Something is not right!

I woke up in Beaver Creek to beautiful sunshine and clear skies ready to hit the road. For reasons not important here, I decided to head south instead of north to Dawson City as I had been thinking of doing. I don’t like riding the same road twice but the Alaskan highway southbound offered as much beauty as it did northbound.

Once I got a little south of Haines Junction I started to get a feeling that “something is not right”. The bike was running well; mirror check told me that my bags were tied on ok. Can’t shake this feeling. I locked the throttle so I could check all of my pockets, camera, wallet, passport – CHECK. Ok important stuff is with me, what the hell is this feeling.

Not sure why, but I reach directly behind me. I can’t feel my extra gas can that I have been carrying since Prudhoe Bay. I know I tied it on really well back in Beaver Creek. Oh oh, that means I have straps flapping around that could get caught in my chain. I quickly pulled over. Inspected the bike and realized that the gas can had been stolen. My straps were still there, but not tied in the way I would have done it, they are tied on as if a moron had done it. A cluster of loose straps, not the way an anal accountant like me would have tied them on.  

My gas can has been stolen! But from where? Think back, the bike was only out of my sight twice. The first time was at Burwash Landing when I stopped at the Kluane Museum of Natural History to see if it was worth a visit, it was not. I was away from my bike for 5 minutes. Second time, I stopped for lunch at Haines Junction, right across from the RCMP station.

The gas can cost $7.49, the straps holding them on cost $10 each, there were binoculars, a laptop and other valuable things on my bike yet some moron took the time to steal the empty gas can and tie the straps back on. What a risk he took! I just came back from Alaska where I purchased Bear repellant spray and would have used it on a thief without a second thought and laughed while he cried like a little girl from the pain.

 The real sad part is that I was going to give this gas can away as I no longer needed it. I was going to give it to the next biker I saw going north.  It bothers me that this happened in Canada, a place with ample social programs and where nobody goes without the things they need. I have travelled extensively and this was the first time that I have been stolen from. I once left the key in my motorcycle for two days in Vietnam while I went on a tour, the bike was never touched. In Cambodia while taking a tour of a floating village I left my bike unattended with over $2,000 cash in a backpack tied on the bike, it was never touched. While in Iran, the “axis of evil” I never gave my safety a second thought.

Oh well, what goes around comes around and one day the thief will get his just rewards. As for me, the adventure continues. I am now relaxing at the Yukon Motel in Teslin Yukon, where I was greeted by a very pleasant and helpful Filipina lady who listened to my woes with a sympathetic ear.  She brought me ice for my drink, told me she was married and wished me goodnight.

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