I have caught up the backlog. Before reading this episode, please read the earlier one published a few minutes ago. I will not be expanding on the strike outs in this blog, so that there is no confusion in the order.

So this morning, the Thomsons, Lindsay and Marian from Pender Island joined me at breakfast. This island neighbours Salt Spring and has a population of roughly 2000 permanent inhabitants versus Salt Spring’s 10000.

He was formerly an international executive for Alcan now part of BHP Billiton.

They ride whenever they get the chance. She has her own bike but prefers to do the longer trips on the back of his KTM. At breakfast, Dave the owner of Dawson Peak, joins us. He moved here about 39 years ago and started building the lodge in late 1973, just ahead of the winter.

The first building was tent structure that still sits inside the now main building. Slowly, over the next 30 years he added to the buildings. His home was originally a six-sided log building and now is a very nice home on the water. He has a motel structure with about 10 rooms , six small cabins away from the water and then three larger cabins on the water, one of which is the one I am staying in.

Inside the old tent. Marian, Dave and Lindsay

Before coming to Teslin, Dave worked as a teacher in Vernon, a small town in the Okanagan Valley. Remember sports fans this is where Penticton is. Home to the hottest women in the BC wine business, Cynthia and Miranda. This is where Lithe Leslie dropped in and out of my life for a brief and frustrating period. This is where wines nearly as good as Môreson’s are made.

He could not see himself getting old and fat as a schoolteacher or becoming an even fatter school Principal. He wanted to travel and do something that gave him lots of time off. He was also a trained carpenter so he came to the Yukon looking for adventure and ended up in Teslin. The Yukon has clearly been good to him. 65 years of age and in great shape.

The only problem he has is that he is deaf and needs hearing aids. He tells me this started due to his work as a carpenter but the defining moment was when he was attacked on his porch by a predatory bear and he had to shoot it. The resulting echo, because he was under a low metal roof, left him completely deaf for three days. Over the years, he has had to shoot bears in the building area on three occasions due their aggression

Once here, he started working as a teacher and used the money he earned to first build his cabin and then expand his operation until it was self funding. He has built everything himself. Today, he and Caroline, his third wife, only open the operation during the summer months and then they go down to their house in Vernon. They then use this to travel throughout the world. Nothing fancy, they use local busses in South America, Asia and Africa and stay wherever. The first two Mrs. Dave’s could not survive Teslin having come from big cities, the latest, Caroline comes from the Yukon and has no problem with the relative isolation. She too loves travelling.

So Dave regales us with great stories of the Yukon, having travelled extensively throughout the area. Mainly on his motorcycle. Catherine also has a motorbike. Dave rides a Harley but I forgive him, as he seems to ride it everywhere. Gravel roads do not appear to worry him. I know he really wants a BeeMer.

We talk about the First Nations with whom he has worked for many years. They have the same alcohol and crack cocaine related problems facing our coloured community. Many of these small Indian communities are “dry” in an attempt to try and counteract the problem. However he says that whenever they get to one of the bigger towns, with money in their pockets from a payday, it goes out of the door and into a bottle in minutes.

Lindsay inquires about the long days in summer and short nights in winter. At Dawson City well North of here, on the evening of the summer solstice if you stand on the top of the hill overlooking the town, the sun only briefly touches the horizon. So it is light all day. In winter there is only twilight for a few hours, otherwise it is dark. Depression is a real problem in these communities.

However on the other hand the tribal elders and chiefs show more intelligence than our fine friends back home. The tribe in this area, having received a multi million dollar settlement from the Government for some previous, knew that they had to put their money to work, failing which it would inevitably run out.

So as a first off guided by some of the younger hotheads, they bought a local sawmill, ejected the existing management and installed some of their tribes people in to run. Needless to say it cratered.

But at least they learnt. Now they have specialist outside feasibility studies done before making any investments. After investing they leave the existing management in place and then introduce their people via a long-term mentorship program. Needless to say it has been a resounding success. Anybody listening in Pretoria or whatever it is called now.

Dave tells us that they are not reopening next year. They want to travel in the Yukon and Alaska. The only time in which one can do this is the three months of summer between early June and mid September. By this time the overnight temperatures are already below 0 and ice is already forming in the lakes and rivers. Dave is planning a 700-mile trip down the Yukon River and back in small aluminium hulled boat he has here. One of the ones we went fishing in last night. About 15 feet long with a 20 HP Honda motor. The trip will take about three months and the river is navigable the whole way. This sounds like a much better deal to me than paddling for months. Like the difference between what Max is doing and what I am doing.

So Lindsay and I have pointers for current and future trips. Lindsay and Marian are headed for Whitehorse via Atlin, one more must see but not in this trip for me. Included in my next trip will also be Skagway and Haines. Both on one way roads and in the USA (Alaska). So to get to them you leave Canada go into the Us and then back out of the US and into Canada again. I will however make a small diversion to Carcross in the morning on my way to Whitehorse.

Lindsay and Marian are debating riding all the way up to Inuvik. This is a huge undertaking on gravel and shale roads for about 800km. I look at it on the map. It is on the Beaufort Sea in the Artic Circle. Also known as the Arctic Ocean. Remember this, as it will a quiz question at some point. The road crosses the mighty Mackenzie River. I am not sure of the point, as much of the route will be tundra. Maybe on a KTM you need the bragging rights. Lindsay and Marian are a couple with whom I would like to one day do a trip together.

Lindsay and Dave swap notes about travelling in China in the late 1960’s when everyone was dressed as a Mao look alike. Phuket before it was commercialized, Bolivia, Peru and Africa. We laugh at Dave’s stories and make mental notes.

Then the Thompsons have to leave. They are meeting people in Whitehorse this evening. First Lindsay gets on. A sort of a hop and a skip. I have to get on like this as well. Not my usual professional mount and slip in to place. The gap into which I have to fit is narrow. This normally presents only slight challenges. Now technique is all-important. On one side as I approach is the saddlebag and on the other is the big bag containing my clothes. So I lift my leg up as if I was going to do the hurdles and then simultaneously, as it goes through the gap, I hop twice to get it to the point that I can simply slide into place, ensconced in/on Bonnie.

Lindsay is on first

Lindsay gets on before Marian. He has to because he has a stiff leg and has not yet developed my technique. I do not want to show him how. It will win a girl lake Bonnie over. Then Marian gets on with practiced aplomb. I can see she has mounted many times before. She wraps herself around Lindsay and pats him on the back. Giving instructions she is. Off they go. I am so very envious and make some mental memo’s for my next trips.

Marian slide onto her mount

They are on the way. I am so envious, not of the bike but of the company

So tomorrow it is on to Whitehorse for my meeting with the Liquor Board and then onto Haines Junction for the night.

So from Teslin YT

Good Night and Good Luck