No internet at Whitehorse General Hospital...

Cleaning the ambulance for me.

At the Dawson Health Clinic emergency center before being transfered via emergency medivac airplane to Whitehorse General Hospital at 1AM.

At the Dawson Health Clinic emergency center before being transfered via emergency medivac airplane to Whitehorse General Hospital at 1AM.

At the Whitehorse General Hospital

Well, the Dempster claims another victim.

I left Inuvik, NWT., 30 min after publishing my last blog with the plan to do the 400 km south to Eagle Plains, the half way point to Dawson City, where I would spend the nite. It was a beautiful ride in beautiful weather preceeded by a day of rain. As usual there were a number of slippery sections which caused the beast to fishtail, and as usual, with 3 or 4 counter steers, it was easy to regain control...except for the last one. In the blink of an eye, I was sideways and suddenly flipped over the high side of the bike causing me to be thrown violently to the road landing on my Nikon which was strapped around my neck, and then the beast bounced on my back before doing another flip and then landing in the ditch.

With difficulty I was able to get to my feet and off to the side of the road. It was incredibly difficult...and painful... to breath, which I figured was a result of being winded as well as suffering a cracked rib or two.

I proceeded to pick up a number of my personal items strewn over the Dempster as a result of one of my bomb proof aluminum cases being torn open.

10 min later, the first pickup heading north stops to help me out. We tie a rope to the beast's wheel, and with his pickup, he drags it to the road, but it's still too heavy to get upright until 3 more cars stop, and the men help stand the bike up. I learn I am still 110 km north of Eagle Plains, when another southbound car stops with Phillys and Sharon from the EP Hotel. They recognize me from my stay there during my northbound leg 3 days ago, and offer to drive me with my belongings to the hotel. They inform me there's a construction camp 3 km south of where we were, and if I could ride, they would follow me, and I would leave the beast there. The moto started despite rolling over 3-4 times, no mirrors, a smashed headlight, a vaporized windshield, the "instrument cluster" hanging by the wires, and the wheels packed with mud and sand. After an angonizing 15 min ride, I left the beast at the James Creek camp and rode the rest of the way to the EP Hotel, arriving there around 7 pm on Sunday.

My breathing was still very difficult and it was impossible do speak more than a few words without having to take another breath, not to mention the searing pain across my left chest and back.

The next morning, Monday, I called the Dawson Health Center to arrange a visit...but how to get there...it was a 12 hour round trip by ambulance! Walker, the nurse there, figured out a solution. He arranged to have a Yukon Government pickup truck drive me south, while he dispatched an ambulance northbound and we would meet half way. I would be transfered to the ambulance, for the rest of the trip to the DHC, where I arrived around 7 pm, fortified with copious quantities of nitrous oxide (laughing gas).

After the xrays, the true damage was revealed... 4-5 fractured ribs, with one sufficiently splintered to have punctured my left lung...missing my heart by centimeters. This caused a collapse of the lung, as well a significant laceration and bleeding of the surrounding tissues.

It was important to remove this blood and fluid from my chest cavity by the insertion of a 1 inch tube forced into my chest cavity through the lats, and between 2 ribs. This was quite a painful ordeal despite only local freezing.

The DHC insisted I be transfered via emergency air medivac to the Whitehorse General Hospital, 600 km away, for close observation, and a CT scan. Around midnight, through a rain storm, I was ambulanced the 40 km to the Dawson airport, where I was met by a medical airplane for a flight to Whitehorse, where I was met on the tarmac in the rain at 2 pm, for the ambulance ride to the WGH.

On arriving at the hospital, I was immediatly given a ct scan, and only when my condition was stable, was I assigned a room.

The plan was to stay at the WGH until no more blood was draining from my chest tube, which would signify the mending of the lung and surrounding tissues. This was a waiting game, as there is no real treatment for this.

Last nite, Sunday, the chest tube was finally removed, and I was discharged this morning. Tonite I'm at the BestWestern in Whitehorse, from where I leave early tomorrow by rented SUV to make my way to Dawson City, and hopefully continue on the Dempster to Eagle Plains, where with the help of Stan, the general mgr., will arrange the shipment of the beast to MotoInter in Montreal, along with much of my no longer needed baggage.

Since I'm not allowed to fly before 10 days. I will make my way to Montreal Via the "Marine Highway", using the Alaska and B.C. Ferries, from Scagway to Vancouver, where I will take the train to Mtl.

This should get me home by mid Sept.

Stay tuned...

Day 2 in Inuvik, NT.

This is the land of the Midnight sun...late June and early July, as well as 24 hours of darkness, late Dec. to early Jan.

Last nite the sun set at 11:32 AM, and I was able to read on my balcony until almost 12:30 AM.

To get here there is only one dirt/gravel 766 km. road that runs north from Dawson City, Yukon, through the Artic Circle, into the Northwest Territories and at the end of the road is Inuvik, NT. Did I mention that the Demster crosses two big rivers, the Peel River, and the Mackenzie River, where the only way across is by ferry ?

There's no great time to take this road on a motorcycle...but dry is best, even though the huge 18+ wheelers that speed along kick up so much dust that u drive blind for 15-20 seconds, not to mention the huge rocks they kick up.

Then there are the sections that are constantly being graded by these huge graders/tractors where you suddenly find yourself on a 5 cm. bed of soft gravel where it takes all your skills to not end up going sideways and flipping over.

And finally there are the damp and wet sections, either from natural springs or recent rain that are the worst because here the dirt, clay, and gravel mixture turns to a greasy, slippery mud with deep ruts from the heavy trucks. All you do here is hold on for dear life and hope u don't go down.

On the way up I passed a number of cars that chickend out and turned back.

I leave Inuvik tomorrow, Sunday morning, for the 2 day drive down the Dempster to Dawson City, YK...I'm keeping my fingers crossed for DRY weather!!!

One thing u see up here in Yukon, NT., Northern B.C., and Alaska, is that a lot of the big highways are called by names...the Cassiar Hwy, the Yukon Hwy., the Demster Hwy., the Top of the World Hwy., the Alaska Hwy, etc.

Life in Inuvik is quite different from the lower latitudes we r used to...for example, there's a Muskrat Jamboree the first week of April, featuring muskrat skinning, snowshoe racing, log sawing, tea boiling, ice chiseling, nail driving, egg tossing, and of course, dog team racing.

However, all that being said, Inuvik resembles any small town of 3-4,000 people, except that because of the permafrost here, all buildings are supported by pilings which are sunk deep into the permafrost and sit a few feet above the ground so as not to transfer building heat into the ground, which could cause melting of the permafrost, resulting in the shifting of the supporting pilings.

Inuvik at last...

Well here I am in Inuvik, NWT...the furthest one can travel north by road in all of Canada.

The second half of the Dempster was as beautiful as the first, especially today, in beautiful sunshine. I did the first half yesterday, and spent the nite at a lodge in Eagle Plains.

Most of the Dempster travels through the Yukon and the last 25% of it is in the NWT.

Here in In

uvik, tonite the sunsets at 11.35 pm...amazing.

Whitehorse, YT.,....Just my luck !!

Well, it's all in the timing. I arrived in WH Sat. nite, which meant I had to wait till Monday to change my street tires to my pre-ordered "knobby" tires with a far more aggressive tread to better handle the 750 km of rough gravel and slipper mud that forms the Dempster Hwy. The Dempster will take me from Dawson City to Inuvit north of the Artic Circle.

But first I have to travel the 500 km from WH to DC.

Anyways, as luck would have it, Monday was a general holiday in the Yukon, which meant I had to wait in WH till this morning to put the tires on, and by the time it was done, there was not enough time left to make Dawson City, which means a third nite in WH.

I'm adding a number of pics from my trip so far, mainly from Northern BC, Yukon, and maybe a few from Northern Alberta. (Sorry, I may have added duplicates.

BTW this trip in northwest Canada has been spectacular...this country is unbelievably vast....and my weather has been amazing too. Since leaving Montreal July 17, I've had less than 30 min. of rain in all of my 10,000 km.

The Yukon, "Larger than Life" !

Last nite I finished the last of the Cassiar Hwy, BC., after leaving Bell 2, and arrived in Watson Lake, Yukon. NOW I feel that my journey has really begun.

I'm about to head 600 km west, via the Alaska Hwy,(#1), to Whitehorse, after spending the nite as a guest of a very hospitable couple, Barry and Susan Drury. They are members of an interesting organization called "www.couchsurfers.org".

Tomorrow in Whitehorse, I'll b changing the Beasts tires for a more "agressive" tire that will handle the 800 km of rough dirt and gravel road that will bring me north of the Artic Circle to Inuvik, NWT.

Map

U can c the cutoff to Stewart and Hyder. After this I'm now at Bell 2, BC., about half way up to Watson Lake.

Bear warnings!

Alaska...well sort of...well really...yes !....and bears.

OK. I left Kitwanga this morning and started my trip heading due north on the Cassiar Highway (#37) to Watson Lake, Yukon. I didn't realize that Alaska is only 60 km west of the Cassiar at this latitude. So I make a left turn off the Cassiar, on to #37A (one of the most beautiful sections of road ever) at about 160 km north of Kitwanga and 45 min later I'm in Hyder, AK., with a population of 100 and no paved roads and no border crossing to stop at...only a marker. And the end of the road too. Hyder was there because it was at the end of the Portland Canal which allowed boats to come up from the Pacific and formed the boundary btw Canada and the US. It's sister town, Stewart, BC, has a pop. of 700. Both cities were originally mining cities, but no longer. Just logging and tourism.

I'm now spending the nite in the town of "Bell 2" in the only building in town, a spectacular log lodge hotel which set me back $ 200 ! So much for my average cost of $20/nite.

Well tomorrow for sure it will b Watson Lake, Yukon (YT), and the next day should b Whitehorse, YT., where I change the "Beast's" tires for nobbies, a tire more suited for the 734 km of gravel and dirt road (the Dempster HWY) that will take me north of the Artic Circle from Dawson City, YT.,to Inuvik, Northwest Territories (NWT).

And today I saw 3 black bears at different points along the road. They all ran into woods before I could get my camera going.

Sent from my iPhone from Bell 2, BC.

I goofed in the Wed. Aug 10 post....and where I am now.

When I said I'd b at Whitehorse, I was completely wacked out...I meant Watson Lake, Yukon....and I'm STILL TWO days away from there.

Now I'm at the bottom of the Cassiar Highway staying in a beautiful guest house,"Roads Ends Ventures", run by a great couple, Tony and Kerry.

The Cassiar runs from Kitwanga, BC., 724km due north to Watson Lake, Yukon.
Then from there, I'm on the Alaskan Hwy. heading NW to Whitehorse, Yukon's capital.

Depending on the weather, I just might make it to Watson Lake tomorrow.

Last nite at Farser Lake, BC

It was a beautiful clear nite and I found this picnic table in the middle of a field near the lake .... The perfect place for a night's sleep. No need for a tent here! no need for an alarm either....the loons took care of that! Ah...life doesn't get any better. I'll try for Watson Lake, Yukon today.
BTW, I thought it was Tuesday, but my breakfast server said it was Thursday. Wow time flies when ur having fun.

Updated via iPhone from Fraser Lake, BC.

Black bears...

Yesterday I saw my first black bear eating berries at the side if the road about 100 km before Jasper, Alberta. It was amazing.

This pic was a few hundred km before Jasper.

Tomorrow I will b near Whitehorse, Yukon.

I'm getting the feeling of the north.

Sent via iPhone in Fraser Lake, BC.

Canmore, AB.

On the road again after 2 nites in Calgary.

I said goodby to Mark, Rachel, computer guru Russ, Andrea, my gracious hosts in Calgary.

I'm finally on the road again and the Beast is happy after it's 90,000 km tuneup. I'm happy too enjoying a beer on a Canmore terasse. I'll try to make it to Lake Louise or Jasper for the nite. It's great to be in the heart of the Rockies. Spectacular!!!

Ness
+1 514 497 1611
www.NessTravels.blogspot.com
OceanDrive Yacht Deliveries
www.oceandrive.ca

Canada

I just crossed the "Roosville" border into British Colombia from Montana and spending the nite in Cranbrook, BC. Tomorrow morning I have to make a 4 hour dash to Calgary so I can get my 90,000 km service done before heading north. No guarantees though because it's Saturday. So I might have to wait till Monday....bad timing....so it goes!

Updated via iPhone.

Big Sky Country

Hi. I'm updating my blog from North Central Montana using my cell phone, and I should b in Calgary Friday. The weather and ride could not b better. I'll b doing a more detailed update with pics when I can get my hands on a PC/MAC.

Ness
+1 514 497 1611
www.NessTravels.blogspot.com
OceanDrive Yacht Deliveries 
www.oceandrive.ca

Ness

+1 514 497 1611

www.NessTravels.blogspot.com

OceanDrive Yacht Deliveries 

www.oceandrive.ca