Let's Talk About Whitehorse

Day 01: July 14th, 2024

Weather: Overcast 17 degrees C

I landed in Whitehorse at midnight, when the sun had just begun to touch the horizon, and met up with my first volunteer, Earl, a lab tech and PhD student at SFU. Earl, clearly the kindest and most generous human ever, gave up three weeks of his vacation to work on this project with me, outfitting the Tacoma for sleeping, and driving all of our equipment up from Vancouver. 

Earl and I felt a little too rough to set up camp that night. Earl had just driven 14 hours, and I spent approximately the same amount of time playing transportation bingo across Canada. So we bunked down at a good ol' reliable Quality Inn. By 1 a.m., darkness had been achieved.

I decided we should spend today figuring things out and tying up loose ends. We needed to consolidate and get a better idea of the collective supplies and equipment we had with us, test our various GPS units, and figure out our next steps. The last problem was the easiest. For the last couple of weeks, there has been some concern about wildfire along a section of the highway between Whitehorse and Dawson City. The road isn't shut down, but there is a warning and a risk of slower traffic. As part of this project, I am planning a community meeting in Dawson City, and, unfortunately, because of the uncertainty surrounding the fire and whether or not we would be able to get from Whitehorse to Dawson City, it made planning said community meeting with the Dawson Museum difficult. So, I decided to change our initial plan and head to Skagway first rather than Dawson.

The second issue was also somewhat quickly resolved; after a few tries, we found a nearby RV park with some good sheltered space and started going through all our supplies. Now, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Earl brought everything but the kitchen sink with him. I'll provide a list at the end of our combined goods, but suffice it to say we should want nothing for the next three weeks. 

The last problem was to be the biggest. My experience with GPS has been relatively limited and largely positive on an ease of use and functionality level. I also hadn't been in Vancouver for the two months prior to this trip, so I hadn't been able to test their accuracy prior to heading to the Yukon, and I really had no idea of the trials and tribulations I would face in attempting to get good GPS accuracy in the north. This is a pretty obvious statement, but not all GPS are made equal. The Garmin units we brought were really just meant for hikers to use, and up here, they have an accuracy of anywhere between 8-20 meters, but I kind of knew those were going to be a write-off. However, Earl brought an industry-grade GPS called a Trimble (stock Trimble image for reference), which he wanted to test out. First of all, what an absolute pain in the butt. Apparently, Trimbles are great, but after the day I had, you could not PAY me to use one again after this trip. First of all, it refused to connect to my Android phone, and, according to the internet, this is a common and reoccurring problem. Whatever, it's fine; after some ranting and raving and contact with the lovely Laura Termes at SFU, we got it sorted, and I was able to connect my phone. 

The second problem with the Trimble was the accuracy. Getting good accuracy in the north is challenging for several reasons, including solar flare activity. So, even with the Trimble, we could only get down to 2.5m accuracy, which isn't really acceptable if you are surveying cemeteries where the markers are often 1m or less apart.

But Trimble! Trimble, Trimble, Trimble.

Trimble, of COURSE, offers various very expensive monthly/yearly subscriptions that one can purchase to boost the accuracy of their hardware.

You might be asking, "Nikki, do you really need to record coordinates? Is that important?" Well, there are several reasons that I want to record precise locations:

1. Many of these cemeteries are slowly degrading and have never been mapped, so this will preserve an accurate portrait of them—as they are now—for the future.

2. The placement of graves within a cemetery, their orientation and their location in relation to other graves can tell you a lot about an individual and how they were viewed within a broader socio-cultural context.

3. Taking locational data can give me a fuller picture of a cemetery's layout as a whole and give me an idea if any markers are missing or moved from their original positions.

4. I don't particularly like doing things twice. So, if I am already here recording all of the other information about these graves and cemeteries, why wouldn't I take GPS data if I have that capability?

So that's a problem for tomorrow Nikki. I will do what I must, even if I have to draw the dang maps by hand.

Those were the big problems for the day. We spent the rest of our time in Whitehorse touring around...for research. No, really. A big part of my project is seeing how the gold rush is represented within Yukon/Alaskan heritage and tourism today. That being said, this was a challenging prospect, considering it was Whitehorse on a Sunday, and most things were closed. Honestly, we found this to be baffling. I mean, things are often closed on Sundays, but we were under the impression that Whitehorse is a tourist town, and there certainly wasn't much going on. It was completely dead, and that was concerning - Whitehorse felt like a town that was suffering. But, in a few days, we'll return during the week and see if it feels any different. Another thing to know if you ever plan on visiting Whitehorse: it's bloody windy!

It's time for me to sleep in my super cool custom setup. It's been a good day. See you all tomorrow!

-Nikki

(*Disclaimer*—Some of these may not be posted on the day I wrote them; service up here is super spotty. Just use your imagination!)