Gerry Willomitzer's
Blackjack Racing Kennel
Newsletter - November 29, 2004
On sled and across the river!
Click on an image below for larger view
Hi everyone,
well, we are on sleds. This is great, but there is a "but". I have to truck the dogs two hours to the South Canol Road, a summer only highway that leads from Johnsons Crossing on the Alaska Highway north to Ross River (and continues there under the name North Canol Road into the Northwerst Territories, where it literally fades away in the bush and muskeg). The Canol Road was built along with the Canol Pipeline in 1942-43 to supply the military with fuel, which was to be refined in Whitehorse in a refinery. The end of the war made the mega-project (in total 50.000 men worked on the pipeline and associated infrastructure in Northwestern Canada!) obsolete, as it could not produce fuel at reasonable cost. The South Canol Road is now maintained by the Yukon Government and a very scenic drive in the summer. It's even better in the winter, when it's closed for traffic except for ski-doos and dog teams. Usually the mushers living in the southern Yukon truck there teams there in November, because of the good snow conditions.
By the way: I have a mobile walk-in freezer sitting here which was brought up during the Canol Road construction. The 6 x 6 x 6 foot cube is still working and in use!
So far I went to the Canol twice this year. In the absence of a full-time handler I managed to borrow substitute drivers for my second team from Sebastian at "Blue Kennels and Slave Market". Thanks Sebastian, I'll take you out to yet another all-you-can-eat lunch buffet at Pizza Hut, to make sure your body weight does not drop under 200 pounds!
The other big annual event is closer to home:
Crossing the frozen river. Usually John and Monica Gobson, neighbors of ours, dare to go
across first so that they can get to their trapline. For years I joked that John only
sends his wife while he stays home for the first trip, but this year I actually witnessed
that they both go out there together. They go to the spot that's traditionally frozen the
best (right where the river flows into Lake Laberge), and chop holes in the ice to test
it's thickness. If there is enough ice they continue out into the stream. Four inches of
ice is enough to carry a man on a snow machine across, and while 4 inches does not sound
like much it works. I tried it and lived to write about it!
So now we've been skidooing to "the other side" in order to pack a base
for our trail and to cut the trail open. A few trees fell across the trails during the
fall storms.
The main trail we use here is called "Livingstone Trail" and leads about
65 miles to the abandoned mining town of Livingstone. It is a pretty scenic
"mush", climbing up from Lake Laberge, past Dirty Dick Lake (don't ask!), across
overflow on Ed's Lake, to the Teslin River Valley and across the hills to Livingstone.
Once we have enough snow (I see some in the weather forecast) we'll be able to actually
get there!