Saturday, September 13, 2014

Accounting after a 10 day trip



From Whitehorse to Inuvik round trip is a 2741km journey. Ian & George also did 2 x distance (Vancouver-Whitehorse). I'll get their km-count later.

When I do a big trip like that I often feel compelled to make a list of things seen &, just as importantly, things not seen.

I'll start with the not seen list.

cats, starlings, English sparrows, crows, pigeons, rollerblades, skate boards, wheelchairs, caribou, moose, bears, skyscrapers, nail salons, telephone lines on the Dempster Highway, cows.


Seen

1 roadside flat tire (we were afraid of getting one, but didn't)
3 road kills (rabbit on next-to-last day & 2 ground squirrels on the last day)
2 foxes
1 deer (on the last day)
1 dead beluga whale (in the Makenzie River delta)
1 marten crossing road with prey in  mouth
many ground squirrels
several gophers & Douglas red squirrels
1 bicyclist
5 motor cyclists
50 brandts & 50 Canada geese & 50 tundra swans (tundra swans-- life birds)
1 hawk owl (found only in far north)--life bird
several great white-fronted geese -- life bird
several clusters of ptarmigans, at the roadside, looking like they were waiting for a bus (2 kinds & life birds)
many raptors but not all 'identifiable' & ducks similar
tons of ravens
magpies, south of Dawson & north of Whitehorse
30 robins--even far north
20 horses for back country trips
many dogs, one of which was 3-legged
5 or 6 farm fields
10 road graders
2 road maintenance teams
4 ferries across rivers
2 rides in a Cessna over the MacKenzie Delta
1 boat ride on the MacKenzie River
5 hotels/B&Bs
2 parking meters (Whitehorse)
10+ traffic lights in Whitehorse, 1 after that, maybe
9 gas fill-ups
2 crossings of the Arctic Circle
30 outhouses/or otherwise while on the road
6 times crossing the continental divide
1 underground freezer (using permafrost)
3 tastes of the Arctic ocean
2 northern lights nights
0 days of rain
3 colds (which I came with & generously passed on)
numerous pingos--geological mound made by freezing/heaving 
3 far north towns
1 conversation with a couple from Lancaster County, PA
1 massive delta & many many river & creek crossings
3 mountain ranges
first viewing of unglaciated mountains
1 super moon
5 roadside inukshuks
2 small oil rigs
2 DEW Point stations --Early Warning stations for the Cold War
many relay towers & weather stations
2 lost things: a kerchief & a hat
1 gold dredge
many tailing piles of rocks (at Dawson)
bazillion lakes
lots of photographs taken by the 3 of us



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