Inuvik (Sep 24/04) - A trip on the land left Sir Alexander Mackenzie school students with some incredible memories.

"Hunting caribou and learning how to skin one are my favourite memories," said 10-year-old Robert Cardinal.

He and seven of his schoolmates, two teachers and hunter and trapper Douglas Joe spent a weekend in the bush recently.

"It was a good thing that he helped," said Cardinal of Joe.

This is a feeling shared by SAMS teachers Chris Gilmour and Jason Dayman, whose successful proposal to the federal government's Community Mobilization Program returned funding to provide for five or six more similar adventures in the coming school year.

"We're not trying to teach on the land skills, but merely facilitate this kind of thing," said Dayman.

"We want the local people to come and show how it's done and it's great that Douglas (Joe) agreed to participate and be a role model for the kids."

The pair of teachers refer to their planned trips on the land as an incentive program for SAMS students.

"The kids had a great time and I think it's beneficial for them," said Dayman.

He said if the trips help students focus on their work in the classroom, then everybody wins.

"Already they are asking when it's going to happen again," he said.

Though the students enjoyed the relative comfort of the Eagle Plains Hotel, they spent the lion's share of their time tracking and hunting caribou with Joe and managed to get four animals for their efforts.

"(Douglas) says caribou can see a long way, so you need to keep low to the ground when you get close to them because they could run off if they see you," said 11-year-old Cole Maring, sharing some of the knowledge he picked up during the adventure. "But the best part was watching Douglas skin the caribou," he said.

When Gilmour asked Maring and Cardinal whether they preferred hotel food or his and Dayman's cooking during the trip, both students replied in unison, "hotel food."

However, Gilmour conceded this may not necessarily indicate a preference for hotel food, but rather an indictment of his and Dayman's culinary skills.

Next foray

While the SAMS teachers do not know when their next foray into the bush will be, they hope to take some students into one of the remote national parks by year's end.

As for the four caribou's worth of meat the group returned with, Gilmour says it will be stored at the school.

It will be used throughout the year for various feasts, he said.