Thursday, August 18th, 2022. Yukon Territory, Canada.
Slow drive along the Dempster Highway. Barely any cars on the road at all, save for the camper truck couple from Michigan I've been playing leapfrog with all morning.
"Lunchtime?" I hear one ask the other at a must-stop turnout.
Long wait at a construction stop for the pilot car. Ravens overhead. There's no rush. Nowhere to rush to. No rush hour. Just a rushing red river down below.
I don't need to tell you that it's beautiful out here.
You don't need to be human to be spellbound.
Further up the road, further up the globe. So close to the top of the world but it feels like we're already there.
I pull us into a construction turnout. So much wide open. So much solitude it could swallow me up and I'd never know I'd disappeared.
Raven shows up. Wants to know if I have any food. I put a few peanuts out on the rocks. He flies over for a look, yells something, and flies away.
Couple from Michigan shows up, too. They park. We talk. I resent them for disrupting my solitude. But why? I've been alone with my dog for days on end. Minimal human contact. Just me and my thoughts and fears and the wide open, lonely road.
They are gentle, the couple. Kind. Curious. Pilot falls in love. They've had great weather their entire trip here, they tell me. I've hit all the storms, I tell them, including that one near Dawson City they'd missed and dismissed as a faulty forecast. It's not fair, I think to myself, but I keep my envy in check. They're much older than I am. They've already figured their shit out. They don't need a challenge like I do to find themselves. They're already found.
This is their vacation.
This is my journey.
72kph. 45mph. Speed limit is 90kph but I don't want to use the spare tire I've got strapped to my roof. We ease our way along the long dirt road and take in the sunshine.
The afternoon finds us at Eagle Plains, where I gas up the car for a price I don't care to think about. We eat lunch out back behind the hotel with the ravens.
At the edge of the Arctic Circle.
And then onward and upward we go.
For more pictures of the Dempster Highway, click here.
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Glad you are at it again! What a lovely place. I hope the motel was the oasis it claimed to be. Little Pilot looks like the wise old man of the mountain in these pictures.
It had a great toilet! I didn't stay to check out other oasis-y aspects, but seeing as it's the only gas, food, and public plumbing for a good I don't even know how many square miles, it can claim oasis all it wants!
An oasis, indeed. And with those flags glorying in the sunlight, it probably should be renamed The Great Canadian Oasis of Toilets.
(and $7/gal gas)
Ouch.
Thank you @ladiesofhive!
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This images looks so amazing
Thank you!
Finding yourself in solitude, wide open plains, friendly raven and closer friend Pilot keeping good company.
Going nowhere slowly wrapped within own thoughts something I yearn to do, enjoy the journey!
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Thank you! I tend to do that a lot. I feel fortunate that I can.
Hope you're nice and cool under the AC right now!
Would do it in a heartbeat driving deserted roads, not a care in the world....
Another 30 minutes before AC goes off today with scheduled outage 🙃
Trust me, there's plenty of care in the world to be felt when driving alone on deserted roads! 😅 But it's a nice change of pace.
Worst that can happen on lonely road is our imagination get the better of us, keep going!
Or, you know, your tire blows out at midnight and while you're changing it the boogie man shows up with a mama polar bear and her cubs...
Still safer than anywhere over here at the moment, your boogie man and bear sounds better to party with !LUV
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Wow! That’s quite a journey into solitude and vast space. The mind will speak so loud and chin this environment. Nature is powerful and breathing palpably. Love this chance to be in solitude one day.
Thanks, yeah, the mind does speak loud out in wild places like this. But it eventually runs out of things to say...
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Thanks so much @livinguktaiwan!!
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Congratulations, not only for the recognition but for the way you tell us about this trip along the Dempster Highway.
The images are beautiful and I loved that your pet was in some of them.
It is clear that you have experience and that the car is of great quality because from what you say it was a trip practically alone, except for the couple that accompanied you on the road.
Visualizing the images fascinated me and more because of my passion for nature and the geography of the countries and Canada is a very beautiful country.
Happy journey. Cheers and greetings.
Thank you for your wonderful comment! I'm glad you appreciated my dog's photos. It was his trip as much as it was mine, and I love to share his experiences.
Canada is indeed very beautiful!!!
Cheers!
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Thanks so much @ladytoken!!
Great North Country looks like the best definition of solitude in general I think. Yet a feeling that I always chase during my trips or even for a place where to live. Crowded places and lots of people around do a 'great' job ruining nature and its properties towards people sadly.
I second that. I can't spend long periods in big cities or, hell, even indoors. Have to go outside and connect. Have to get way out there and feel scared and alive and relatively insignificant.
I also don't have to tell you that I am impressed, even through the screen, by the endless, human free space... ;)
That part, speaks to me! ...and at the same time it can be weirdly exciting to go through all the storms to figure it out:)
Thanks @kesityu.fashion!!
So true!!! In the moment it can feel awful but at this point I've been through enough storms (literal and figurative) to appreciate the experience and find excitement in the terror and misery when it comes up.