august 15. 659m, N 60˚18 W 134˚15.

driving into whitehorse this morning we were listening to a show on the cbc, summer programming i think, not sure what it was, but the story was incredibly powerful. we were on our way to the bakery but when we got there we just parked and sat in the car without speaking to finish the story. it was about a woman who lived across from a young couple who she watched through their bedroom window because they’d leave their curtains open all the time and be naked most of the time. this went on for months and she became more and more attached to them as time passed. at some point the couple disappeared for awhile and when they reappeared she was a little chubbier and he was skeletal and it was clear there was something wrong. the woman rapidly realized the man was dying and she ended up being at the window when this time came to pass. the woman was bereft, she wanted to do something for them. she ran down the street as they were leaving and the young man was being taken away, but she couldn’t say anything, they didn’t know her.

in whitehorse we started our drive-home thrift-storing; got cheapo groceries (compared to further north); went back to the gear store to hunt down chris – a man whom we met pre-trip who worked there and told us he’d been a sac dene leader the year before, we wanted to tell him all about our sac dene friends (he wasn’t there so emma left a note); and went to hang out at the visitor center to use their wifi, get water and cook on the picnic benches. we love visitor centers. oh! i also got a bee-ou-ti-ful atlas of western canada at macs fireweed books. OMG the maps are gorgeous in this book. emma also met a fabulous woman named michelle in the gear store. they got to talking in the bathroom and turns out michelle used to work in quetico while she was in school in toronto. she’d take the train up and clear portage trails and build things all summer. she loved it. yeah, dream job i’d say.

on the way out of whitehorse we took 2$ showers at the robert service campground. gosh were we squeaky clean. i think we were shimmering.

we chose the slightly longer route south and camped at the tagish campground that night. we had loud neighbours, but this was beneficial ’cause their carrying on alerted me to auroras filling the sky. emma and i emerged from the tent and marveled. not only northern lights in the north, but our first time seeing stars since june. wow.

first photo by emma.