We opted to revise our travel plans and paid for a night of luxury, comparatively speaking.
The Quality Inn offered a king size bed, better wifi and gave us ready access to some wonderful walks in downtown Whitehorse.
I love the vibe of this small city. It is culturally vibrant, tons of people get to and fro on bicycles, and there are a lot of shopping options. The Shipyard Park that runs along the river is absolutely excellent. I could live in Whitehorse. It felt very similar to the Fort McMurray I found when I drove north in 1996.
Spending the night in Whitehorse left us with a minuscule drive the next day. We took the dogs on a long walk to tire them out, then it was only a one and a half hour skip to Haines Junction.
We are staying at a quiet spot called the Cozy Corner Motel. Angel and her son Austin, an aspiring artist, have been running it for the better part of four years, making improvements as money is available. It’s not fancy, but they are trying to make a go of it. They have an adjacent restaurant that also serves as the lobby. Between the two of them, they do most everything.
Austin attended the Vancouver Film School focusing on animation. When he was done, he just couldn’t find work in his field. At least that how I understood it. Angel and Austin are originally from China and some things must have been twisted in translation.
While we were spending way too much money for food and accommodation in Haines Junction, the scenery and the access to trails made it worth it.
Saturday was very rainy, so we decided to do a couple of short walks, both of which offered up some lovely surprises and fresh clean air. We chose dinner at the little Cozy Corner restaurant run by Angel and Austin.
I was able to spend some time talking with Austin about his artistic ambitions. He graduated from the Vancouver Film School and will soon be heading back to China for additional training. He loves drawing and is trying to figure out how to turn that into a career. I fear that some educational institutions could do a better job helping creators make that transition.
The second day was still cloudy but not raining, so we did a much longer walk to see the Thunder Eggs, rocks that have sloughed off an adjacent cliff almost perfectly round in shape.
A 7.5 km journey though meadows, a swollen stream and a rocky river bed - we both felt quite proud of ourselves.
Somewhere along the way Coco and Shay darted off into the forest chasing after something. Shay came back when we called. Coco did not. And for a tense ten minutes and a lot of loud calling, we thought we might have lost him. Eventually he reappeared and went back on the leash for awhile. It turns out that he likely went after a rabbit. That opportunity was too hard for either of them to resist.
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