Andrew Strain Photography » yukon

The Spell of the Yukon

Strain — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 05:12:14 +0000

Atlin may be located south of 60 but is so isolated from the rest of BC that it may as well be a part of the Yukon. There is a real magic to the north – I’ve traveled to every corner of BC and have never felt the same electrifying attraction as the one that keeps drawing me to my childhood home. The south coast mountains may be where I live, but my heart will always belong to the vast wilderness of the north…

I spent the last 5 days visiting family in Atlin and find myself suffering from severe northern withdrawl. No one writes of the Yukon better than Service – I’ll leave you with this. Hopefully my vacation snaps do the words some justice.

I wanted the gold, and I sought it,
I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.
Was it famine or scurvy — I fought it;
I hurled my youth into a grave.
I wanted the gold, and I got it —
Came out with a fortune last fall, —
Yet somehow life’s not what I thought it,
And somehow the gold isn’t all.

No! There’s the land. (Have you seen it?)
It’s the cussedest land that I know,
From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it
To the deep, deathlike valleys below.
Some say God was tired when He made it;
Some say it’s a fine land to shun;
Maybe; but there’s some as would trade it
For no land on earth — and I’m one.

You come to get rich (damned good reason);
You feel like an exile at first;
You hate it like hell for a season,
And then you are worse than the worst.
It grips you like some kinds of sinning;
It twists you from foe to a friend;
It seems it’s been since the beginning;
It seems it will be to the end.

I’ve stood in some mighty-mouthed hollow
That’s plumb-full of hush to the brim;
I’ve watched the big, husky sun wallow
In crimson and gold, and grow dim,
Till the moon set the pearly peaks gleaming,
And the stars tumbled out, neck and crop;
And I’ve thought that I surely was dreaming,
With the peace o’ the world piled on top.

The summer — no sweeter was ever;
The sunshiny woods all athrill;
The grayling aleap in the river,
The bighorn asleep on the hill.
The strong life that never knows harness;
The wilds where the caribou call;
The freshness, the freedom, the farness —
O God! how I’m stuck on it all.

The winter! the brightness that blinds you,
The white land locked tight as a drum,
The cold fear that follows and finds you,
The silence that bludgeons you dumb.
The snows that are older than history,
The woods where the weird shadows slant;
The stillness, the moonlight, the mystery,
I’ve bade ‘em good-by — but I can’t.

There’s a land where the mountains are nameless,
And the rivers all run God knows where;
There are lives that are erring and aimless,
And deaths that just hang by a hair;
There are hardships that nobody reckons;
There are valleys unpeopled and still;
There’s a land — oh, it beckons and beckons,
And I want to go back — and I will.

They’re making my money diminish;
I’m sick of the taste of champagne.
Thank God! when I’m skinned to a finish
I’ll pike to the Yukon again.
I’ll fight — and you bet it’s no sham-fight;
It’s hell! — but I’ve been there before;
And it’s better than this by a damsite —
So me for the Yukon once more.

There’s gold, and it’s haunting and haunting;
It’s luring me on as of old;
Yet it isn’t the gold that I’m wanting
So much as just finding the gold.
It’s the great, big, broad land ‘way up yonder,
It’s the forests where silence has lease;
It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
It’s the stillness that fills me with peace.

The Spell of the Yukon, Robert Service

Love is in the air

Strain — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 01:41:00 +0000

One fine day this summer, after running out of gas while cutting a helipad into the swampy permafrost near the confluence of the White and Yukon Rivers, I looked skyward from the pages of Dr Zhivago and instantly lunged for my bright yellow pelican case. I’m not usually one to see shapes in the clouds, but this particular formation was too perfect to not photograph.

I wasn’t planning on posting this shot but someone saw it on my iphone the other day and insisted that I make a postcard out of it. A blog post is close enough, I guess – call me in February for Valentines Day gifts…

It’s been a summer…

Strain — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:20:00 +0000

I’ve been gone from Vancouver for 2 and a half months now, and its time to go home. I’ve had some great adventures working in the Yukon – bears, helicopters, swamps and snowstorms. But, you can only be gone for so long before home comes calling… I’ll be in Vancouver on Monday night.

More photos and words to come when I have a little more time… also looking forward to getting back to a calibrated monitor back in the city. A few other photos are on my flickr.

Offline

Strain — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 06:39:00 +0000

I am currently working in a remote location and will be unable to receive or reply to any communication until approximately August 1st. In case of emergencies, I can be reached via canoe down the Yukon River. Related posts: Love is in the air The Spell of the Yukon Atlin, BC – my summer home. Related posts:

Places I like to see bears:

Strain — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:01:00 +0000

1) From the helicopter
2) Planet Earth / National Geographic (or some other nature documentary film/photo)
3) From the truck on the side of the highway nowhere near where I’m working
4) The zoo
5) Never

This Grizzly was having a late night snack with her cubs along the side of the Carcross Hwy near Tagish, Yukon. I stayed in the truck, don’t worry.

Hopefully that’s the only sow and cubs I’ll see this year…

A couple more photos from the Carcross area in the full post:

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The Carcross Desert, apparently the smallest in the world. Can you see my shadow?

Taken from the desert – mountain name, anyone?

Pumas and Pudús in Puerto Varas