Hello all, We have arrived back at home. We left Jacques and Magali's on Friday morning. It was great to get a visit with them albeit it was too brief, but we will take what we can get! After a brief stop in Fairbanks, we hit the road in earnest. The day was a gorgeous sunny blue sky day. The landscape was typically Alaskan, large snowcapped peaks overlooking valleys with cabins of every shape and size fabricated out of a little bit of everything. More often than not the cabins are rarely seen, only a mailbox out on the road showing that there is one somewhere near. There was not much traffic on the road. Our first destination was the town of Tok. We had planned to meet up with friends John, Mari, and Katie Woods to pick up any of Warren's belongings that had been brought back from the trail as they were going to Tok for a race this weekend. We arrived in Tok shortly before them and had time to drop the dogs. We had a quick bite to eat with them and we were off again. It has been really fun getting to know the Woods more through this trip, they are really good people and have great stories! We continued on until late in the evening, crossing the border uneventfully and making it a few hundred kilometers into Canada before retiring to our cozy camper. Warren was still feeling really sick so I dropped dogs alone in the full moonlight. The night was quite magical. Where we stopped had magestic large mountains behind us and the wind was softly blowing with only a few clouds in the night sky. The dogs were all in playful moods. The next morning was cooler, grey with a light snowfall and we were all anxious to get going. The road along Destruction Bay is infamous as the part of the Alcan highway that is the most bumpy and full of broken down vehicles. We happily had no vehicle trouble but did ride out many a bump. The scenery was dramatic, especially with the inclement weather. We spotted a few caribou here and there but no moose or mountain sheep as we had been warned about. I drove most of the day as Warren slept in the back seat. Lena was happily riding shotgun with me watching the miles go by out the window. She quite enjoys riding in the front of the truck. Her leg is healing well but she will be on limited movement for a few weeks yet. The thing we have to do is not let her jump on her leg and she is an infamous house jumper, on off on off on off etc, so this will be a bit of a challenge for her. She is resting comfortably in her kennel in the house as I write. The weather cleared as we got closer to Whitehorse and we were traveling well. We made it to the Liard Hot Springs around 8 pm and of course had to stop for a quick soak which was good for the body and the mind. After the soak we continued on for a bit before calling it a night. We found a good pullout and found it had also been discovered by a father and his two kids traveling with their three horses. They had set up a portable paddock for the horses along the side of their trailer which we thought was pretty cool. They in turn thought that traveling with our dogs was pretty cool too. In the morning they were kind enough to put the horses back into their trailer so we could drop the dogs at that spot rather than having to go and find a new spot. After dropping we hit the road again. Traveling with dogs is a series of the same steps done over and over- drive, stop, drop dogs, move things around in the trailer to get everyone out, finish, put it all away, get the dogs back in their spots, clean up everywhere around the trailer and get driving again. We develop a system for doing it all and don't have to talk much as we go through our steps. We loose drop the dogs most of the time which means we let them out of their boxes and let them move around freely as they do their business. We prefer this to the more traditional drop where the dogs are attached to the trailer. Obviously, there are times that for the safety of the dogs we have to do a traditional drop but whenever we can we will loose drop. It gives the dogs more opportunity to stretch their legs and play abit; it is more fun for us as well. We stopped at the Toad River Lodge for breakfast on our way out of the valley. The lodge is the center for a community of about 75 people and they are always welcoming to the weary traveler. Wildlife was still pretty scarce on the morning's drive but in the afternoon I was lucky enough to see two coyotes and later in the day when we were on the Liard Highway we saw two lynx, a notoriously shy creature. One stopped after we passed and stared at our setup, looking very intensely at us. I longed to stop and take photos of him but knew that if we slowed down he would be gone before I even had the lens cap off so it will remain a memory shot. For those of you who have not traveled the Liard Highway...it is a long mostly one way road with not much to see. It goes on and on and on...I think you get my drift...there wasn't much excitement to Sunday's drive. Warren was resting most of the way so I was alone with the wandering mind of a driver wondering about how our thoughts go from one thing to the next in such a random fashion. Finally we hit Providence at about 9pm, It had been a long day already but we were now only 3 hours from home. Warren took over the driving from here and I was happy to hand over the reins. But as expected, the last few hours of the trip felt like days but we finally made it to Yellowknife just after midnight. We stopped at a large parking area near the local arena to drop the dogs one more time before getting home. By doing this we were able to leave the dogs in the trailer overnight as we knew we would need to get spots ready for them in the dog yard by moving around the dogs that were here. We had hoped to come in quietly and not awaken the neighborhood but the dogs had other ideas. They were needless to say very happy we were home and voiced their excitement. We were hoping that after the initial excitement they would settle down but two loose dogs later they were still going strong. After I got Hurricane and Hawkeye back in their spots I took the time for a quick hello to all those in the yard under the full moon and the dancing aurora borealis. As exhausted as I felt it was also exhilerating to be back in the dog yard with my buddies. They are incredibly hyper and I am looking forward to getting running with them in the days to come. Happily the weather here has warmed up. Bette and Sam were waiting up for us when we arrived so we had a quick visit with them before we all retired. Unfortunately they are both quite sick. The little guys were sound asleep when we arrived and amazingly slept through all the excitement. We had a great day with everyone yesterday as the kids were still on their spring holidays. Peter, Jesse and I as the only healthy ones in the lot here went sledding and enjoyed the beautiful day as the others rested and visited in the living room. The later part of the afternoon was spent playing card games. After an enjoyable dinner we dyed our easter eggs and all retired fairly early. The kids are now back in school, save Sam who is in bed sick still, and we are going to start getting back into the swing of things here. The dogs are loudly awaiting our arrival outside as I write so I am going to go and heed their call. Have a beautiful day everyone! Kate