Dawson City to Inuvik - Alaska and Points North: Tips and Tales from the Road - page 180

Dawson City to Inuvik return
Preparing for bed, we heard a shot ring out. Not real close, but not that far away either.
Hmmmmm. A few minutes later I was pulling the blanket up over my nose when three more
shots rang out, this time much closer.
“Are you going to be able to sleep okay with that going on ?” he asks.
“ Not so much .”
Alaskans love their guns. They carry them everywhere, strap them to their ATVs, even to
the struts on their planes. At a roadhouse we saw a grizzled dead ringer for Che Guevara;
bandoleer style bullets criss-crossing his chest, a rifle over each shoulder. Hmmm.
We were only about 40 km from Delta Junction so I assumed the bullets were probably com-
ing from a couple of local yahoos sitting around a campfire nearby, target shooting cans
while they got increasingly drunk. I wondered how long it would be before they decided to
have some fun “scaring the tourists.” We'd stopped for the night at a wayside, easily visible
to passersby.
We dropped the roof and were cruising down the road two minutes later. I should mention
that people camp safely at these waysides all the time. I don't believe we would have come
to any real harm but I can be a nervous nellie so I decided I'd rather sleep peacefully than
lie awake all night listening anxiously.
It was close to midnight as we drove. Still far enough north for the night light to be more
of a twilight glow than actual darkness. We slowed right down because dozens of moose,
big and little, were enjoying the evening too, grazing on the lush grass beside the highway.
My favourite northern animal, they are so awkward and ungainly they remind me of gangly
adolescent boys, all arms and legs. The biggest ones come close to a ton in weight and are
not too bright. When it suddenly occurs to them that the grass is greener on the other side of
the road they lurch out in front of vehicles. No warning.