TETLIT'ZHEH/FORT MCPHERSON - Eight teens returned to Fort McPherson last week with a heightened respect for their ancestors' land.

The Gwich'in beneficiaries - from McPherson, Aklavik, Inuvik, Yellowknife and Ontario - paddled the Peel River for three weeks as part of the first Gwich'in Youth Leadership Expedition, a partnership between the Gwich'in Tribal Council and Outward Bound Canada, a wilderness education course.

The youth and two instructors began their journey July 3 at the Ogilvie River before heading into the Peel. Many of the teens didn't have much prior paddling experience and had to set off right away in teams of two each in a canoe, at which instructor Seamus Donnery said they excelled.

"That's definitely a big opportunity for students to develop relationships and build trust right from the start just because they have to work together in this new environment with new skills," he said. "Jumping into a canoe for the first time and then putting it into rapids on the first day is definitely an exciting part of the adventure."

The most gruelling leg of the expedition, the instructors and youth agree, was a four-kilometre portage around the Aberdeen canyon, wherein the unruly rapids would have been too difficult to conquer by canoe. For three days, the entire team transported their packs and canoes, each carrying about 50 pounds on their backs, slugging through the bush in mud up to their knees.

"That really required the group to work together and for each of them to push themselves and to recognize that 'OK, this is ridiculously hard and this is harder than anything else I've done before' and somehow find the strength to pull together as a team and to individually complete that task," he said.

During the portage, the group faced another challenge when one of the young women suffered hypothermia.

"That event on our course was a really significant team event where they were able to come together and recognize that 'you know what? One of our team members is in need right now and we need to come to her aid,'" Donnery said. "And as a group everyone stepped up and came together and pitched in and did their own part to make sure that situation was managed successfully and that the student was fine."

Before paddling back to McPherson, the group stopped to enjoy a meal at Mary Snowshoe's fishing camp, where she was making dry fish.

Sixteen-year-old Prairie Dawn Edwards from Aklavik referred to the trip as a "once in a lifetime experience."

"I learned some pretty neat stuff," she said. "I learned new things from the friends that I just met, I learned new stories from the elders in McPherson."

Her friend and fellow paddler, Elizabeth Illasiak, agreed.

"Once you go on that trip and you finish it you feel good about yourself because it's something you accomplished and you learn to survive," she said. "Once you finish it, you get this feeling that you never had before, like respect for the land and respect for everything that you have."

Having hunted out on the land before, 15-year-old Edwin Koe from McPherson considered himself well prepared for the journey. He said he was glad to build on his wilderness skills, but that being away from home was challenging at times. He really missed "my friends and family and my iPod."

Koe said he would like to participate in this kind of expedition again - sometime in the not-so-near future.

"Three weeks in the bush is good enough for a while."