On the Road to Somewhere

Whenever I think of Fireweed I think of the Fox Lake fire. I think of the trip my partner and his friend made to all the Yukon communities looking for clues which would solve a riddle with the potential to lead them to the keys of a brand new Nissan Pathfinder. A lone car traveling through the fire zone while the fire burned on both sides of the road. Not knowing the road had been closed behind them after they'd left Carmacks and ahead of them, on the Whitehorse side. Their only company becoming a cougar with a docked tail walking down the road searching for prey.

Two years later that whole area was a field of Fireweed as far as the eye could see, waving purple, softening the hills; beauty springing from destruction. It was this image which started my short this week leading me to discover a woman who is leaving her past and foraging on in search of herself, escorted by fireweed on both sides. Memories litter the highway behind her, a trail of where she's been; the highway stretches ahead, a road to somewhere, an unwritten future where I hope she finds happiness.

This Photo: Taken on the Atlin Road, heading back to Whitehorse, about 8:00 p.m. one evening in early June.