Stopped at the Pizza Hut in Whitehorse around noon, and they probably still don’t know what hit them. I was hungry.
I’m camped out for the night at the beginning of the Atlin Highway next to Little Atlin Lake. It’s a very peaceful spot, surrounded by mountains and with hardly any traffic at this time of year. I’ve kind of been reflecting on the trip as I’m beginning the journey home — sitting with a Dall sheep, watching the peak of Denali glow pink in the sunset, howling with wolves and so many other things have all been very special experiences. I’ve spent the past ten weeks immersed in wilderness, and in the words of Thoreau I’ve been able to “front only the essential facts of life”. As I’m returning I feel a responsibility to give something back — Aldo Leopold wrote that even if we never visit the wild places of this earth, we need to know that they exist. Having gained so much from this experience I feel the need to help to keep the wilderness as it is, so that even if I never come back I’ll always know that such a refuge is here when needed.