Summer has finally arrived in Dawson. Yesterday the sun shone all day. Not a drop of rain and the smoke that filled the valley from fires in Alaska the day before has cleared. Today looks like another fine one on its way.
A German motorcyclist who was staying at the river hostel was hit by a car yesterday. I talked to two BMW 650 Dakar riders from Toronto who got off the ferry just behind him and saw everything. He got off the ferry a little too keen to pass a truck and tried doing so at an intersection. He either didn't see the truck's left turn signal or there wasn't one. I was sitting reading three-day-old news when the ambulance went screaming down Front St. Two EMT's later told me they'd taken him to Whitehorse in one piece. He may be flown to Vancouver for better care.
Dillon, a 21-year-old mountain biker I met last week at the river hostel who'd bicycled all the way up the Dempster to Inuvik from his home in Anchorage, Alaska, was hit by lightning on a high mountain pass en route back home. A bunch of travellers sat around the campfire one night before he left telling bear stories and shark stories and lightning stories. He said he's ridden in some pretty fierce lightning storms before and they scare the hell out of him. In the mountain passes you can be right in a storm cloud and lightning can hit the pavement all around. Apparently he's ok. Dieter, who owns the hostel said he was lucky. "Who can say they've been struck by lightning?" I wonder if that experience will be enough to scare him off future adventure. He was lamenting the fact that he no longer rode with his big brother because he'd gone off and gotten himself a girlfriend. Swore he'd never become "that..."
I finally met another woman travelling alone! Alice, from Victoria, 40, and running away from home. She thought she'd like to live here in Dawson for awhile, but it's not "doing it for her." She's on a search for a new place to live. She worked at the art gallery in Victoria, had a very nice life, but wants more. She ran away from Toronto five years ago... I told her we have something in common and asked her to meet me for coffee today. I've been feeling pretty alone out here on the last stop on the road with all these male adventurers running around the wilderness. The only women I see are in tour groups or with their husbands or boyfriends. Dieter said it's as if they can't make a decision for themselves. "What's wrong with North American women?" Good question. I think we're full of fear.
A German motorcyclist who was staying at the river hostel was hit by a car yesterday. I talked to two BMW 650 Dakar riders from Toronto who got off the ferry just behind him and saw everything. He got off the ferry a little too keen to pass a truck and tried doing so at an intersection. He either didn't see the truck's left turn signal or there wasn't one. I was sitting reading three-day-old news when the ambulance went screaming down Front St. Two EMT's later told me they'd taken him to Whitehorse in one piece. He may be flown to Vancouver for better care.
Dillon, a 21-year-old mountain biker I met last week at the river hostel who'd bicycled all the way up the Dempster to Inuvik from his home in Anchorage, Alaska, was hit by lightning on a high mountain pass en route back home. A bunch of travellers sat around the campfire one night before he left telling bear stories and shark stories and lightning stories. He said he's ridden in some pretty fierce lightning storms before and they scare the hell out of him. In the mountain passes you can be right in a storm cloud and lightning can hit the pavement all around. Apparently he's ok. Dieter, who owns the hostel said he was lucky. "Who can say they've been struck by lightning?" I wonder if that experience will be enough to scare him off future adventure. He was lamenting the fact that he no longer rode with his big brother because he'd gone off and gotten himself a girlfriend. Swore he'd never become "that..."
I finally met another woman travelling alone! Alice, from Victoria, 40, and running away from home. She thought she'd like to live here in Dawson for awhile, but it's not "doing it for her." She's on a search for a new place to live. She worked at the art gallery in Victoria, had a very nice life, but wants more. She ran away from Toronto five years ago... I told her we have something in common and asked her to meet me for coffee today. I've been feeling pretty alone out here on the last stop on the road with all these male adventurers running around the wilderness. The only women I see are in tour groups or with their husbands or boyfriends. Dieter said it's as if they can't make a decision for themselves. "What's wrong with North American women?" Good question. I think we're full of fear.
posted by Moira Nordholt | 10:15 AM
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