Well I’m clocking out for the last time. Turning off the office lights and packing up our little government house. It’s cold today, it’s -35 but it doesn’t make it any easier. I went outside last night at 2:00 am to see the lights dancing across the sky for one final time. I heard the wolves and dogs howling into the darkness, and icicles started to fall from my eyes. This is truly one of God’s greatest creations. One of the most beautiful places in the world. Endless wilderness, and quiet (albeit broken) communities full of culture and history.
I almost don’t deserve to be sad I’m leaving. it was like a blink or a dream and after waking up, realizing it can’t continue forever you just spend a few moments remembering the most amazing parts of that dream
Salmon fishing in Haines Alaska beside a mother bear and her cubs, in front of a seal with Eagles diving beside me. Hunting and exploring the endless forests and mountain ranges across the territory. Quadding trails thousands of feet in elevation through the keno Mountain ranges or in our own back yard. Harvesting my own little pocket full of gold in my bucket list gold claim. Spotting an incredible variety of wildlife (from Bison and moose to ermine and martin) around every corner of this great wilderness. Camping in every park or beside every body of water in the Yukon in quiet un-populated solitude. Viewing glaciers, whales , sea lions and porpuses in Juneau Alaska. Watching bears, seals, eagles and salmon compete for existence in Dyea/Skagway Alaska. Driving the top of the World highway chasing Caribou. Seeing fields full of moose on our way to Anchorage Alaska. Flying into the remote “Fly in only community” of Old Crow and experiencing a culture like no other (and food prices that would blow your mind). Driving the infamous Dempster Highway to the NWT border and the Arctic Circle. Experiencing 24 hour daylight, and almost full darkness in the same place. On and on and on the experiences go. This is truly like no other place in the world.
The fact that I got to experience it at all is an undeserved blessing. The fact that we convinced ourselves in the middle of our busy lives, with two little girls and a new house to pack it all up and head to an unknown distant north leaves me so thankful that we took a risk. We had no idea what we were about to do.
Road to Whitehorse
We have without question experienced some of the worst times in our lives. Living in a broken, small, cut-throat, heartless backwards community that has only a few shining lights has had it’s moments of much difficulty. being hours away from civilization also had it’s feeling of freedom from mass consumerism, and left a desperate desire to feel life at times.
In the end. this was the greatest thing we have done with our short lives. We’ve met some of the greatest people I believe I will ever have the pleasure of meeting, turned friends into eternal family. It was the greatest of experiences. We stopped and walked from everything we knew and journeyed into the unknown for a brief 2 year adventure. While I wish it could continue, I know it can’t and I’m beyond thankful that it happened. Better to have loved and lost, then never to have loved at all.
My Adventure 