Skidoo Trip to Crow Flats

I was asked by a well regarded Elder in the community to go to Crow Flats. This is very much an honour, as this is the area that the Vuntut Gwitch'in (People of the Lakes) have been trapping and hunting at for thousands of years. Crow Flats is to Old Crow as the Eiffel Tower is to Paris. It is the place to go and see while in Old Crow. We went by skidoo on Saturday and it was one of my favourite days here yet.

Panoramic View of Crow Flats taken from King Edward Mountain

Crow Flats is a 6172km squared wetland surrounded by mountains. It is one of the oldest archaeological sites of human inhabitation in North America and consists of over 2000 ponds and marshes. It is considered an Important Bird Area in Yukon because it is a breeding area for peregrine falcons and allows a habitat for water fowl and other species of birds. Southern Crow Flats is a Special Management Area and the Northern part is a part of Vuntut National Park.

Crow Flats from King Edward Mountain

Crow Flats is a very important breeding area for aquatic mammals. Muskrats are the most commonly trapped mammal here. There is a guy from Montreal doing his Masters on muskrats in Crow Flats. He spends a lot of time in Crow Flats with local trappers doing his research. He is known in Old Crow as "Rat boy" (muskrat boy) or "That rat bastard."

As we stood beside the skidoo and overlooked Crow Flats, my friend who took me to Crow Flats told me they call Crow Flats "Old Crow Bank" because of how much money people used to make selling muskrat furs to the Hudson Bay Company during the fur trade. My friend has been going to Crow Flats since he was a kid. They used to use dog teams to take their equipment and they would walk. The trip would take 2 or 3 days. We got there in a few hours by skidoo.

Stunning mountain views amazed me the entire trip

Three skidoos and 5 people were on our trip to Crow Flats

Highlights of my trip to Crow Flats include:

-Seeing a gorgeous and healthy looking red fox run across a lake beside us.
-Making a snow angel on a lake in Crow Flats
-The Mountains we rode beside to get to Crow Flats
-Eating roasted corn on the cob at the fire we made in Crow Flats over lunch
-Being outside all day in the bright sunshine

Snow angels on a lake at Crow Flats

A friend of mine asked in an email about fruit availability in Old Crow. I eat mostly frozen fruit that comes in my food order from Whitehorse. I buy fresh bananas and apples from the Northern Store. When I was in Dawson I brought back as many fresh fruit as I could.

While I'm on the topic of fruit, I might as well mention my birthday. My birthday was a few weeks ago and a friend of mine here had a BBQ to celebrate. He BBQed steaks for people, we had prawns and I brought the ingredients for a sundae bar. If I couldn't have wine on my birthday, (Old Crow is a dry community if I haven't mentioned that yet) I was going to have to have ice cream with chocolate candy and fresh fruit as toppings. It was a really fun night and I felt lucky to have friends here to help me celebrate my birthday.

I'll post about caribou fences tomorrow. My class is doing an English Language Arts writing piece about them and they are quite fascinating to learn about.

Thanks for reading. Hope everyone is well and happy.

Warm Regards from Old Crow,

Haley