Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 16/99) - Shawn Stilbora had a goal.

Since 1993, the electrician and New Mexico resident has spent three summers fulfilling a dream to motorcycle across all 50 American states and all of Canada's provinces and territories.

On Tuesday, Aug. 10, Stilbora got his wish, motorbiking in Kugluktuk, Nunavut -- the last place he needed to complete his goal.

Funny thing is, Stilbora thought he had completed his goal when he crossed the 60th parallel on the Mackenzie Highway and travelled into the Northwest Territories a few days earlier.

"I walked into the visitor's centre at the 60th parallel with a smile on my face and the lady at the counter promptly wiped it off," Stilbora said. "That's when I discovered Nunavut.

"All my maps are old so I had no idea that it existed. I was especially upset when she showed me the maps and there were no roads going up there."

Stilbora was planning to bike as far as Hay River and possibly Yellowknife, depending on the condition of the road, but now he was trying to figure out how to get a chance to motorbike in a place as far and remote as Nunavut. There was simply no way he would be able to take his Honda ST 1100 on such a trip.

"I went over to Mack Travel in Hay River and talked to the lady there," Stilbora explained. "I told her what my problem was and told her what your government did, putting a monkey wrench into my plans by adding another territory on me."

The woman at the travel office thought it might help if she called some of her colleagues in Yellowknife to see if they could help. Stilbora's problem was not actually getting to Nunavut, but finding a motorbike there to ride so he could fulfil his mission.

"One of her colleagues had lived in Kugluktuk," Stilbora said. "It took a couple of hours, but they managed to track down all four motorcycles there. Only one was running and registered.

"The guy at the Coppermine Inn had the bike. He agreed to let me rent it for a couple of hours. Actually it was more like borrowing it. He only asked me for 20 bucks. I gave him a bottle of V.O. for a tip. I've only been to a couple places in the world where whisky is not an appreciated gift."

Stilbora arrived in Kugluktuk to discover that roads were not in great abundance, but that was besides the point as his goal was about to finally be completed.

"There's not much there," Stilbora said with a grin.

"They're building a road to the falls so I rode that and a few hills above town."

Now that Stilbora's goal is complete?

"Now I got to plan where I'm coming back to," Stilbora said. "There's no such thing as being too far away."