Yukon Yearnings

Yukon Yearnings is the story of my kayak trip down the Yukon River, from the source to the Bering Sea. The paddling distance for that solo kayak journey was just over 2,300 miles. It was not until completing the journey and retturning home that I discovered that no one else had achieved that. I was the first person to have paddled the entire Yukon River. Prior to the current kayak trip I had paddled two thousand miles of the river from Lake Atlin, British Columbia, to Russian Mission, Alaska. My reason for going back to the Yukon was not to be the first person to paddle the whole river. My reason was to experience the wilderness again. Paddling in the solitude of that wilderness enclosed me in the peace of the lakes and the river. There were no distractions, no time constraints, and no urgent pressures to be in a certain place by a certain time The deep, quiet forests and the snowcapped mountains just enraptured me. Passing the villages and stopping in some allowed me to meet the people living on the river. Their kindness was as significant as the beauty of the nature all the way to the Bering Sea.

Mountains and rivers; forests and tundra; grizzlies and caribou; trapping and whaling; the Klondike gold rush and the Yukon Quest: It's all about Yukon!

Set against the dramatic backdrop of the Canadian Yukon, The Chief of the Ranges encompasses both romance and pulse-pounding battlefield action. The tale centers on Owindia, a young woman who idolizes her father, a powerful chief, but feels the absence of love in her life. Is her happily-ever-after just around the corner?

Discusses the geography, history, and culture of Canada's Yukon Territory.

Reproduction of the original: In to the Yukon by William Seymour Edwards

From its designation in 1926 to the rise of the interstates nearly sixty years later, Route 66 was, in John Steinbeck’s words, America’s Mother Road, carrying countless travelers the 2,400 miles between Chicago and Los Angeles. Whoever they were—adventurous motorists or Dustbowl migrants, troops on military transports or passengers on buses, vacationing families or a new breed of tourists—these travelers had to eat. The story of where they stopped and what they found, and of how these roadside offerings changed over time, reveals twentieth-century America on the move, transforming the nation’s cuisine, culture, and landscape along the way. Author T. Lindsay Baker, a glutton for authenticity, drove the historic route—or at least the 85 percent that remains intact—in a four-cylinder 1930 Ford station wagon. Sparing us the dust and bumps, he takes us for a spin along Route 66, stopping to sample the fare at diners, supper clubs, and roadside stands and to describe how such venues came and went—even offering kitchen-tested recipes from historic eateries en route. Start-ups that became such American fast-food icons as McDonald’s, Dairy Queen, Steak ’n Shake, and Taco Bell feature alongside mom-and-pop diners with flocks of chickens out back and sit-down restaurants with heirloom menus. Food-and-drink establishments from speakeasies to drive-ins share the right-of-way with other attractions, accommodations, and challenges, from the Whoopee Auto Coaster in Lyons, Illinois, to the piles of “chat” (mining waste) in the Tri-State District of Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma, to the perils of driving old automobiles over the Jericho Gap in the Texas Panhandle or Sitgreaves Pass in western Arizona. Describing options for the wealthy and the not-so-well-heeled, from hotel dining rooms to ice cream stands, Baker also notes the particular travails African Americans faced at every turn, traveling Route 66 across the decades of segregation, legal and illegal. So grab your hat and your wallet (you’ll probably need cash) and come along for an enlightening trip down America’s memory lane—a westward tour through the nation’s heartland and history, with all the trimmings, via Route 66.