Annual trek keeps cross-border ties strong
Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services
Fort McPherson (Mar 12/01) - There were a few tough times, like when Lorna Storr had to drive her sister's machine along creek ice covered in a foot of fast-running water.
Storr has never been on a skidoo trip before and when she got to the mini-waterfall at the end of the creek, tears were running down her face. She could not afford to make a mistake. The toboggan towed behind her snow machine carried Storr's sister Liz Wright and her three-year-old daughter.
People urged her to gun throttle to get past the obstacle.
Her fear turned to relief after she drove through the water and over the drop to join her Fort McPherson relatives and neighbours on the dry ice of the Little Bell River.
"It was scary enough that you don't want to do it again," said Wright.
That was one of the series of adventures encountered on the third Johnny D. Charlie Memorial snowmobile trip from Fort McPherson to Old Crow.
Most of the Feb. 21-26 round trip was less stressful for Storr and the 46 others who participated this year.
"We had lots of fun," said another of Storr's sisters, Annie Smith. "We laughed all the way over and we laughed all the way back."
Smith said the trip has been different each of the three times she's been on it. Last year they had to drive through deep powder snow. This year the snow was hard-packed but there was lots of overflow on the ice.
Keeping ties alive
The event is very much a grassroots initiative, with the majority of travellers paying for their own gas and supplies for the journey. It was started in 1999 by the children of the late Fort McPherson chief it honours.
Johnny D. Charlie died of cancer in September 1998. His family originates in Old Crow. Each winter he led trips between his Fort McPherson and Old Crow, keeping alive social and blood ties between the two communities and re-establishing the old trail that linked them.
"One of my cousins in Old Crow told me when my dad used to travel with his dogs a long time ago, they could hear the bells on his dog harness," recalled Wright.
"They used to run to the river bank and watch for the leader of his dog team coming around the corner. It's one of the memories she shares with us now and she tells it with tears in her eyes."
The three-day trip to Old Crow still ends with a happy reunion. As they do each year, the people of Old Crow put on a big feast. All the food is donated. This year the Fort McPherson ladies were given beads, sewing material and Old Crow jackets. The men also received jackets, gloves and sweaters. The kids got t-shirts, mitts, toques and some snacks for the road.
Old Crow's Danny Kassi presented Jane Charlie Sr., Johnny D. Charlie's widow, with a moose antler carving of a team of dogs.
Inscribed Johnny D. Charlie Memorial Quest 2001, the carving will be displayed in the Charles Koe Building in Fort McPherson.
