Last minute and in the middle of my end of term responsibilities, I went out to the Yukon to sit-in on some community consultations regarding the new wood bison management plan. The consultations were uneventful. I expected people to be outraged since the new plan fails to include a number of impacts identified by a recent socioeconomic impact statement. Alas, people were civilized. But I still learned a great deal of context, got to feel what the atmosphere is like surrounding a historically contentious reintroduction of a species, and meet people integral to the species’ management. The best part about being there, though, was getting out of Saskatoon. Saskatoon is a nice city with nice people, but it is flat with only the S. Saskatchewan River to break up the monotony of the landscape. I could hardly sit in the seat of the rental car to drive out to Haines Junction from Whitehorse. Mountains loom ever larger as you drive. It is breathtaking. 
Haines Junction sits in a valley surrounded by what look like huge mountains, but the mountains that you can see are only little stepping-stones, small hills compared to the rest of the range. Even so, being used to the Saskatchewan prairie, any geographic feature that rises in elevation feels like a mountain. I took a drive down to Kathleen Lake in Kluane National Park. The bases of mountains flow right into the lake on either side. On the drive home, a wolf crossed the road in front of the car. It climbed up on the bank on the side of the road and lay down. After it ran off and slunk away down the road I got out of the car and compared prints. Its paw prints were huge, not at all dwarfed by my boots. So that was cool. I was sad to leave Haines Junction, the mountains growing smaller as I drove back to Whitehorse. The feeling of mountains around me was so refreshing, and hopefully just what I needed to stop procrastinating about my final term paper. Though, here I am, writing this blog entry…not working on that final term paper.
Those are some cool pictures!
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