Better than Breadcrumbs

Yellowknife has an ambiguous attitude towards its trails: they're well publicized in all the pamphlets, but try and find the entry points and it's a game of hide and seek. Tonight I was determined to walk the trail at Range Lake, the one I couldn't find the other night.

I'd been told I could get on it behind the Shell station (such is the juxtaposition of commercialism and nature in this city). When I couldn't find the entry point, I wandered about the subdivisions around the lake and, by chance, found a path to the lake. As I climbed the boulders, these painted footprints appeared, clearly essential to navigating around the trail. But just as I made this discovery, it started to rain. The weather is even more changeable than in Nova Scotia: it can be sunny one minute and rain the next and back to sunny again.


Another phenom the north seems to share with the east is power outages. For no apparent reason the power went off while I was watching Northbeat, which is why I headed out on the walk. And, also like home, the Power Corp here is asking for rate increases. Some people in the communities pay a horrific amount for electricity. But that apparently doesn't stop them from frivolity.

On my way to the trail, I came across this Inukshuk, planted in a garden and all decked out for Christmas.




I lunched today with Harmen Meinders, the news producer here, and one of many King's grads at the station. We went to A Taste of Saigon, one of two Vietnamese restaurants in town. It has an extensive menu, from "Sliced Well Done and Sliced Rare Beef Noodle Soup" to "Steamed Rice with Fried Seasoned Quails". I had the Vermicelli with Charbroiled Lemongrass Chicken Breast and felt as though I was back in Halifax on one of my Let's Do Lunch ventures for Information Morning.