UPDATED July 21, 2022

BY Henry Gold

IN North American Epic

6 comments

UPDATED July 21, 2022

BY Henry Gold

IN North American Epic

6 comments

In The Land Of Beyond

 

Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.” – Jack London

The North American Epic Cycling Tour has finished riding the Dempster Highway all the way from the Arctic Ocean, arriving in Dawson City, the centre of the Klondike gold rush from 1896 to 1898.  I, however, have had the pleasure of being in Dawson City, or to be more exact in a hotel in Dawson City, for six days and nights. To read about the experience of cycling the Dempster Highway you will need to read other blogs. My blog is more about ‘playing a poor hand well’.

Dawson City

I have been in a Dawson City hotel because, on the 3rd day of the tour, I developed an itch in my throat and asked our medic for a COVID test. The rest is history. Another rider and I had to arrange a taxi that drove all day along the Dempster Highway to deliver us here. At least we had the pleasure of seeing the scenery from the window of our cab! And thus, I joined millions of others around the world in experiencing the joy of this virus.

Jack London’s cabin

After several days of being stuck in a hotel room, I went for a walk with a couple of other riders who had also arrived here early for the same reason, to get a feel for the spirit of this place. One of my favourite writers from my younger days Jack London, lived and wrote here for a period of time, so my destination was the cabin in which he wrote his stories. Dawson City is small, so it was not difficult to find the cabin, rebuilt from the original logs.

Jack London lived a short life. He died at 40 and left behind ideas and thoughts that speak to me. Perhaps you may also find that they speak to you. Here is one: “Ever bike? Now that’s something that makes life worth living!…Oh, to just grip your handlebars and lay down to it, and go ripping and tearing through streets and road, over railroad tracks and bridges, threading crowds, avoiding collisions, at twenty miles or more an hour, and wondering all the time when you’re going to smash up. Well, now, that’s something! And then go home again after three hours of it…and then to think that tomorrow I can do it all over again!

Jack knew a thing or two about life; “The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” “And how have I lived? Frankly and openly, though crudely. I have not been afraid of life. I have not shrunk from it. I have taken it for what it was at its own valuation. And I have not been ashamed of it. Just as it was, it was mine.

Robert Servicee’s cabin

Another individual who lived, wrote and was inspired by this place and whose cabin is situated close to Jack’s, was the poet Robert William Service who penned this:

Have ever you heard of the Land of Beyond,
That dreams at the gates of the day?
Alluring it lies at the skirts of the skies,
And ever so far away;
Alluring it calls: O ye the yoke galls,
And ye of the trail overfond,
With saddle and pack, by paddle and track,
Let’s go to the Land of Beyond!

Have ever you stood where the silences brood,
And vast the horizons begin,
At the dawn of the day to behold far away
The goal you would strive for and win?
Yet ah! in the night when you gain to the height,
With the vast pool of heaven star-spawned,
Afar and agleam, like a valley of dream,
Still mocks you a Land of Beyond.

Thank God! there is always a Land of Beyond
For us who are true to the trail;
A vision to seek, a beckoning peak,
A farness that never will fail;
A pride in our soul that mocks at a goal,
A manhood that irks at a bond,
And try how we will, unattainable still,
Behold it, our Land of Beyond!

Robert Service and his bike

I have had a rough 18 months. There have been recurring health issues, there have been crashes and injuries that don’t heal and then there are the everyday challenges of a world. To quote Jack London again, “Intelligent men are cruel. Stupid men are monstrously cruel.” But I thank God that there is always a ‘Land of Beyond’. And that I will seek it until the end of my days, even though it may mock me.

 

6 Comments for "In The Land Of Beyond"

Great blog HG. Hope you and the others are feeling better and will be able to carry on.

Yes, a great blog, thanks. So grateful I read the very short notice in 2003/4 about Tour dÁfrique, it has ever since helped me not to just exist, but live”. /Eric

The call.of.the wild. Wonderful place Dawson. Love the Klondike highway almost as much as the Dempster.

Covid was your last obstacle till Panama, Henry. There will be not one elephant. Hugs. Daniel

Henry- I too fell prey to COVID while traveling in Faroe (in June) – along with several other people on our tour. It takes only one to be a superspreader in a tight knit group. Sadly.
Hope you had a non-lingering recovery. Funny how different things feel when two red lines appear on a rapid test and a positive sign for a PCR!

Another great blog Henry. You certainly played a poor hand well.
Hopefully you are feeling better now. Getting old isn’t for the faint of heart- it takes courage, strength and resiliency to soldier on, year after year.
Long may you ride.
thank you ever so much for making it possible for so many of us to see and experience the world from the ‘best seat in the House’, that of a bicycle…
Kind regards, Chris and Linda wille

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