by midday, I got invited on several paddling trips by dinner, and learned some of the nuances of Alaska's fisheries from a small scale salmon fisherman turned school teacher before heading off to bed.

The following morning I checked into the Beez Kneez, a backpacking hostel in downtown Whitehorse. I've been here since, and as one of the few guests staying more than one night I have had the opportunity to meet a few interesting people. As it turns out Whitehorse is more cosmopolitan then I would have guessed (fresh falafel on the street corners--"Best in the Yukon). Here is a brief rundown of some of the people and their reasons for passing through the Yukon.

--Leo,Canadian, moving from Chicago to work as a youth counselor in Whitehorse.
--Natalie, Canadian, recovering from a 4-month bike trip across Alaska and northwest Canada
--Gavin, Australian, on a 2-year trip around North America, heading into Alaska.
--Katie, cook from Vancouver, seeing if she likes backpacking by spending a few weeks in the Yukon.
--A man from Belgium in a WV bus with a gas leak and a cute dog, 14-months into a several year trip around North and South America.
--Yines, German backpacker, came to the Yukon for work, still looking.
--Two brothers from Austria, learning how to surf on the Yukon their first day of a 5-month trip through Alaska and the Yukon.
--12 men from Belgium, starting an 18 day river trip from Whitehorse.
--Thomas, German software engineer living in Florida, biking from Alaska to Patagonia and climbing the highest peak of every country on the way (www.panamericanpeaks.com), a few of us from the hostel met him at a restaurant in town, he ate 3 times as much food as the rest of us and then asked for the dessert menu.
--Morgan and Bowin, up from Vancouver, British Columbia, starting an 8 day canoe trip down the Yukon, their first river trip!

This time of year Whitehorse only gets about 3 to 4 hours of "darkness" each night. The long, warm days of sunshine seem to inspire everyone to be outside experiencing as much of the day as possible (perhaps a coping mechanism against the very long, very dark days of winter). I met a few kayakers in town who helped me get my hands on a playboat and wetsuit (Yukon river temp is about 2 C). The boat was a bit big for me but I still surfed on the Yukon well into the evening (started at 7pm and floated into town around 11 pm under a nearly blue sky). The city has a fairly large community of river people and a pretty strong bond with the river. From most places in town you can see the swift, nearly aquamarine surface of the river. From the base of the city's hydrodam the Yukon is free flowing several thousand kilometers to its mouth in the Bering Sea. In the next few weeks the salmon, that are now a few hundred kilometers downstream, will swim up the dam's fishladder on their long journey from the sea, and if they are lucky evade the bald eagles and fly fishermen waiting for them in Whitehorse.

During much of the last few days Leo, Natalie, and I have been exploring the city and some of the lakes and trails just outside of the downtown. Last night, with a few others from the hostel we played a midnight game of frisbee in the city's Peace Park, until the swarms of Yukon mosquitoes carried us back to the hostel.

My flight to Inuvik and the Mackenzie River, where I hear there is less night and more mosquitoes than Whitehorse, leaves early Monday morning.

Thanks to everyone who happens to be following me around the world.
All the best,
Brett