Pixmin

Hvalfjörður – There were a few other cars filled with berry picker (I’m referring to both the people picking berries and their horrible tool that ruins the plants) – anyways – so we walked by the river until we find a nice spot to set up camp. The sky cleared a little for a great sunset (which we enjoyed with the sheeps from the other side of the river)

Maybe it will inspire some of those who, when told about raw food, ask “But what do you eat then?!”

So simple yet so delicious:

• spinach
• sun-dried tomatoes
• a tomato
• chickpeas and various beans’ sprouts
• goji berries
• parsley
• olive oil
• salt / pepper
• paprika and curry for taste and colors
• walnuts and chestnuts for crunchiness

More photos on my flickr page http://www.flickr.com/pixmin

The eruption started two weeks ago, while I was at a Tango Marathon, but last WE I made it to Skogar from where a long hike awaits. I arrived in the evening, around 8pm, so everybody was going down, not up. As I was hiking up, people’s reaction was either of the four:

• Ignore me (some people really looked as if they were in real pain)
• Looked at me as if I was mad (but took the opportunity to ask me how long I had been walking to find out how long they still had to reach the bottom)
• Smiled and said hello, judging by the huge rucksack I was carrying and the trip hanging outside they knew I wasn’t some crazy tourist
• Warned me and gave me advice

No doubt they added up to hundreds. I knew there would be a lot of people during the day but I didn’t expect to find so many in the evening.

4am - the red smoke coming from the volcano guiding me

I took a break after 2 hours and slept (or tried to sleep) for a few hours and started to hike again around 3am. “Sleeping” under the stars, with the almost full moon, the red smoke of the Volcano and the Northen Lights was a treat, even though the cold wind made it a little demanding.

I left the path and headed East to avoid the smoke and reached the the Volcano just after witnessing a sublime sunrise.

Getting to the Volcano just after sunrise

A few photos from our trip to watch the sunrise on Langjökull last week-end.

I’m currently in Iceland. I’m planning to update the website and post some photos but in the meantime, you can find some recent photos on my flickr page at http://flickr.com/pixmin

And there is also more photos on this page including photos I took during my first trip in Iceland.

A couple of month at home in France and a few photos to sum up already three weeks in Slovakia:

First WE in the mountains in Slovakia

A trip to Ukraine

A long WE in Slovak Paradise

And a WE spent in a sort of music festival with lots of different artisans

I finally got around updating the blog with the last few days of my trip to Whitehorse, including a few photos.

• Best day in my life (at least it definitely felt that way after the Worst day of my life)
• Dawson Overland Trail

I still have some photos to upload, especially a batch from a morning I walked up to Mount Washington to see the sunrise.

I’ve been in the woods for the last 6 days. Tomorrow will be my last day in Whitehorse and Friday moring it’s back to Vancouver. And the next day back to France. I already felt melocanlic this morning as I was walking back from the overland trail. I’ll update the blog when I get back. This was just to let you know that I haven’t been eaten by bears.

I’m on the Dawson Overland Trail, part of the longest trail in the world, the transcanadian trail. Let’s rewind and let me tell you how I arrived here.

I left Sarah Steel’s hut a few hours after the sun rose. I walked to the next hut, the Fireweed hut and stopped there. I decided to spend the rest of the day resting here. I first prepared some wood and started a fire in the stove, which was in much better condition than the other one. The hut itself was smaller and I had to put two benches next to each other to have just enough space to lie down. It was also much more hermetic than the previous chalet, which means it kept the heat. And the stove being more hermetic too, the wood lasted longer and I kept the fire going from the moment I arrived until I left the following morning. It did get pretty hot in there, too hot even. It was snowing heavely outside, a sight I enjoyed through the three big windows of the hut. I slept, ate and read about Whitehorse and made plans for the few days I had left. In the morning, after making sure that the fire was dead, I walked to the sport center to fill my water bag. There wasn’t much food there. I bought a few cookies and a cereal bar. That, in addition to the few dates I had left should be enough for a couple of days.

I walked to the highway where I had to wait about 20m before getting a lift. The man was supposed to turn before where I was going but he brought me to what we thought was the beginning of the Overland Trail. I thanked him and started to look for the trail. The first one I dounf brought me inside what looked like a gypsy’s village, with lots of trailer and broken cars. Lots of barking dogs too.  I walked through it knowing I had to cross the river to find the start of my trail. The river was still frozen, but probably only on the surface, so I walked on the side hoping to find a bridge. I didn’t find a bridge but traces of snowmobiles going across the river, so I took a stick and carefully crossed the river, checking the ice every other step. As I crossed, I remembered a scene of Into the Wild, when he gets stuck on the otherside of the river. So I checked the map and saw a bridge a few km down the road, so if the river became uncrossable when I would come back, I could use the bridge.

And there I am, on the Overland Trail. Had I had more time I would have loved to go all the way to Dawson, but I can only walk North today and I will have to come back tomorrow. I’ll then have a last day to explore the historical trails in Whitehorse before going back to Vancouver. It’s funny how just a few days ago, when struggling in the powder I wished I could be home, and today I wish I had a few more weeks here.

My shelter for the night

The sun waking up on the Overland Trail, Whitehose, Yukon

The river crossing at the end of the Overland Trail

View from the plane, Whitehorse airport

I’m not sure what time it is but I know I’ll sleep like a baby tonight. Let’s rewind a few hours. I walked out of town towards the airport and saw a small road to the Transport Museum. Smaller road = less traffic = less noise. Walking on that road, I noticed a big building on my right. It looked like a shopping center but without any name or catchy colours, no advertising. Curiosity took over and I went to check it out. It turns out to be a Sport Center. And a mighty recent one, built in 2007. I first picked up a local newspaper and sat down at a table and quietly read it to find out more about Whitehorse. A little later, when I finished reading it, I decided to explore the building. I bought a sandwich and watched a hockey game, my first hockey game. I loved it. The players move with such fluidity on the ice, change direction and stop so quickly, I was mesmerized. I had the chance to see many tricks I had never paid attention to while watching the game on TV. Anyway, I just found my new HQ. This Sport Center is just perfect, with everything I need, toilets, food, water, tables and seats, even entertainment for free.

After my horrible adventure yesterday I almost felt like giving up and coming back early. But as soon as I came back to town I missed the woods. I guess the fact the it was sunny and I could sit down and dry all my cloth and shoes helped. And now, I have found a refuge, slightly out of town, open from 6am to 9 or 10pm. But that’s not all.

I am now writing from the porch of Sarah’s chalet, where I am planning to have a restful night. I will sleep outside if the weather is kind, otherwise I’ll go inside and start a fire in the stone. The chalet is in the middle of a maze of cross country trails which I doubt will be very frequented. Life’s great. I have prepared some wood for the night, just in case.

The moon shines in the sky, no need for a light to see around. The stars are only half hidden by the slow moving clouds. I’ll look at them until I fall asleep.

Hours later I wake up, it’s still dark, to early in the morning not to sleep, but I’m cold. I go inside the chalet and start a fire in the old stove. The hut will soon enough be filled by the heat and I’ll get warm, hot even. Again, I fall asleep. But the heat won’t last long. The stove isn’t hermetic and consumes the wood too quickly. It’s cold again so I go back inside my sleeping bag.

And finally, as I wake, the sun is up, a new day is starting. I prepare more wood and start a new fire to warm up and dry the rest of my cloth. As I’m about to go back in my sleeping bag, I see something through the not entirely closed door. My first reflex is to grab the axe. But it’s too small to be a bear. A cub maybe? No, not likely. Still, I stay quiet and slowly move towards the door and check outside. I can’t see anything for a while and suddenly, behind the hut, I see it: a beautiful red fox. He’s sniffing around, probably looking for food. I noticed wooden sticks used to grill marshmallows yesterday, he probably smelled them. He’s about 10 meters away from me. He gives me a quick look and, I suppose not considering me dangerous, goes back to sniffing the sticks. He comes closer and gives me another look, longer this time, as if asking for permission to come closer. I don’t move an inch and he comes closer, he walks so close to me that I could touch him. Definitely used to see humans.

Back in the hut, it will get really hot, so I stop adding wood and wait for the fire to die before walking my way to the next hut, a few kilometres away. I’ve counted three. I might spend a few days here, to try all of them.