TRAVERSE Issue 49 - August 2025 | Page 95

who camped on the tundra during a windstorm and used her bike as a makeshift tent anchor. The couple who dropped their BMW in a bog and dug it out with a camp plate and a broken snowshoe.
No one talked about bears. Everyone talked about bugs. And everyone listened when the guy from a land where every single insect is designed to kill humans spoke of his encounter with the black plague of the North.
They say adventure leaves a mark. Sometimes it’ s a scar. Sometimes it’ s a tattoo. On the Dempster, it’ s a constellation of mosquito bites and a sudden, inexplicable knowledge of how to use a Buff as both a head