Alaska Done
Part 3 of 10
Boarding for
the The Inside Passage
Is this the
Planet Earth?
Highway of
Tears
Boarding for the Inside Passage
To
me, this was no Ferry. It was a luxury cruise liner. The thrill of
fifty bikes all starting their engines ready to board surpassed that
of hearing the starter pistol at the Oulton Park race track in
Cheshire England. Once aboard, we were instructed by crew members to
shut-off-our engines; engage first gear; and secure them from falling
using heavy straps attached to metal rings in the floor of the deck.
We departed on time for our fifteen hour journey to Prince Rupert.
The scenery that we encountered was enough to take your breath away.
There were countless miles of virgin shorelines; we saw tree-filled
mountains reaching for the sky; we saw humpback whales dancing in the
ocean on more than one occasion; and every now and then we could see
the countless settlements of our first nation peoples. It almost
made me envious. What absolute tranquillity and solitude. A life of
hunting and fishing and no five o' clock traffic jams every day. On
the other extreme, we were resting in luxurious armchairs. We drank
and ate like royalty and some of us missed quite a bit of the scenery
by dozing-off in the afternoon, including me. How shameful!
Is
this the Planet Earth?
The
further north we got, the more things began to change. As the sun
slowly began to go down in the western sky, we were treated to a
panorama of brilliant heavenly colours from yellow to orange to
crimson red. The effect of this was intriguing. Mountains that had
begun to sprout out of the sea itself were cast in shadows of
different shades of grey under an orange sky and the circle of heavy
mist surrounding them gave the illusion of halos. I haven't seen this
effect anywhere else - certainly nowhere down south. I would have to
give it the description of looking somewhat “Ominous”.
Highway
of Tears
After
a restful night at the Moby Dick Inn in Prince Rupert I was in the
mood the next morning to cover some serious distance on the first
major leg of our journey. I filled the Harley with as much premium
gasoline as I could possibly get in there without going into overflow
including the two extra fuel containers I carried in the back. We
began on highway 16 towards the junction of highway 37 which
eventually meets the Alaska highway days later. The riding was good
with good road conditions but it was easy to see the nature of the
landscape begin to change as we headed north east. I jumped out of my
skin when I was suddenly overtaken by several motorcycles going at
high speed. Most were being driven by younger guys with a female
passenger on the pillion hanging on for dear life. During a rest stop
later in the day I noticed several of these same motorcycles parked
in a rest area. As I suspected, these bikes were generally older and
not in the best of shape. Moreover, their back tires showed very
little thread. They were just about bald and very unsafe to drive. It
occurred to me that this highway had seen more cases of young women's
deaths over recent years that I care to count. It was known
especially for the disappearance or murder of countless young
aboriginal girl hitch-hikers and had earned the name – Highway of
Tears. ...How sad indeed.
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