Time to Move on

Saturday, July 6, 2019

Over breakfast we talk about climbing the Midnight Dome in town. But the sun is hot and getting hotter. We look at other choices. “Let’s just leave.”

We cancel hotel, get tickets on the Husky bus, pack and walk down to the bus office. By noon we’re headed for Whitehorse. Eighteen people on a twenty passenger bus. The road is paved but you wouldn’t know it, as we bumped down the road.

Dwarfed and twisted trees, their roots encased in permafrost, line the roadway and march off into the distance. Tiny tributaries eagerly pour their life into the mighty Yukon which grows by the mile.

I feel assaulted by this fast pace. We don’t lift a finger to propel down this hard unwelcoming surface.

There are no shoulders. Edges of pavement blurred by brazen plants encroaching on the earth that once belonged to them. The open window tunnel in hot, smoky air. We see a large billow of one of the fires off in a the distance, yet too near. Fireweed, Yukon’s territorial plant, blooms pink.

It seems the same at this pace. It could be in Florida or Maryland. Endless roads and gravel does feel quite right. Humans should ambulate under their own volition.

We started a conversation with two men, Carl and Toby who are just off the river. They are from England. They are both in the security business and met in Dubai where they both lived. They had been in the special forces in the military and now were using those skills.

They came to paddle the Yukon because of friends, one of whom has some celebrity. Their friends were raising money for PTSD by doing the entire length of the Yukon. They began by hiking the Chilkoot.

Ah ha, we remembered them. Dressed in black, both marched along at a speedy pace, not slowing for conversation with slower hikers., passing us near the summit. Left, right, left….. and they were gone. The next day at trail’s end on Bennett Lake, they switched to kayaks and started paddling. We know this because two 12 year old girls were carrying their packs, minus most of the gear to, to the train station where we were waiting. Later, from our chugging train, we spotted them on Bennett Lake at the ‘Entering Yukon Territory’ sign.