Uncommon Journeys: When Barbara Met Jasper

Sunday afternoon when we were all road weary from bouncing over the potholes on the Alcan, our driver pulled off the main road and dropped us at a beautiful complex while he delivered our luggage to Whitehorse. The name Whitehorse, the largest city in the Yukon at 25,000 people, got its name because the rapids on the Yukon looked like a large group of white horses.

We debussed and found ourselves in a place that houses 52 sled dogs, a few running loose, and the rest lounging quietly in a large pen. We made our way to the tented area next to the pen where the owner/manager of the business greeted us and explained how they train the dogs and use them. It was quite interesting although we will never pay fifteen thousand dollars for one of his dogsled trips to the arctic ice far north of the artic circle.

What is amazing is that the dogs all remained quiet except for one of the younger ones who got quite excited when a squirrel ventured near him. After the talk, we were allowed to go in the yard where we could give the dogs a voice command that would put them on top of their houses for easy petting free on being jumped on.

I walked around for a few minutes when a beautiful grey and tan dog approached me, wagged his tail, jumped on his house, and looked at me as if to say, "I choose you! Now come pet me." His name was Jasper and he was duly petted!


We, of course, were given the usual demonstration of a dog team pulling a four wheeler.

We then boarded the bus again, a little less jaded and tired and headed to our hotel.