Here are a few items that have been bouncing around our heads as we ride…
Robert Service Poetry
We loved the introduction to Robert Service by the Parks Canada interpreters in Dawson City. His poems give the feel of the Yukon and roll off the tongue with flourish. You can read some of his poetry online, for example at RobertWService.com. One of the most famous is The Cremation of Sam McGee.
Percy the Mailman
In Dawson, we heard a fantastic story of a mailman named Percy who served for about 40 years delivering mail year-round in the far north. His route was from Dawson up and over to Eagle, AK, from around 1900 to the 1940s. Here is the story of when Percy got frozen to his sled…
He was dogsledding on the frozen Yukon river. Although the dogs were light and ran across some thin ice, his sled broke through. The sled fell in the water with him and his letters, becoming drenched. At the moment he was falling, he yelled “Mush!” and the dogs pulled the sled out of the water and on top of the ice. It was so cold that the water froze him to the sled – boots, legs, arms, and all. However, the dogs knew the way to the next town and just kept on running. When Percy arrived, the townsfolk cut through the ice to free him from his sled. He emerged from the ice unharmed!
Question Time
We’re a few weeks in now, and I imagine you may have some questions about our trip. Do you wonder about the big picture of where we’re heading? Or maybe the day-to-day things like how we do our dishes? Write your questions in the comments below, or via the Contact Us page, and we’ll answer some in a new post on our next rest day.
Fibonacci Sequence and Mi/Km
This one is really nerdy, so prepare yourself! … Now that we’re in Canada, and distances are in kilometers, we’ve been practicing and getting better at converting between miles and kilometers. I was a little bored one day, and decided to work out a few conversion points (rounded to nearest integer) to use as a reference: 1 mi = 2 km; 2 mi = 3 km; 3 mi = 5 km; 5 mi = 8 km; 8 mi = 13 km; 13 mi = 21 km; 21 mi = 34 km; 34 mi = 55 km; 55 mi = 89 km …
To this point, it happens to be the same as the Fibonacci Sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, … ! I think this is because the golden ratio (1.618…) and the mi to km conversion (1.609) are nearly identical. I will leave it to my math friends to argue any other points.