12 - Into the Wired
A website brings Yukon bloggers out of the wilderness.
I knew Michael Pealow long before I ever met him.
I knew he had a sense of adventure. I knew he had a sense of humour. Among other things, I also knew that my wife had treated his daughter late one night in the emergency room at Whitehorse General. After I surprised my wife with this last fact, I was forced to explain: I’d read about their interaction on Pealow’s engaging blog, Michael’s Meanderings.
When my wife mentioned my name the next time she encountered Pealow, he closed the circle by asking her “How did your kitchen reno turn out?”
And so, my wife finally discovered that, thanks to my own short-lived attempt to write a personal weblog, Pealow sort of knew me, too.
Chances are, Pealow and I never would have met—online at first, later in person—had it not been for Urban Yukon. If you think of Yukon bloggers as rugged individualists holed up in isolated “blog” cabins, publishing their ideas to the vast wilderness of the Internet, then the website at urbanyukon.com is the welcome road that finally connected them.
Before he launched the site in 2006, 34-year-old Whitehorse software designer Geof Harries knew three Yukoners—all fellow techies—who wrote blogs.
“I thought ‘Well, there’s got to be more than that,’” he recalls.
What began as a personal search to see what other Yukoners were saying online eventually grew into the website that now publishes feeds from 50 authentic Yukon-related blogs.
“I really wanted to expose opinions about happenings and social events and news, and centralize it for people,” Harries explains. “It gives you a window into casual conversations—a different look into the Yukon versus the traditional news outlets. It’s real people talking.”
Yukoners who share Harries’ curiosity account for about half of the site’s 25,000 annual visits. The rest come from all around the world.
“Another big draw is lifestyle,” Harries observes. “People use the site to find out what the Yukon lifestyle is like.”
That’s certainly one of the reasons why people visit Pealow’s blog, which the 31-year-old business and economic development consultant began to write in 2005 as a way to keep his distant family and friends informed about his northern adventures. His wife, Fawn Fritzen, is also a blogger.
“People like learning about life in the North,” he says. “Especially people from southern Canada, some of whom have told us it’s nothing like they expected.”
With one or two clicks of the mouse, visitors to Urban Yukon can also enter the chaotic world of a northern dog yard; keep tabs on the mayor of Dawson City; reel in some local fishing advice; explore the North through the words and photos of a real-life Yukon tour guide; or, laugh at the experiences of an “AverageMom” whose online handle does no justice to her wry humour and exceptional writing.
And that’s just for starters.
Not surprisingly, Harries is himself a blogger, writing about technology and business. He’s also an avid mountain biker, with plans to launch another blog related to this passion. The rest of the time, he’s an active reader and unofficial community cheerleader who counts a familiar name among his favourite Yukon bloggers.
“Michael Pealow’s blog—I look at that and feel slightly envious because he seems like Mr. Adventure and his photography’s pretty awesome in terms of the places he goes and things he sees,” Harries says.
And when Pealow discusses how Urban Yukon has not only boosted his blog’s exposure, but also introduced him to a community of like-minded Yukoners, I am reminded of the beginning of this story.
“In some cases, it’s like following a soap opera,” Pealow says. “Only the people are real.”
First published in the November/December 2008 issue of above&beyond magazine. Photo by Jesse Devost.
