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Yukon Alone – John Balzar

A musher looks at his watch. He sees the big hand. Then he looks for the little hand. But he has forgotten what the big hand said.

With helpless anguish on his face, he holds his watch before a stranger and asks,

"What's the time?"

Later, when they have rested, mushers will talk about their hallucinations and how they cope.

Suppose, for instance, you are a guy and you're moving down the trail and a naked woman walks out from behind a tree and asks you for a ride?

Well, is she good-looking?

She's a peach. So do you let her climb on the sled?

Hmmm. Sure would be nice to have some company. And she's naked, you say?

Stark naked. So you let her on?

Hell no, I don't need that kind of extra weight.

Ha. Ha.

One musher told me about watching the northern lights and then realising he was seeing the reflection of a train's headlamp in the clouds.

Then he could hear the engine and the ground started shaking, and he realized he was not on the trail but had wandered onto a railroad right-of-way. Suddenly the train came around a corner

and . . . and it passed right through him, its whistle screaming.

 I'll have to be more careful next time, the musher told himself.