In our book, Yukon Winter, before Jackson drives to the Yukon to house sit, he researches everything. Jackson has anxiety and the more he can find out about something he has to do, the easier it is for him to cope. As we wrote, we imagined him spending several sleepless nights learning everything he can about his destination before being able to commit to the job. Knowing that he would arrive near the end of September he must have known he was driving toward the land of the midnight sun or all day dark, and yet, simply reading the words can never really prepare a person for the experience.
In Canada, the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and much of northern Quebec are above the 60th parallel of latitude. This is a vast, mostly remote region with unique geography, climate and culture that holds a distinct place in the Canadian Identity. And yet, as much as southern Canadians think of themselves as, “the true north,” we believe that Jackson, like most Canadians living along Canada’s southern border, had no idea what it would be like to live through a northern winter while the sun is on vacation somewhere else.
We hear lots about the glorious midnight sun. If you are far enough north, the summer days never end. There is a short time of dusk from 1am to 4am, enough that you would need to turn on a light to read but if you are outside, it is bright enough to see the faces of those you are walking with. We don’t hear as much about the great daytime dark, the time of year when the sun rises after noon and sets before four pm at least in Whitehorse. Further north, it is darker longer and when the sun rises, It’s a dusky light, not the full daylight we might expect.
When Lynn and her intrepid other half made their way to Whitehorse to live many years ago in the fall, I worried about Lynn who suffers from seasonal affective disorder, a mood disorder triggered by seasons with less light. Surprisingly, because they were prepared for it, she survived that first long dark really well. The trouble came when the sun got up and forgot to go back to bed. It takes careful management to get enough sleep when you are first exposed to all night sunlight. It is hard to go to bed, the sun is up, and you forget. After dinner, do the dishes, go for a walk, watch a movie, put the kids to bed and then you realize, it’s still full daylight and the kids aren’t sleeping. It’s a perfect time to go to the park where there are other families on the swing sets. And yet work hours don’t change so it takes very little time to become exhausted.
Have you ever experienced long, long days and even longer nights? What did you like the most about either? And what did you find the hardest?
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