until I’d reached the Yukon river; fer-
rying across this mighty river was a
once and a life time feeling for me.
It brought together the thoughts of
how life would have been during the
gold rush era. On the other side, I’d
reached the end of the Top of the
World Highway in Dawson City, Yu-
kon.
After spending the night in this
historical gold rush town, touring the
houses of acclaimed author Jack Lon-
don and even completing the tradi-
tional toe shot, I’d woken refreshed,
but continued to have animosity to-
ward myself for tipping my bike over.
I believed that no serious motorcy-
clist would let that happen, that it was
a cardinal sin and I had broken it. I’d
tried to put it behind me, but it still
nagged at my thoughts as I’d stopped
off for petrol before departing south
on the Klondike Highway from Daw-
son City.
The Klondike Highway is a stretch
of road that parallels the route used
by the miners 100 years before. This
road allows the rider to grasp an un-
derstanding of the hardships those
early miners had had to endured to
reach the North in search of their
fortunes. The scenery from the vast
TRAVERSE 93
wilderness and mighty rivers of the
Yukon territory scenery, had left me
with a deep respect of those that have
travelled there.
While stopped at another petrol
station later in the day, I’d heard from
behind me, "They just let anyone into
this country, don't they?" I’d been sur-
prised to see the smiling face of Dan
and his black and white BMW GS.
Dan had been the rider who passed
me hours before my incident on the
Top of the World Highway. He no-
ticed my duct tape job and asked what
happened.
After recounting my tale, I was sur-