Mushing and Sourdough Sam in Whitehorse

What can I tell you all about Whitehorse other than it is definitely a friendly town. My co-worker Dean and I seemed to have arrived during the week of the 22^nd anniversary of the Sourdough Sam Contest during Rendezvous: A Wild Week in Whitehorse. So you are probably asking yourself “What is the Sourdough Sam?” Well apparently “Sams” are local male contestants that compete for 7 straight evenings in a wide variety of hilarious events like evening gown and bikini contests, karaoke, a kolbassa eating contest, turkey bowling, a dance fever night and the male strip tease. The audience votes for a winner each evening and at the end of the 7 days, points are tabulated and the person with the most points wins a truck. Not a new truck, just one that runs. There are also Can-can girls at these events.

Other interesting facts about Whitehorse:

• If you raise your kids in Whitehorse, they have the option to go on a Bison Hunt starting at age 12. Your kid(s) will have a great week long experience of hunting for bison with their classmates. Your children are permitted to use guns. You don’t even have to sign a waiver! Permission slips will work just fine.

• A newcomer to Whitehorse is called a "Cheechako". The word comes from "new comer" in Chinook jargon, a trader language in the late 1800's and early 1900's that incorporated English and the language of the Chinook First Nation. The term Cheechako was prevalent all along the West Coast during the Gold Rush. When new people came off the boats in Skagway on their way to the gold fields, local traders who had been in-country for decades called them "Cheechakos".

• A local who has spent some length of time in Whitehorse is called a Sourdough. I’m told that this terms comes from a famous Robert Service poem about the cremation of a prospector who freezes to death in the Yukon called "The Cremation of Sam McGee", published in 1907 in The Songs of a Sourdough (The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses).

• This February is the 25^th Running of the Yukon Quest International Dog Sledding Race. It is a 1,020 mile race that runs from Fairbanks, Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. A single musher and a team of 12 to 14 sled dogs race for 10 to 14 days, following the historic 1890's Klondike Gold Rush and river mail delivery routes. The race route runs on frozen rivers, across open water and bad ice, over top four mountain ranges, reaching an elevation of 3,800 feet where temperatures can drop to as low as −40 to −60 °C with winds reaching 160 km/h on the mountain summits. The Yukon Quest is 'The Toughest Sled Dog Race in the World'.

Bueller??? Bueller…??? Anyone??? Anyone???

Graham Lang, an Articling Student at Davis LLP where I work, is the Ferris Bueller of Whitehorse. When my co-worker Dean and I arrived in Whitehorse, we decided to see what all the ruckus was all about in the bar next door to the restaurant we had dinner. If you can believe it, there was a Vancouver-like “bar line-up” at Coasters Bar and Grill. I couldn’t believe that Dean and I were waiting in a line-up to get in to the bar in Whitehorse! Well it turns out that Coasters was hosting a Sourdough Sam event. The people watching at Coasters was the primary reason we decided to line up to get in because there were all kinds inside. Such a wide variety and mish-mash of people in one bar. You would never see anything like this in Vancouver. Fortunately the line moved quickly. Anyway… once inside I thought I recognized someone but I couldn’t put my finger on where I knew this person from. I mean really, who would I know in Whitehorse? And then suddenly it hit me… it could bet money that the guy I recognized is Graham Lang! But of course I did not “know” Graham other than from reading a couple of his stories he had posted on the firm’s intranet about his experience working as an Articling Student at the Whitehorse office. Along with the stories were photographs he had posted. This is where I “knew” Graham from and this is how I recognized his face. Anyhow, I decided to ask this fellow if his name was Graham. This is how the conversation went… and keep in mind that we are in a bar with loud techno music and where many drinks had been had by all parties involved in this conversation:

Nancy: (walks over to Graham and friends and taps in on the shoulder)

Graham: (looks around, and then looks down - I am short so he has to look down)

Nancy: “Is your name Graham?” (pause)

Graham: “Ummm, yes.” (looks confused)

Nancy: “Graham Lang?” (pause)

Graham: “Ummm, yes?” (looks worried like he’s in some sort of trouble)

At this point I think he thought that perhaps he owed me or someone he knew some money. Either that or I was about to serve him with some papers or tell him about some love child he had had years ago. Anyhow, throughout the rest of the weekend any where we went in town with Graham everyone seemed to know him! Graham is a very friendly and funny guy. The overall impression we got was that Graham is the Ferris Bueller of Whitehorse.

Dog Mushing

I tried my hand in some dog sledding while up here in Whitehorse. Of course, it was nothing remotely close to what a musher would experience running the Yukon Quest. I did however have the good fortune of having Rudy, a retired Quest dog, in my little team of 6 dogs. Not much to talk about here except that I love the outdoors and sledding with some great puppies… well other than pooping. Most of you who know me know that I am anti-poo. The dogs did a lot of pooping while in a full run. I can’t really describe what it was like to smell it but I have attached a few video clips for you to view. I think I gagged the first time it happened... but I had stopped gagging when I shot this video clip.