17-20 July 2008 Dawson City, Yukon to Hawaii

7.17-20.08 Dawson City, Yukon - Seattle, Washington, US - Hawaii

Weather for the next few days was rain but this morning, some what overcast but great weather for riding. Whitehorse was the destination for the day and being that there is only one road, Rt 2, a mix of sealed and gravel. It was going to be a long ride but I was finally heading east to Quebec and eventually Pennsylvania. Another 6-8 weeks of travel.

About 3 hours into the ride on gravel when I was coming up on a road grader working the right side of the road. The grader was leaving a small ridge of gravel which I would have to cross to get around him. As I was crossing the ridge, the front end of the bike started to oscillate badly, bad enough that this was the last thing I remember until I woke up on the roads earth embankment.

Waking up on my back with head facing up the embankment. Of course the first thought is I am alive, next looking at my right arm my next thought was, “I believe I have a compound fracture!". Next it was clearing away the vegetation debris and rolling over on my left, getting myself up and start climbing back to the road. Just as I got to the top, the road grader operator was there. He had all readied called his boss and their medic. The medic was there in minutes, set the arm as best as possible. The crew boss next had me in his truck and down the road to the Mayo Medical Clinic about 40k away. I was pretty much still out of the picture, but aware of what was going on.

Mayo, Yukon (pop 400)
Into the clinic, wounds cleaned, pain meds administrated, X-rayed showing a beautiful compound fracture. The doctor commented that if I had not been wearing all of my motorcycle gear, we would probably not be holding this conversation.

Now this is where it gets interesting. I had taken out air medical evacuation insurance and once at the clinic a call was made to the insurance company. They called back and for 4-5 hours could or would not make a commitment to get a plane in to Mayo for shipping me to Whitehouse where there is a major hospital. Finally the nurse got on the phone and in so many words told the company (insurance) that they had 30 minutes to make up their minds or she was calling in a medical evacuation. Needless to say, I was flown out in two hour’s time. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had at this time gone out to the wreck site and brought as much of my personal gear as possible back to the clinic and was loaded onto the aircraft for the trip to Whitehorse.

Whitehorse, Yukon
Into hospital ER where after signing everything under the sun and another set of X-ray’s where taken. The ER doctor had at this time lined up Orthopedic surgeon at Swedish Hospital, Seattle, Washington to operate on my forearm upon arrival. And as there was a medical flight coming through Whitehorse for Seattle, a ride with this aircraft. I next called the insurance company and told them of the medical flight. It was the same story all over again, they would not cover my cost for the flight and they were looking at flying me back to Hawaii for surgery instead. The ER doctor got on the phone and said it was not possible to fly an injured patience with an open wound on a commercial aircraft. The company would not hear of this and I heard more BS then the lord allows. It finally got down to where the RN nurse with the flight told me that they will fly me to Seattle regardless if they get paid or not. On to the aircraft was leaving the bulk of my personal gear at the hospital with the intensions of having a freight forwarder box and ship the equipment to Hawaii.
The flight nurse had removed my motorcycle boots and immediately regretted that and quickly had them stuck in plastic bags. My feet had to smell just as bad and they were right next to his head for the whole flight.

Seattle, Washington at 0330hrs, operating room 0400hrs and four hours later I was in my room with a 400lb cast on my right forearm. The Swedish Hospital, located near the University of Washington, had just been open for a month. The rooms had everything imaginable under the sun for bells and whistles. Once I came out of the daze and got the doctor’s approval for a flight to Hawaii, I was back on the phone to the insurance company for a flight. And as true to form in dealing with this company, I asked for an isle seat to make it as comfortable as possible with the cast. Sure enough, they had me sitting in the middle. A short conversation with the stewardess quickly fixed that problem. A six hour flight on a 737, packed to the max and everything cost……….


Everyone that was connected some how or some where with my accident were wonderful in all respects. I can not thank these people enough. If my pockets were deep enough, we would all be lined up at the pub for a proper pint or two and a bag of chips.

The air medical insurance company was a total disaster. On a score of 1-10, they would not even register.

Norm Garon
The Grey Nomad