A weekend of riding and eating (and blueberry picking) in Carcross, Yukon

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Calling the teams for the last day of riding of the season, on Montana Mountain, in Carcross.

Waiting to find out in which team she will be...

Meanwhile, the adults are riding!

Endind a perfect biking day at Benett Lake!

Ben even caught a fish!

Braised fennel. Yum!

Covering the potatoes with moss to keep them from drying out.

Peach and cranberry cake in the dutch oven

The trick is to have a 3 to 1 ratio of coals (3 on top, 1 at the bottom) and to have the bottom on a trivet or a rack so it is not sitting on the coals.

Apple crisp in the dutch oven. Success!!

Beautiful light on Lake Bennett.

Picking blueberries in Fraser, BC (45 min from Carcross towards Alaska).

Mossberries

Early blueberry (aka blue huckleberry or Vaccinium ovalifolium) on the left, dwarf blueberries on the right (Vaccinium caespitosum)

Do you understand why we call huckleberries "black mouth" in French (gueules noires)??

Fall is definetely here. The willow and alder leaves are turning yellow, the fireweed are a rainbow of green to dark red, often on the same plant, and the berries are incredibly abundant!

Riding on Montana Mountain in the fall light is nothing short of magical: the way the light filters through the trembling aspens and the glowing green mossy trails... It feels like such a treat to be part of it all. 

As Rachel who lives in the Colorado mountains says it so beautifully: 

"Here is a place where weather is an animal that will never be tamed.

Here, being human feels like just the right size, appropriately small amongst the stout spruce and fir trees, and the ancient, storytelling rocks. For a brief, wondrous time you may find your desires shrink into something manageable, a small parcel that you can put in your pocket and examine later.

Here, the flavors of happiness may begin to look different, less about accomplishments and acquisitions, and more about the privilege of walking this beloved earth. You may allow yourself to be schooled by the resident teachers, the living things who seek only what they need. Maybe life need not be so complicated."

The Great Northern Migration Saga

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Before leaving Moab on Thursday, we went for a last ride with our friends at Moab Brands. None of us felt ready to leave this paradise but our time in the States was up.

On Friday night, we camped at Clark Canyon Reservoir, near Dillon, Montana. It's an awesome free camping spot. When we left, we stopped at our favorite Patagonia Outlet in Dillon and found some really good deals.

Only a few hours later, the bus started to behave weirdly and finally died on the side of the road. Lucky for us, our friends were just ahead of us and Karl and JF spent lots of time troubleshooting together to try to find the problem, while Jen fed the kids in her bus (and made dinner for all of us later!). We finally had to call our roadside assistance service (CoachNet, really happy with the service) and they towed us to a safe location (the Walmart in Butte, MT) since the garage was closed for the day.

On Sunday morning, the phone rang at 6 am. They were coming to pick us up to bring us to the garage. 

They brought the bus in at noon on Sunday and we were out by 5 pm! We were so happy!! We truly had no idea how long it would take them to fix the problem. Historically speaking, when the bus got in a garage for a problem, it got out 10 days later... So we were brainstorming possible sleeping arrangement. The weather was rainy and cold and as much as we love camping in the Westy, it didn't sound very appealing. However, we were right by the Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park and would have probably stayed  there for a few nights. However, we found out later that the caverns are not open before May 1st, so we'll have to be back! 

JF making burgers in a truck stop

Then as we neared the border (litteraly an hour and 15 minutes away, one of the bus' rear tires blew, ripped the muffler's exhaust that in turn sliced open one of the Westy's front tire... Yeah, unbelievable, I know.

We even had the police show up this time since we were not in a safe place.  

Aïsha decided to sit outside and draw while we waited for the mobile repair truck to reach us.

And she picked flowers for our dinner table. Kids are so good at sourcing beauty!

The mobile repair truck showed up at around 9 pm and changed the tire in less than 45 min. Since it was already pretty late, we found a Walmart in Colville to spend the night. And finally, finally, we crossed the border on Wednesday, 3 days later than planned.

We are now in the Kootenays, visiting dear friends.

We made it to BC, but we're not in Whitehorse yet! Wish us luck, we might need it...