Instead of nicely groomed double wide trails where everyone can nicely pass everyone else, we have barely single wide trails that if you’re not careful will bounce you right off you snowmobile. We also don’t have endless amounts of fields to use, we have lakes but we need to first get to those lakes. And unlike almost anywhere south of Yellowknife (or rather the NWT) we can drive our snowmobiles on the city roads (except for one part).

Our trails are groomed and cared for, they have been forged through the bush from decades of use. There are unwritten rules that snowmobilers follow when in the city. Things like don’t break a new trail and move to the side if you can to let someone pass. Of course there are speed limits in town, where aren’t there.

I guess I just wanted to show that snowmobiling in and around Yellowknife isn’t a manufactured activity. It was born from the roots of hunters, fishermen and trappers and we adopted it. It’s awesome. Lake are our highways and trails are our streets.

This is just a quick video to give you a small idea about what snowmobiling around Yellowknife is like.

This was one of my hang-ups living in Fort St. John, I didn’t get out in the woods much. It could have been for several reasons: I didn’t know where to go, there wasn’t a place to go, no one to go with or maybe I just had a general lack of ambition to do so down there. None of those are a problem here in the Northwest Territories. It is my domain, where I grew up, what I know.

There is not just one cabin I could go use, there is 3, all on different lakes spread out outside of Yellowknife. Even though my snowmobile broke earlier this year I have friends who lend me theirs. I’m never without access to the great outdoors and the ambition is there.

Hidden Lake is one of my favourite places to escape to because there is no contact with the outside world. In other words no cell phone service. The cabin itself is well setup with a propane furnaces that doesn’t require any maintenance other than changing out the bottles. Even then three 100lb bottles hooked up into the system allow it to go for several weekends without needing to be changed.

The cabin is located on a ridge of rock at one end of this lake and even though I have gone to this cabin now for almost ten years I finally climbed the ridge this winter. Check out the view:

While there is a lot of time for good R&R we do get some work and maintenance around the cabin done. This past trips project was to get some scrap wood out from behind the outhouse so we could have a bonfire. While I was cutting a trail in towards the outhouse I got the snowmobile stuck – this in no way reflects the performance of the snowmobile, just the driver – so we had to cut it out.

It did eventually drive right out of there once we cut out the brush that was wrapped around the skis.

Moving on to a more recreational activity, no winter outing at a cabin in the Northwest Territories would be complete without some Ice Fishing and Hidden Lake offers some of the best. Ciscos are often a good choice for bait when Ice Fishing and sure enough out of our three holes we caught a Lake Trout.

Finally of course would be the Northern Lights or Aurora. Getting out of Yellowknife with all its light pollution generally means the aurora will be good and sure enough – when I was actually awake – they were.

So without to much talking here are some photos I took from my drive from Fort St. John to Yellowknife.

I must first say my mother’s Jams are well known in this town. I have never seen a product sell so fast at craft sale and had so many people come up to be saying how much they wanted it and have been waiting. It is funny how after doing craft sales in Yellowknife for 15 years she has really grown a name for herself as the Jam Lady. Each year it seems she makes more and more, different types and more variety, and each year it seems to sell quicker and quicker. I mustn’t forget to mention she also sells out at garage sales throughout the summer. I have been trying to convince her to open an online store or at least take orders.

Now on to the rest of the folks there. There are some really creative people in this town. More jams, baking, knitting, art, painting, etc. It is cool to see and I’m proud.

Why Fort Nelson, well becuase the BC Oil and Gas Conference is happening here right now. See here is a picture!

I do have to tell you the story of the Bull Elk you see below. You see he was basically sitting in our campsite when we got up in one morning, along with some female elk and calves. My mom saw the calves, but not the bull, while I saw the bull. We both quickly scrambled to get our camera, I going for the bull, my mother for the calves. She started towards the calves, slowly and not to close, but as she did she unknowingly was getting closer to the bull. I didn’t realize she didn’t see the bull – there were tree and different angles, etc – and when I said “whoa mom, that is close enough” she realized what was beside her. Well apparently so did the protective bull. As we quickly stepped back to give it space, he worked his way to his up and then started charging every other camper, vehicle and dog that would go near his females. Now, if this were anywhere else I would have moved on, but since it was practically in our campsite and were breaking camp we stayed. They moved away from us, but they could still be seen.

This is my odd experience with this bull elk. The wolf was also neat to see, but I was trying to drive and shoot at the same time.

From a photography stand point, I would do many different things better – like getting out of the vehicle. The bull elk was the only one I could “choose” my location and even now looking at it, I should have lined it up better.

Last September I went through Jasper by my self on my mini get away. Then in December I was introduced to Jasper in the winter, which I must admit was pretty cool, although I’m not much for Skiing or Snowboarding.

Anyways, tomorrow I will be getting into Jasper once again and this time I am very excited because this trip was planned specifically for Jasper. I hope to do lots of hiking, biking, touring the town and heading up the tram for old times sake.

I’m not sure how much I will be able to blog about it while actually there, but check back and check photos.kylewith.com.

I think space may have something to do with it. There are so many lakes around Yellowknife, it is easy to escape everyone else. Sure you may come across another boat in your favourite fishing spot, but if you go a bay over you will still catch amazing fish. There is nothing like it.

My time in Yellowknife this summer was short, about a week. I’ll miss it, but I was able to get out on the Lake once. Here are some photos of the afternoon.

The weather was really nice for most of the trip expect for in Enterprise where it was raining and there between Fort Providence and Rae where it was smokey.

What should I search for next.