After six long days on the road we finally arrived in Burwash Landing. 

It was a hard ride that took us through no-mans land as the weather alternated from rain to sunshine. Clara saw one grizzly during the ride but it ran off before the horses and I arrived. 

“He was a pretty big one… ran across the road and up that hill,” she told me during lunch. 

We arrived in the small town of 72 residents Sunday afternoon. The local museum was still open and Clara went to ask if there were any horse people in town. She received a no, so we found a small dirt road and camped for the night. 

The following morning, Clara drove to the local gas station and restaurant to buy a coffee for us and fill up the motorhome with water and gasoline. While she chatted with the clerk about what we were doing, our luck changed.

“Oh my god my best friend has horses… she has a corral just 8 kilometers from here, let me call her,” said Anita Dansereau. 

By the time Clara arrived back to where we were camped with the coffees, we had a place to rest our ponies. 

“I met this amazing woman who has a friend with horses halfway to Destruction Bay,” Clara said with a big smile.

I could hardly believe it. 

Louisette Boudreau and her husband Luke Johnson, a member of the Kluane First Nation, hosted our horses for three days at their stunning ranch. Luke, an avid trapper and horseman, showed me his many pelts, from massive grizzlies to tiny gophers, and explained some of his people’s hunting techniques.

“Sometimes we have to set up 100 snares to catch a single wolf,” said Johnson during a tour of his tanning shed.

We can’t thank Luke and Louisette enough for their generosity. They gave us hay for our horses, two hoodies from Louisette’s brand “Yukon Tough,” and invited us to their summer solstice party. 

“Thank you for hosting the ponies and us here at your ranch,” I said to Louisette during the party that never seemed to end.