How I Ended Up In The Yukon.


I grew up in Germany, south of the Black Forest close to the Swiss border.

After finishing school I did an apprenticeship as a carpenter, which was pretty unusual for a girl. Because of the lack of work after my apprenticeship I decided to study architecture. However, it is pretty hard for me not to do anything so I did not last to long, I just needed the physical work and decided to fulfill a childhood dream and go to Canada.
My plan was to travel around for a while and to find a place I like where I could work as a carpenter.

My first destination was Vancouver and then Whistler. I experienced Whistler for eight months and did something completely different; I was working at a front desk of a hotel. It was a great experience and it helped to improve my English a lot, unfortunately though Whistler is too unreal for me and it just wasn’t what I wanted to do or where I wanted to be.
My next destination was the Yukon. I had an arrangement with a Horse farm in the Yukon that I would build some Bunkhouses for them and they would teach me how to train horses.
I told the owner of the farm that I would be in the Yukon on the 5th of May and that I would bring a friend with me who would stay for a couple of weeks.

After three days on the Greyhound I arrived in Whitehorse at 4:30 in the morning. We did not want to disturb the owners of the farm that early in the day, so I wrote an email before we left Whistler to let them know at what time we will arrive and I received an email that we can call on their cell all day long.
After four more hours at Tim Horton’s my friend Rosi called the farm to let them know that we arrived and they told her that they won’t need any help anymore but they have a second farm in Carcross and they might need some kitchen help.
Not exactly what I was coming up here for so I said no and Rosi stayed with me.

Hmm… OK what are we going to do now? Well, first we went to the Alpine Bakery and had a real breakfast to set us up for an uncertain day.

Full of good bread and real hot chocolate we made our way to the library to find out if we could go to another farm or family to help out and experience the northern lifestyle.
Spread out in the lobby with all our luggage and unfolded map we caught the attention of Jean Francois Latour. We started talking and told him about our dilemma and he was immediately helpful and offered for us to stay at his place until we found somewhere to go. (Not sure if it had something to do with that or that we were two young women and he is FrenchJ)
He picked us up an hour later and told us on the way to his house that he already called some friends to ask if they would need any help. One of the places he called was Frank Turner’s place but he was not at home so he left a message.

We settled in pretty quick at JF Latour’s home and had a lot of fun with his kids. He was cooking moose spaghetti for us and we almost forgot that we still had no place to go.
Later on that evening Anne, Franks wife, called and she felt so sorry for us and told us that we could come to there place even though they were full. We agreed that JF Latour would bring us out the next morning.

JF told us that Frank is a really famous musher. I never heard about Frank Turner before and I had no Idea what mushing meant. JF mentioned that Frank had over 100 dogs and, for whatever reason, I believed he was talking about ducks! Did you ever hear a French guy say the word dogs? For me it sounded like ducks so I believed I would go to a duck farm.
After a good nights rest we started our half hour drive to Muktuk. And I was quite surprised when I saw all the dogs once we went around the last bend.

I remember as if it was yesterday all the dogs running towards us as soon as we left the car, especially a little brown one who was barking the most and then running away as soon as you came to close. “You can’t touch her” a girl told me “she is to shy” Her name was Maude and she became one of my first cabin dogs.

Now I know that all the loose dogs who were greeting me so warmly the day I arrived were the retired dogs, Frank keeps all of his dogs regardless of age or health. Now I certainly know Frank and I know what a musher is - I am one of them now! And I learned and I am still learning from one of the best. Frank Turner.

I am here at Muktuk now since May 2006 and I can’t even remember doing anything else. I built two additions to the Main House, helped with the addition to one of the cabins and still have a lot of finishing work to do and I have all the dogs to care for!

I would say I have a perfect life.

A new challenge is the racing now.
I already signed up for the Yukon Quest 300 and I would like to do some more mid-distance races to be as prepared as possible for the 2010 Yukon Quest, the 1000 mile sled dog race.