TRAVERSE 99
Naturally, I had lashed it, lovingly, I thought, to my backpack containing my camera gear, what place could be more safe little more of being stashed in a panier of the Yamaha Tenere 700 I was riding.
The Tenere is a machine built for adventure: tall, sturdy, powerful. Exactly the kind of motorcycle you want between you and a rogue caribou. But as it turns out, all the horsepower in the world couldn’ t stop a cap from hurling itself into the Yukon wilderness in a moment of existential defiance.
It happened shortly after leaving Eagle Plains, that lonely dot on the map that pretends to be a settlement but is really just a fuel pump with delusions of grandeur. I was heading north, full of optimism and instant coffee, riding past the endless tapestry of spruce and permafrost, when a gust of wind, Yukon-strength,
TRAVERSE 99