DAY 43 BEAR BAGGED

Day 43. Today we visited the state-of-the-art Yukon Flats Medical Center. In the midst of a fairly laid back and rugged village it is houses the most recent medical technology to provide distance care to ten villages in the Yukon Flats. The center is five years in the making and primarily funded with federal dollars. It houses a doctor, dentist, optometrist, remote conferencing with the villages, travel office (to transport patients), and a number of patient rooms. Truly impressive! It is the northern-most medical center in the United States. In our evening walk a couple of fellows passed us pulling a trailer with their ATV. On the bed of the trailer was a bear! There had been reports of a bear on the outskirts of town for several days. Apparently they finally caught up with it. Bear, along with moose and salmon, are a staple in the village diet. While we haven't had any bear (yet), I'm sure that bear will end up on someone's plate soon. It was a bit of a strange site seeing a dead bear on the back of a trailer being pulled through town. Life is a little different up here!