On Two Wheels

from What's Up Yukon, July 20, 2022

Seasonal Recipes

Jessica Surber loves being in the mountains, working with plants and exploring all that lies beyond her comfort zone. She divides her time between Peru and the Yukon.

MINDFULNESS ON TWO WHEELS

It’s early morning but the sun is already up and shining low through the trees

Ipush my bike out of the garage, close the door and get on. I feel the breeze on my face as I begin to move, a bit chilly, still, but I know that soon I’ll be grateful for it. The sound of robins, sparrows and dark-eyed juncos fi ll the morning silence. The mosquitos haven’t gotten up yet, but even if they were around, they wouldn’t be able to catch me.

I speed down the fi rst hill, my squeaky brakes letting any fellow early risers of the four-legged variety know that I’m coming. The last few faded crocuses line the trail and the lupins are in full bloom, their purple-and-white fl owers reaching like spires towards the cloudless summer sky. I accelerate around a corner and I feel like a kid. A smile spreads across my face. A spruce grouse fl ies up out of the bush and into a tree. If it wouldn’t have fl own off, I wouldn’t have even known it was

Arctic lupine and my “meditation pillow” on wheels

PHOTO: Jessica Surber

there. I glimpse a spot of pink—calypso orchids. Usually I would stop and kneel down to drink in their sweet scent, but I continue on today. I try to even out my breath; in and out, in and out.

The sun is higher now and sweat forms on my brow. It feels good and like a reminder that I’m alive. I feel grateful for my body and for what it allows me to do. I don’t care what I look like; no one can see me here anyway. I pick up speed along a fl at, open stretch, dragonfl ies gliding alongside me for a while, and I’m free. The forest is warming up, and the smell of the pines and the spruce and the forest fl oor is getting stronger, especially in the sunny patches. I pop a spruce tip into my mouth. Its citrusy, tangy taste lingers on my tongue. In a few weeks I’ll be enjoying wild strawberries as a morning snack, instead. A squirrel darts across the trail and screeches at me from its perch high up on a tree branch. I marvel at the range of sounds an animal so small can make, as I pedal on.

I start to go through my to-do list, in my head, working through all of the things I’ll need to do later. I wonder what time it is. Pressure starts to build in my chest as I start mentally planning my day. The trail gets steeper and I’m brought back into the moment, my sore muscles reminding me of the present and pulling me out of my thoughts. I focus on the movement of my legs and the air getting pulled into my lungs, and I relax again.

A shadow passes over me and I look up just as a raven disappears behind a canopy of poplar leaves. We seem to be heading in the same direction. I’m nearing home now and a part of me would like to just keep going, like the raven above me. I see the fi rst wild roses blooming, as I pull into the driveway, and I’m already looking forward to tomorrow’s ride. n

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Hotel Carmacks and Tatchun Centre

Moves On To New Ownership

A Farewell from Kendell Tricker And Family

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the Village of Carmacks and Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation, and truly all Yukoners, both Sourdoughs and Cheechakos, and so many others from far and wide, who have given me the opportunity to supply them with goods and services over the past 22 years of my ownership of Hotel Carmacks and Tatchun Centre

General Store & Gas Bar. It has been an honor and a privilege to have had such great customers over the years, who have supported and helped to grow the business and make it a landmark in our community of Carmacks, and truly the Yukon as a whole.

I am thrilled to have achieved a sale that I believe will benefit not only me, but my valued employees whom I leave behind with new management, both those that are more recent hires and those that have truly been my rocks. I certainly could not have made it this far without them all, nor those that have come and gone before them. Thank you so much for all you have done.

As I look forward to retirement and a new chapter in my life, and that of my family, I also look back and realize the bittersweetness of this sale as it brings about the end of a 51 year long family business era in the community of Carmacks and the greater Yukon community.

With a transition to a business operated by a joint venture between the largest hospitality company in Yukon and the local First Nation Development Corporation, the combined business acumen, expertise, resources, and the many growth opportunities possible that this partnership brings to the table will undoubtedly bring many positive changes and opportunities for the business, the staff, and the community alike that could likely otherwise not be achieved. I have no doubt that I am leaving not only my business and staff, but the whole community, and my customers across the Yukon in the best hands I could. I believe this transition will be very positive for all of us.

Goodbye to all my customers, staff, and friends made along the way. I have many memories to carry with me and to share in the coming years. Also, I share my best wishes to the incoming owners and new General Manager Dikran Zabunyan for prosperous times that will see continued growth and reinvestment into the community that my family has called home for so very long. It is a new era which I hope will be well received by all.