Back Home Again
The Canadian Rangers have just completed an historic 5,200 kilometre patrol ranging from the Yukon to Manitoba and points in between.
Gone Fishing
Whitehorse has been named to the list of best fishing cities in the country and it’s no wonder with its pristine wilderness and endless lakes.
The Scoop on Poop
Catching a glimpse of an animal when out on the land can be a thrilling experience. In the vast Yukon landscape…
Tales on Trails — Trappers’ Troubles
Yukon trapper Steve Paconi, with his wife Carol, trapped this area with their dog team (and a cat!). That was during a time when trapping…
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Tales on Trails — Feathers
We were putt-putting along the trail, with Paul riding the snow machine while I was standing in the back of the toboggan.
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A Modern Day Klondike Kate: Fishing In Pink
In her latest A Modern Day Klondike Kate column, Rita recounts a humourous situation while fishing and explains why she hates Barbie-pink
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Gearing Up For November 1
As summer ends and the upcoming trapping season looms, Sonja explains the anticipation, excitement and preparations with getting ready to go
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First Hunt, And My Son’s First Grouse
A reader submission by Erin traces us through her family’s journey through education, practice and finally her son’s first Grouse
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A Time For Everything
In his latest column, Gary tells us how a random search for a used skidsteer turned into a solid investment for their property in Mendenhall
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Blueberry Season
Miche takes us on a journey into the White Pass with her blueberry gang to find to find the best blueberries for her Blueberry Cornbread
Ground For Discovery
We acquired forested land on the shore Lake Laberge. To get more familiar with the property, I organized a weekend campout.
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Red Baneberry
Berry-picking season is upon us, and harvesting the bounty of the boreal forest has been important in the Yukon for thousands of years
Craving Connection And Taking ‘The Jump’
Louise and Neil heard about a property for sale downriver and nearly 11 years later they’re finding their rhythm.
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Yukon Orchids: Hidden in Plain Sight
On the Sunnydale Road in West Dawson, there is an interpretive site called Orchid Acres. The site will earn its name in mid-June
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Unintended Consequence
Ultimately, Pavlina Sudrich’s objective of helping people feel comfortable and confident, when going into the Yukon wilderness has been met.
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Snacking While Hiking
Back when, as a tourist, all I saw when driving the Alaska Highway was forest. That bush, I knew, had trees; but which ones?
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How Bad Are Clothes Moths?
If your home is infested with moths, it might be a good idea to call the fumigator If there are bald patches in your garment
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A Closet Full of Furs
Learn how to maintain your fur garments. Storage tips, cleaning advice… keep your heirloom pieces in top condition for generations to come.
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Rain Or Snow – Wear Your Fur!
Learn about the craftsmanship and care of fur garments in Sonja Seeber’s column. From Arctic-ready caribou to elegant mink.
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Fall and Winter Foraging
there are several very resilient plants that are here even when the north wind has blown off the autumn leaves and snow has begun to fall.
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A Modern Day Klondike Kate: Girls’ Night Out
I remember the excitement bubbling in my 20-year-old self. Was there another woman on this planet that loved fishing as much as I did?
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The Fur Institute of Canada (FIC)
Why do we trap in Canada? The answer is easy: fur is ethical, sustainable, renewable and biodegradable. Before there was the coveted polar fleece (polyester),
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A Berry Good Time
What the Yukon lacks in fruit trees it makes up for with berries. Strawberries, saskatoons, haskaps, raspberries, currants, blueberries…
Supplying The Trapline
Trappers who spend most of their time in the bush throughout the year rely on friends to help out with things like picking up items…
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A Whale Of A Time
As a kid, every summer we would travel to our traditional whaling camp at Baby Island on the Beaufort Coast.
A Walk Along The River
It’s a warm Yukon summer afternoon and thirty or more people are gathered outside of the Visitor Information Centre in Whitehorse.
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A Springtime Foraging Guide
The days and weeks of spring are flying by and soon the tender green shoots and soft leaves of this season will be just a fading memory….
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An Interview With Minnie Clark
I was raised at Johnson’s Crossing on our family trapline in the southern Yukon. With my Tlingit heritage…
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Stony Creek Draught
We started making our own beer in 2020 when we had to “CERB” our budget. Now that we have all the gear, we make 23 litres for around $23.
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Yukon-Grown Corn
The first time we tried growing corn in the Yukon, we sowed the seeds directly into our garden box outside the house.
Outhouse Upgrade
I remember it like it was yesterday … calling home from the hospital to see how my husband was coping with our one-year-old son
‘Vampires’ In Our Midst
They bite and suck blood—vampire-like. Cats such as lynx are a haven for fleas, as are fox and ermine, then squirrel and even mice.
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New Year, New Food, New You
So many New Year’s resolutions, fad diets and trendy health makeovers revolve around restriction and deprivation.
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How We ‘Do’ Christmas & New Year’s Eve Off-Grid!
Do you ever dream of spending a very quiet Christmas? How about taking time for yourself, to recharge, relax and reflect on the past year…
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The Chatterbox Of The Boreal Forest
Envision this … you’re trying to walk quietly through the bush; maybe you’re hunting grouse … Next thing you hear is a squirrel…
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Another Trapping Season Is Here
Snow came late this year. It was October 5 by the time we saw white on the ground outside the cabin. We received 17 centimetres of snow…
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A Love Letter To Pike
I fell in love with northern pike this summer. If you’ve ever seen a pike up close, you’re probably wondering how one could love…
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Appreciating Rosehips
Summer has rapidly turned into fall and it’s only a matter of time before the first snowflakes drift down to cover the golden leaves…
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From Cabbage To Oktoberfest
Fall is here! One can feel it in the change of light as the days are getting shorter. A few weeks ago, Germans were sweating…
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Mountain Hunting: What’s In My Pack
One of the most challenging aspects of mountain hunting is figuring out what you need to pack and what to leave at home.
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Amanita Muscaria
was taught at a young age that an iconic red-and-white mushroom, known as the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria), was among the most dangerous…
50 years Yukon Trappers Association
Over the years, the Yukon Trappers Association has moved their location a few times but their mandate remains the same…
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The Sweet Simple Pleasures of Summer
I love the hot days of summer that we’re occasionally fortunate enough to have here in the Yukon. You can usually overhear people…
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Enjoying Wild Yukon Teas
The natural world around us has turned into a green, abundant paradise in the last few weeks, and we’re coming into…
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Foraging for Wild Plants
Wherever you go in the world, you will inevitably come across medicinal and edible plants. It seems to me that no place inhabited…
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More Cabbage, Please!
Cabbage is still relatively inexpensive and has always been delicious, raw or cooked. I think many of us grew up with boiled or steamed…
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Not Your Average Pack-Out Part 2
This sheep hunt was now a moose hunt.We prepared our bodies by carb loading on extra rations while we discussed how we would stalk the moose.
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Living Off-Grid
Each year, more people are realizing that on-grid living might not be the best solution for protecting the planet and one’s pocketbook…
Not Your Average Pack-Out
The decision to carry a mature Yukon bull moose, over 5 kilometres through the mountains and on your back…
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Hunting … It’s a Crapshoot
One of the most common questions we get asked by non-hunters, and those new to hunting, is, “How do you find and track the animals…
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Time To Talk Poop
As a trapper and hunter, you learn to identify wildlife excrement rather fast, as you’d want to. Why? To determine what kind of critters…
The Path To Bettering Your Soil
Gardening in the Yukon can sometimes feel like a perennial struggle when in other parts of the country it might appear almost effortless.
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Firearm Care And Maintenance
It used to be that firearm maintenance was more tedious and certainly more frequently needed than it is currently.
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Books To Read On A Trapline
When the evenings get longer, we enjoy reading a good book. So here we go with the books to hunker down with on a cold, dark night
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A Tale Of Two Bears
In the world of big-game hunting, black bear meat is easily one of the best tasting and most under-appreciated cuts of wild game there is.
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A Long Time Coming Part 2
The moose continued barrelling on his path for another hundred yards or so. Between us was an elevated creek bed and then a tiny meadow.
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Ammunition Choices
Currently, there is a much greater variety of ammunition choices for hunters than ever before in firearm history.
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A Long Time Coming Part 1
An hour before dawn, my alarm goes off like a foghorn behind my head. I frantically reach behind me to shut it off.
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Breaking Trail
The new moon brought winter, including swans and more ducks taking a rest on our little lake. We will soon be breaking Trail.
A Hunter’s First Ram
For many hunters that live outside of the Yukon, having the opportunity to hunt and harvest a mature Dall sheep is merely a pipe dream.
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The Trapper’s Life
What is trapping? I had no idea. But I slowly but surely found out that hunting and trapping is a passion. Serious, gorgeous and grounding.
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The Hunter’s First Rifle
The .30 calibre, is 112 years old and still high on the list as one of the most-versatile hunting cartridges in the world.
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Honey Production In The Alps
The Yukon is a tough place for honeybees to survive, but we are lucky to count about 200 beehives in the territory.
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Berry Song, A Story For Us All
Berry-picking season is an amazing time of year. Sweet wild strawberries, Soapberries and Saskatoons are all summer-time treats.
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The Unexpected Joys of Fishing
I never thought that I would like fishing. In fact, as with many things our minds convince us of, I went through the better part of my life certain that I was very happy having nothing to do with piscine pursuits. I didn’t particularly like eating fish and I felt no need to try to catch one. And then I fell in love with a man who loves fishing.
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Go Wild With Greens
There are few wild greens easier to enjoy than lamb’s quarters (Chenopodium album) also known as white goosefoot and, sometimes, pigweed. A member of the populous Amaranthaceae family, which includes amaranth, quinoa, beets and spinach, among thousands of other plants, the leaves can be eaten fresh or cooked and have a flavour somewhere between spinach and kale.
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Raspberry Fool With Wild Chamomile Shortbreads
Nothing is assured about wild food gathering. If you find butter & whipping cream try this dessert recipe.
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Having the Right Gear Can Make or Break a Day of Hunting
Hunting gear is a big investment. Your summer and fall gear must perform when you need it to. Your gear has to keep you warm, dry and alive.
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Nose to tail : Don’t overlook the offal when meal-planning this winter
Offal —literally “off-fall”— refers to those parts of an animal carcass that have fallen off during butchering. While muscles represent more than a third of
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Cranberry bounty
Old-fashioned jelly roll, made with cranberry jam, not jelly, and finished with whipped cream, Amaretto and toasted sliced almonds.
Yukon coyotes: The dos and don’ts
Coyotes are survivors and are very adaptable. Unlike other predators, they thrive living in our urban environment.
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Birthday Pairings, Campground Treats
Jennifer’s (Free Pour Jenny) cocktail and an appetizer. The cocktail’s bright, sharp and tart. Something cheesy immediately suggested itself.
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Bioblitz is back & going to Dawson City
bringing experts and aspiring citizen scientists to one location for a day of counting and identifying as many species as possible.
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Growing young farmers
In 2020, when the Yukon closed its borders to the outside world due to COVID-19, Sundog Retreat owners Andrew Finton and his partner, Heather, found an opportunity in the challenge. They created the Sundog Veggies project.
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The secret to composting
We all know we should compost. It is the right thing to do, even in bear country. Composting is the natural process of decay.
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Adaptive Recipe strategies
When key ingredients for a recipe simply areen’t available, we acquired new competencies. We became masters of substitution.
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Tackle box or junk box?
The water is still hard and ice-fishing is good, but now is the time to take out all your open water gear and do some
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Bringing local food to Yukoners
Farming in the Yukon comes with a few other unique obstacles, including producing food with wildlife at the doorstep.
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Morels and rascals
My father had a favourite expression when he came home from work late because he’d stayed downtown for a drink with his friends. “I fell
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Gardening in the blood?
As leaves start to fall and I swaddle my garden in rows of spun plastic to protect it from night frosts, I am exploring my family connection to gardening. Perhaps it’s because I feel a little alone sometimes, a spur way out on the family tree with little connection to roots that lie in other countries and cultures.
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Anti-hunting lives on
History of bloodshed has led some to associate firearms in war with hunting. There are misconceptions and misunderstandings about firearms.
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Tackling the Monster Plant
Rhubarb often goes straight into pies, cobblers and crisps, often the freezer first. Here are two amazing canned rhubarb recipes.
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Garlic in the Yukon: It’s a Thing!
Sick of buying the bland garlic from outside? It’s possible in the Yukon to plant in the spring and have a cured bulb by mid August!
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Blueberry Pilgrims
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen so many berry pickers as this year in the White Pass near Fraser, B.C., southern Yukon’s favourite place to
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Local fishing in Whitehorse
Whitehorse is not a world-renowned fishing destination, but it is the entrance to the Yukon, which is one of those places on many people’s fishing “bucket list.”
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Haskaps under the Midnight Sun
The haskaps are ready and that is one of the best things about summer in the Yukon. We pick and pick and it feels good. The haskaps are big, juicy, and beautiful. I can’t get over how perfect these berries are. Our buckets are full, our knees ache from kneeling and we’re happy to be surrounded by haskaps under the midnight sun.
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Get schooled!
Kluane National Park and Reserve protects the northernmost population of kokanee, sockeye salmon that became land-locked.
Tie one on
Whitehorse is home to a tiny fly shop with a big heart Big fish. Tiny fly shop. At just 10 feet by 12 feet, and
Currant-ly Available
Blackcurrants grow wild in the Yukon, sparsely. Find Ribes hudsoniam in damp forests at the base of mountains, like the King’s Throne hike.
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It’s Spruce Tip Season!
For those as yet uninitiated, spruce tips are one of those truly magical wild northern foods. They’re packed with Vitamin C and have been used by Indigenous people to soothe sore throats and combat flu for centuries.
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Gardening on the cheap
This series, The Radical Gardener, will look at ways in which working class people (or people who just want to save some scratch) can approach creating, caring for and maintaining a food garden — something which, given the uncertainty of these times, seems like a pretty good idea.
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Great Thumbs, Great Ideas
With the circumstances of the COVID-19 lock down, many are thinking about a garden this year, perhaps, for the first time in their lives.
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Know the age of fowl meat when cooking
There’s a big difference between cooking the meat of wild animals and cooking the meat of domestic animals. Domestic meats contain a wide variety of chemicals, including growth hormones, while wild meat has none.
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Black bears and pike
After considerable thought, I can’t come up with any similarity between black bears and pike except that a lot of people won’t eat either. That is sad, as both are delicious and easy to prepare.
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My favourite Johnnie Johns hunting story
A favorite story by Johnnie Johns pf being trapped inside a moose and nearly freezing to death, told often at the Caribou Hotel in Caccross.
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Five perennials for the northern flower garden
Thoughts of vibrant flower gardens seem whimsical when it’s -42 C and snow covers any evidence of those gardens. But seed catalogues are starting to
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Ice fishing safety
Yukon rivers all have currents, bends, gravel bars, log jams and usually decreasing water levels over the winter.
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Boat trailering suggestions
Larry has some tips to keep your boat trailer, and boat, moving I frequently see trailered boats with the outboard in the “down” position. This
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