This time, the expedition is well and truly over, but not the trip. Tomorrow, we go back to Montreal by bus, and for some, the road will extend to Québec, Saguenay, the Maritimes, and Western Canada. We're back to Northridge Inn. With pleasure, we enjoy the warmth of a good shower, the comfort of a real bed, the softness of the carpet, running water, and electricity.
Yet, the return to civilization was not the easiest this morning. After a last departure, we climbed on our sleds’ runners; we headed back to the kennel, first via the thin tracks we had left the day before on the plateaus surrounding our camp. Then, we met up with a main trail on which we passed some sixty snowmobiles in less than an hour. While most drove at a reasonable speed, some do not hesitate to blithely exceed the limits. It is then that we need to be extra careful to keep a good grip on the head dogs, stopping our sleds and especially remain on the right of the trail, which is not the easiest when it is tilting on the left.
Finally, after two hours of this, we arrived at the Chocpaw kennel, where we tied our dogs in their doghouses and, for the last time, emptied, checked and put away our sleds and loaded our bags on the bus. It felt like the end … We met our musher guides one last time for lunch together in the premises of Chocpaw that happen to be part of the home of the company founder, Paul J.Reid. The house looks like a museum of sled dogs with dozens of plates decorated with husky dogs, tapestries and other dogs plaster statuettes. This is where we said goodbye to Chantal, Seppe, Karly and Rasmus.
Once at the hotel, we were finally able to change clothes and take a shower, after returning and putting away all the equipment lent by the Tip of the Toes Foundation. We are tired but happy with the feeling of having surpassed ourselves, and we have experienced a great adventure together, more than 130 km of dog sledding during 6 days!
Yesterday, during our last evening in the forest, we tried to summarize our experience in one word. For Dawson, the experience was “interesting” on all points of view, and Elliot, in one word it was just “incredible” (awesome!). For Antoine, it was a real “Adventure” with a capital A. He admitted that, at first, he felt stressed out having to spend a week with a dozen strangers, without even knowing where he would sleep. Etienne declared the “complicity” that everyone has been able to develop with others, and even with the dogs. Tabitha personally feels “grateful” for the new family she feels she is a part of and Merceades emphasized the word “force”, because “no one ever gave up.”