Fate Intervenes

DRIVING the DEMPSTER HIGHWAY

My brother Tom & his wife Peggy arrived in Whitehorse, from Ottawa on August 8th. They rented a truck camper and were planning on travelling around Yukon with us for a few weeks. That same night, our sister Lianne phoned to tell us that our mother in Ottawa had become critically ill. We were scheduled to be on the Dempster Highway August 11th or 12th. Because of our mother's poor health, we changed our travel plans, stayed near Whitehorse for a couple of days and arranged return flights to Ottawa on August 11th.

Had we begun that Dempster drive as originally intended, we wouldn't have made it back to Ottawa. We would have been stranded and isolated by a series of road closures; all caused by heavy rains and flood conditions that washed the road out in several locations along the first 275 kms or so. And, we would have probably missed our mothers' funeral ...

Sometimes fate intervenes; but in this case, I believe it was ... MOTHER.

Road closures along the Dempster on August 12th ... 

Time With Friends

We left Alaska behind, after two weeks there and settled in at Kluane Lake in Yukon for a few much-needed, layover days. The weather in the State had been mostly favourable for us, but we were tired of the traffic and the busyness there. We were both road weary and planned to mostly just sit and watch views from the St.Elias Mountains unfold along the big lake ... but an opportunity to paddle was just too enticing.  

Lets get those boats offloaded!