Editor's note: Fernie Ghostrider forward Matty MacDonald was unable to play in the Jan. 19th and 20th Ghostrider versus Creston Valley Thunder Cats games that happened in Whitehorse, due to injury but wrote this journal of the trip.

It started as a regular road trip after a win versus Creston at home on Friday, Jan. 15. We hopped on the bus the next morning and were on our way to Revelstoke, B.C. and Sicamous, B.C. for two of the biggest games of the year.

The boys battled hard both games and we earned two character wins, one against Revelstoke in overtime and versus Sicamous with ten minutes left.

This is when our routine became anything but normal as we drove to Calgary to hop on a plane to the great white North, en route to Whitehorse, Yukon.

It was a fun flight highlighted by Scott Anderson and his first time on an airplane. I'm sure at 20-years-old he felt much younger than his years.

Creston also joined us on the plane and luckily what happened on the ice stayed on the ice.

We were greeted at the airport by our new billets for the few days we were there, since none of us had ever been to Whitehorse we really didn't know what to expect!

We found out quickly that even though there seems to be a strong hockey following there just wasn't a competitive team for young players looking to play after midget.

Having younger boys and girls watch us play got them inspired to play to the next level and be able to have this league or any other in Canada as an option.

There was a very warm welcome for both teams as we took the ice, but since Creston had some hometown players they had most fans on their side.

I knew it was going to be a long game when they scored first shift and our jet legs were slowing us down.

Creston played up and we seemed to lose every battle. For me, no game is fun to watch. I would much rather be playing but this one was especially hard to handle as we dropped it 6-3.

It was tough to get any organized team activities going due to transportation and time constraints but we made the most of our time. The second day we got the chance to talk to some future hockey stars and hang with a Grade 6 class for the morning.

Zach Fridella, Jason Greenwell and I enjoyed our chance to talk about our daily life and get to hear a bit about theirs as we followed them through their classes including ukuleles in music, vocabulary in French and (not my finest) math class.

That evening we played our second match against Creston in as many days and our fifth in six days so as you can imagine we were a tired group!

There was another supportive crowd with a nice Riders cheering section led by Mrs. Hawryluk (mom of Ghostrider twins Brendan and Bond) and family which kept the guys going.

The game was much easier to watch as we took the win in a back and forth game that everybody was happy to finish and get on a plane home.

The trip was an overall success and was enjoyed by all, but it was nice to get back to the comfort of our own bed, home cooking and most of all our home crowd!

Submitted by Rebecca Edwards, The Fernie Free Press. Written by Matty MacDonald, from the Fernie Ghostriders.