Trans Canada Expedition - Day 11

July 23, 2013 – Day 11

Locations: Watson Lake, YT; Whitehorse, YT; Moose Creek Campsite, YT

Not much can be seen of the Aurora Borealis (aka Northern Lights) last night. The sun never really set, as light can be seen in a line from a distance (known as white night or midnight sun). Only the really lucky ones who woke up at 3am can see a tiny little bit of the lights.

There was a bit of chaos this morning because of some miscommunication. We still managed to pack our gears, have breakfast, and head out. The road was a relatively simple one as it is just mostly one straight road, with the occasional twists and turns. As we drove deeper and deeper into Yukon, we don’t even see towns anymore, just seas of trees everywhere. We had a quick lunch break at a rest area, and had another communication error. It has been concluded that we need to learn to listen to instructions properly next time. When we arrived in Whitehorse, we took a half hour break at a ‘mall’ and restocked before continuing on our way.

The sight is pretty incredible after we passed Whitehorse; the convoy basically drove up a mountain. From that high up, one can easily think of the Yukon slogan “Yukon, Larger than Life”. Everything was vast! Up above, you can see the endless sky. Down below, you can see the endless sea of trees. The amazing thing was that there are spots where you can see the clouds pouring down rain in the distance. We drove passed sections of rain from time to time. One section was even pouring wet snow. Some of the rivers and lakes we passed even have a really thin layer of ice for surface.

We never really noticed the time as we were driving. The sun was always shining brightly. Before we knew it, it was already past 10 and so we stopped at a campsite called Moose Creek for the night. There is a slight chance that we will encounter bears, as we are basically in bear territory (there’s also a warning sign). We set up our tents and had a lecture on safety protocols before retiring to our tents for the night.

Past midnight and the sun is still up.

Animals seen today: lots of road-running chipmunks that look like baby ferrets

Michael Fung

Despite losing another chance to take a glimpse of the Northern Lights (due to passing out…), we still were able to appreciate the fresh air and crystal-clear skies. Yet, this morning is a bit chaotic again… 5 minutes late for the morning call, Alpha group waking up late (sorry my bad of not making sure they receive the message)… Anyways, with warm mixture of condensed milk and oatmeal under the chilling temperature of 11 degrees Celsius, we felt a bit recovered from last night’s passing out. Today is supposedly filled with busy driving as well as sunlight. We had a pit stop at Morley River Rest Area to have a quick lunch of cup noodles (within 40 minutes). During lunch we encountered some hiccups that made all three teams to pay 12 dollars – Billy told us to return exactly seven forks from our team. But, I messed up with other teams’ forks. Hence, at last I collected 9 forks instead of 7. Each extra fork costs 6 bucks. 2 forks cost 12 bucks. To emphasize the importance of teamwork, Billy asked us to share the cost altogether… Sorry for messing up the orders. Please forgive my disobedience and my nitwit. Next time, when I have two extra forks, I will just hide them all! (By the way, finally the HQ team collected the right number of forks!)

Besides focusing on producing a map that allows us to go back from Inuvik to Edmonton, what I found the second thing to keep myself busy but also entertaining is enjoying the natural sceneries along the route. I admit that it is my mistake that I did not bring my personal camera for the camp (I leave it in my luggage), but I also appreciate myself that I did not bring it. It is because the visual perceptions of the Canadian landscape could be cherished by simply memorizing them in my mind, instead of storing them in the SD card. Photos do help a lot of us to know something that we could not know. Yet, if you want genuine feelings and sentiments, for sure first-person experience is the best way!

Tonight we are staying at Moose Creek Campground, a place in which we receive bear warnings. Billy prepared pepper sprays and a loaded shotgun in case of security. Safety arrangements and lectures were given and provided. Dinner will not be a formal one as we are still busy preparing the blogs after we reached here at around eight thirty. Hopefully, the bears will not bother us as long as we keep on making noises together. Enjoy the blending of mosquitos, fresh air, placid lake water, midnight sun and the white night all the same time. What an amazing and unforgettably challenging night for everyone here!

Owen

My fate has been written in bad luck already. Although the sky was clear this morning, we still could not see the northern light. The more worse is, our team all woke up late since we did not know when we should wake up. Our team almost being swear by the whole group.

We travelled all day long to reach Youkon. When we had arrived the campsite, it was about 10:30 p.m. already.

Twice the pride, double the fault. The campsite was full of insects. We all not a tough time to set up the tent.

Afterwards, Billy gave out a warning to all of us. There are many will animals in here, specially the bears. Some of the bears only as tall as Billy, but some of them even taller than a car. Some of them take plants for lunch and some of us take us for snacks.

Although the sky was still bright as 6:00 p.m. in HK, it was about 0:00 a.m. already. Hope no animals will take us for dinner.

Justin Tang

Today, as we were travelling on the highway. I had a weird thought. From the day that we left Toronto till now. Thousands of kilometres have been travelled. The warmth of Ontario have changed to the chilliness of Yukon, the vast plains of Alberta changed to the deep forests of British Columbia. Just a few days, and we have travelled so far, seen so many things. If we were to travel the whole way by foot, it might take up to years.

I was wondering, if I walked the whole way from Toronto to Yukon like those travellers hundreds of years ago who walked through Canada in the winters. I would feel like I am in a time machine now A year-long journey can be done sitting in car comfortably, wouldn’t take more than two weeks.

Howard

Right now it is currently 11:40 at evening/night and the weather condition can be best described as cloudy with a chance of night within 2 hours. If it was not as cloudy, the sun would be best described as shining down with a fervor that would impress an ironman triathalon runner. This phenomenon is known as the midnight sun which is due to how close we are to the north pole/arctic, a fectiment to the wonders of Yukon. The majestic lowering mountains, ancient untouched wilderness and the different astronomical wonders are all reasons why coming here is worth all the troubles.

Roman Wang

I am now writing my blog in mid-night sun! Right now is 11:40 p.m. and it’s like 5:00 p.m. in Toronto. Apparently there are more bear here than Russia. Billy taught all of us about self-defense against bears and other wild animals. Tomorrow is when the real adventure begins. It’s going to be a ride of a life time.

Crystal

Waking up not too early and not too late, my group and I quickly packed up and loaded our luggage. After a quick oatmeal breakfast, we left our motel and headed to explore more of Yukon. We drove for many hours, past many cities and towns I’ve never seen before. Since I was one of people responsible for drawing the map of our traveling I basically had no sleep on the Sprinters. However, I’m so glad I didn’t close my eyes during the ride or else I would have missed all the amazing and beautiful scenery. In the process of this expedition, I have really learnt to appreciate all the natural resources in Canada, though I still really dislike the insects.

After many hours we arrived at a campground located around 160 km from Dawson City. It was decided very soon that we were going to stay here for the night. We arrived at the Moose Creek campsite at around 11:20 p.m. and as of now it is already past midnight. However, the sky is still bright, and Billy calls this the “Midnight Sun” or white night!! I still wonder how I will be able to sleep tonight considering that it feels like 6 pm.

Tomorrow we will be heading to Damster Highway. We were told that today was only the first day we will be seeing the still bright sky at such late hours. After crossing the Arctic Circle, we will basically be seeing 24 hours of day light. I am really looking forward to both that and exploring Inuvik.

Quince

Today is the starting of the hole day that is daylight. It is 12:00 A.M. almost and it is still daylight. I don’t think I could sleep because 1! Mosquitos, 2. Black Bears, grizzly bears. 3. Daylight 14, Which is bad. Well, I will try my best to sleep. While I am writing this blog, I get but ten bite after bite. So I’m done.

Edwin Cheung

Today, we woke up 6:45 a.m. in Watson Lake motel. We ate oatmeal for breakfast. It was delicious. I love it. We head at at about 9:30 am. Later we head to petro-gas station for fill up.

At 12:35 for washroom break and lunch. We had tasty cup noodle. At 4:30 we head to white horse supermarket to stoke for food in a place call “Extra Food” we only had 30 minutes. We are going to head to Dawson City. We end up in Yukon, Moose Creek campground for a night. This is will be my first time for me to experience white night basically. We will be experient 24h daylight. This will be my one of the time experients. Thank you mom and Dad. Love you! I am part of HQ team, I did tell you for a soretime, everything is going along alright. I am good.

Alan

Today is day 11 right now and I am experiencing the midnight sun. It is 11:53 right now and I can still see the stuff I am writing perfectly even though I am outside. Tomorrow we are going to damster highway.

Mireille

Today for breakfast, we ate oat milk. Usually I hate it but I don’t know why, during 2 minutes I love it! Maybe because I was hungry, Then in the car I slept all the way. I was so tired. For lunch I ate 2 cup noodles. There are so much mosquitos in the place that we ate lunch! Then I saw a big animal dead. But I don’t know what is it because I didn’t go to close to this animal. At about 3 pm we arrived to Whitehorse city. We did a 30 minutes break to buy food. There are a shoppen drug, petro Canada and other shop that I don’t remember.

As I can’t eat sugar anymore because of my allergie, I bought apple and chips.

Matthew

Wow typing out my blog in the midnight sun is very confusing; it’s like typing it out 8:00 at night. We have been driving for about 13 hrs and 30 mins, about 1000 km driven. I am still excited to reach our last destination, Inuvik. We stopped at a campground called Moose Creek Campground when is a few kilometers from Dawson City. I wished we pushed further so we could maybe sleep in a motel but unfortunately we are in the tents tonight. Also there has been bear attack incidents in the area and I’m extremely scared and excited at the same time. I heard that there are other campers here to, I hope that they are prepared for a possible attack. Right now it is 1:12 and it is still bright outside. I hope I can sleep tonight, especially with the bears.

Mike Lam

Today was both a day of excitement and mess ups. Today, we were supposed to drive for a long time, possibly even overnight. However, we had to stop at Moose Creek Campground instead, as it was almost midnight and it could endanger the safety of our whole convoy. One thing I was excited for that did happen today was that I experienced my first “Midnight Sun”, which meant the sun was still up past midnight, as it is currently 11:49 PM and the sun is only starting to set. As usual, I’m getting increasingly excited for the next few days, as we will experience 24 hours of daylight and we will be crossing the Arctic Circle tomorrow, if everything goes to plan.

This morning, however, contained the bulk of my mess ups, as I missed the northern lights at dawn and woke up late, which caused me and the rest of the team captains and assistant team captains to speed through our morning, which also resulted in 50 push-ups, as we were late 5 minutes, this was also when I realized I couldn’t do 50 push-ups well.

Jason Wang

                Today, day 11 of Monticle’s Trans-Canada 2013 expedition, was a long day… it was a literal long day as today I am typing this blog in the midnight sun.  Due to our high latitude the sun will not set till early in the morning if at all. We started today off at about 0730 at “Dragon’s Den” motel in Watson Lake with a breakfast of oatmeal. After cleaning and doing the dishes, at about 0907, we were on the move. Today we pushed through both Whitehorse and Carmacks on the way to the arctic circle. Hopefully, we can get to Inuvik.

Calvin Su

I think that the wilderness will harden the students a little bit more. Definitely improving day by day, but the next two days definitely test their abilities and skills. I hope that the students will enjoy the northern part at Canada, not too many Canadians have even been there. The only danger that I see for our future is mainly the bears, mainly wildlife. They will have to work as a team to stay safe during their voyage. Tomorrow will be the final day to reach Inuvik. Hopefully we will reach their earlier and speed some time sight seeing.

Marco

                We went pretty far today, we went about 100 km today, It is 11:48 PM right now and it’s still like really early in the morning, the sky is still bright, It feels funny like that because I never fekt this feeling before Today we are living at the moose creek campground, there is barely anyone n this campground, it is in the middle of nowhere. Billy says that there lots of bears in Yukon, NowI am scared, but my tent captain has Pepper-spray to save the day. Billy also taught me something about the difference of a Grizzly bear and the Black Bear. The black bear is not really big, its about the size of a humanbut the Grizzly bear is like the size of a human but the grizzly bearis like the size of a huge picnic table. Aperently bears hate the sound, but if the bear comes and the pepper-spray doesn’t work, we have to call for help and also yell where we are and in the same time we have to try to fight the bear but most likely we are going to lose the fight. Good night guys I think I have to sleep now.

  Jason Wong

We woke up at 6:30 AM and my group  were first to pack up and load our luggage on the Sprinter even though we were supposed to wait. I felt tired still, anyways we had oatmeal for breakfast which we rarely had. We checked our room to make sure that we didn’t lose anything/cleaning. We drove until we had a pit stop at Whitehorse. Billy gave us half an hour to get any thing. For the first time on the trip, I went to a Shoppers drug mart. Later we stopped for lunch and had cup noodles which most people had 2. We drove to Moose Creek campground for the night. We had a lecture about the animnals.As I’m writing my blog, there is still sun light.

Tiffany Ng

Currently typing in the midnight sun, worrying about what’s going to happen next, unsure about the current time. Well, I guess this is our challenge. Arriving in Yukon, we headed towards white horse as our primary goal. But fortunately as we went, we were ahead of schedule and began to race towards Dawson City. Only about 100 kilometers away, our fellow team mate Mickey requested a toilet break. So we spent the rest of time searching for a toilet. We got closer and closer until arriving at a Campsite, so without a clear reason, decided to stay. I could’ve guessed everyone wanted to go on, but the drivers need their sleep. As we entered the campsite, there were several warnings about bears on site, both Grizzly and Black. We were once again lectured about such topic, about the self defense systems and ways. Turns out, playing dead is NOT an option. With countless mosquitoes trapped in my pants, I wiggle and scratch as I type this blog. Well, its quite an experience I have to say.

Today was a day of screw ups, as everyone in my group woke up late due to message transition failure. Last night, all team captains and Twics passed out while waiting for the northern lights, but for some curious reason were none. We washed up in 15 minutes impressive to say. But the mess solved itself as us leaders did 50 pushups for our failure as a role model.

Tonight, I shall stand guard as I did last night. Well there’s nothing much else to say but good night, maybe to you, as I stare blankly as the fairly blank sky in despair and wonder : how powerful this world is?

Jenn Wang

This is a rather disorienting. The midnight sun is not really as beautiful as they say – especially if it keeps the hyper students up and hyper.

It feels like an overcast morning right now, yet I’m feeling very drained.

                We’re in bear country right now and each tent group has been assigned a can of pepper spray. My tent group girls voted me to be the carrier of the spray and now I’m treading carefully. They’ve bowed to me and called me a warrior and their protector, No pressure, right? I really hope we encounter a bear like that – that’s quite a bit too close for comfort. Though  on the inside I sort of think its be interesting.

                White horse, when we passed through it, was a lot smaller than I’d thought it’d be, and the mall that we went to would barely even be considered a plaza in the GTA. I love , travelling like this because of the difference I observe. Also, Happy birthday Mom! <3 p="">

Edwin Chan

                Today we drove from Dragons den motel/ hotel to moose reek campsite. We are now in a 20 hour daylight area, so even at night there will still be some light in the sky. This should be interesting to sleep in because with the light in the sky we may get our times changed. Also we are with the wildlife today so I hope we wont encounter any animals.

Lemuel

Ended up not seeing any northern lights last night. I did have a relatively good sleep though. Left the motel at around 9 and moved further into the Yukon past Whitehorse. Currently we are in bear territory and there is still daylight at 12 in the morning. Since there are bears, we’re taking some precautions even though we’re mostly likely not going to encounter any bears. Honestly, even if bears attack, I’m probably going to sleep through it.

Kathy

Today was the eleventh day in Monticle. We across the white horse and stay at Moose creek campground finally. At last, we hadn’t saw Northern light this morning. What a pity! Now, we are writing under the midnight sun, we can see the words on the notebook clearlyat 12 o’clock at still night, that is so amazing because we cant see it anywhere in China. Tomorrow, we will go to Dempster Highway It is the highest placein Canada, I am afraid  of the high place. I hope I will enjoy my ime, tomorrow.

Ryan

Today is the 11^th day of our travel. In this day I feel quite nervous and also determined. The nervousness comes from the fact that we will be sleeping with many dangerous animals. What I mean by that is we are currently inside bear territory. Although we have many safety measures against this it still frieghtens me.

I feel determined however that we will be able to complete this trip and experience the greatest adventure of my life so far. In hindsight all of my greatest experiences have come from Monticle and I am quite proud of coming here.

I am current;y experiencing white night. That means that right now it is midnight and the sun is still shining. Although there are many clouds covering the sun it gives the land a very light grayish colour

Today I am in the feeling of expressing my current opinion of what a leader is. This is mostly based on Billy’s request to me and as I state my opinion please do note that this is just my opinion and might not be the true answer I am seeking for.

A leader is someone who can guide his followers. Give inspiration to his team and wore alongside them. The leader is not a dictator nor the president but more like the Christians philosophy of their god. What I mean by that is where the followers of the leader must work their very best and the leader will also work even harder to achieve the success of the task at hand. To lead is also to be a friend someone who his followers can open up to and someone that can be trusted with anything. Even their lives when heeded.

Kendra

Roads, roads and more roads… That’s all we saw today. Everyone packed their stuff and got ready to go this morning. When we set off, evetryone was scurrying to start drawing their maps. There were many things to draw today, even though it was mostly trees. The scenery was beautiful today, the scenery made me fill refreshed and cool. We made a major stop at Whitehorse today because that was the last civilization we will see. We arrived at our campsite and immediately were swarmed with mosquitoes. When we got out, the sun was still shining brightly. After about 2 hrs, for the first time, I saw the midnight sun. It was beautiful, it was like starring like the biggest and almost magnificient star in the sky., We were told that we were going to be travelling on the Dampster highway also known as “No Man’s Land”. We will be seeing the bright sun all tomorrow. Yukon is surely beautiful… I feel like I’m in a  day dream never wanting to wake up, well except for all the mosquitoes. That was all for day 11, another day has passed.

Mickey

Boring and a have little happy can describe today. We stay in car, but happily is our team alphk is come back! I can feel hapy than yesterday. Bu I feel tired. I drink much coffe, but it doesn’t work! Maybe is because of yesterday. I thought we can see the northern light, but we did not. I feel so sad. I really want we can see it! Because that is we come here purpse.! It sounds beautiful! I am so look forward. Tonight is a dangerous night again! Hope we will be fine! And! Here has so many nosquito! We can’t to anything! Just to wait tomorrow morning. I felt hungry now. Hope tomorrow breakfast taste nice! In fact, I think I can’t sleep tonight. I am scared. I don’t know how to say. OK, All right! We are together forever team, alphk! We are the best! I hate you! Mosquito! And I miss you! mum, dad! Love you! I want to back home…

Grace

After we drove about 10 hours, we arrive in Yukon. There, we can see the midnight sun, the time now is 11:49/ but the sunlight help us to write the blog without the flashlights. Today we are going to camp in a campground, so many annoying mosquitoes. I think after I go back to Shanghai. I won’t consider the bugs a problem to me. P.S. I have already slapped 10 mosquitoes. Tomorrow, we will go to Inuvik, and we can experience the 24-hour daylight. I am now excited and expect tomorrow can come more quickly.