From a road trip Dec 08: bonfires along the Klondike Highway between Dawson City and Whitehorse prove that deep-cold temperatures still can’t kill a fire when the fire has enough fuel. The ice on the car windows before we left chilled my fingers and I wasn’t expecting to see massive flames anywhere along the frozen road, but this is what we saw for what seemed to be roughly 8 – 10 kilometres:
Trees are culled from the side of the road to create a break in case of forest fires raging through the area (and forest fires are pretty much an annual occurrence in the Yukon, this year being no exception).
The temp was -20 C; the highway surface was packed snow; ice clamped down every lake and river we passed. All food items in the back of the car froze during the drive, though we were warm in the front. We considered stopping the car to use one of the fires as a cookstove, but frankly, the flames were too high and eyebrows considered too precious.
meg walker 