Last night before we went to bed Marcelle mentioned that the forecast was for snow. When we awoke in the morning it was clear that it had been snowing through the night and it was continuing this morning. After our usual breakfast where Gilles spoiled us with options, at the suggestion of Marcelle and Gilles, we decided to spend the day engaged in a little Yukon site seeing.
First, Johan drove us to the Yukon Wildlife Preserve. Here we chose to take the 5km walking trail through the reserve. While it wasn't that cold it was certainly hard work trudging through the snow in heavy snow boots for 5kms. For our efforts we were rewarded with seeing bison, thin horned sheep, mole deer, muskox, mountain goats, caribou, lynx, arctic foxes, elk and moose. The arctic foxes seemed to be the hands down favourite although the mountain goats were not far behind. Walking all that way up and down hills was particularly hard for Ryan but with a little gentle persuasion and the promise of Swiss chocolate (the boys new favourite) for those who could make it back to the gate without complaining he and Connor both made it!!!
When we had first pulled up in the car park Ryan had suggested we could have a picnic lunch. Given the snow it didn't seem really possible. However by the time we got back the snow had stopped and so a picnic lunch it was. We had ham and cheese rolls, pepperoni sticks, cheese, chocolate biscuits, chocolate and juice. We are eating far too much on this trip!!!
After we had finished our lunch we jumped back into the car and Johan kindly drove us to the Takhini Hot Springs. We admired the outdoor ice climbing walls before going in for a beautifully warm and relaxing swim. Our muscles sure thanked us for it after 4 long, hard days of dog sledding. There were 2 pools; one was much much hotter than the other but both were wonderfully warm especially as it was only 6 degrees outside. We didn't think it was very busy but when we spoke with Marcelle and Gilles they said if there were 10-15 people it was a busy day. It's all relative I guess!!! The boys had a lot of fun moving from the snow to the pool and having handstand competitions.
We had also hoped to make it to the Yukon Beringia Interpretative Centre which show cases life in the ice ages and had a wooly mammoth and sabre tooth tiger on display but unfortunately time got the better of us. We stopped briefly outside the museum on our way back to the ranch as the boys wanted a photo with the outdoor mammoth statues. It was right next to the transport museum. David also wanted to get a photo of the boys near an enormous US Army truck. This was not to be though as we all sunk in very deep snow trying to get to it. Ryan was waist deep in snow and had his foot stuck. It took two of us to get him out - hard when you are stuck yourself. Although David didn't get the photo he wanted he sure did get a great laugh!!! After our wonderful day out it was still lightly snowing when we got back to the ranch where we had dinner and sat down to watch more NHL. Another great day!!!
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