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NWT
A dozen NWT residents returned from a trek through the Mackenzie Mountains last week with sore feet, stiff backs and a newfound appreciation of the North.

William Horassi, left, Garrett Horassi, Mackenzie Caesar, Bradley McNeely and Norman Yakeleya stand in front of a pump station on their third day hiking the Canol Heritage Trail. Yakeleya estimates there are a dozen abandoned pump stations scattered along the trail. - photo courtesy of Keith Hickling

As part of the Canol Trail youth leadership hike, six youth from Tulita, Fort Good Hope and Norman Wells, along with six adults, travelled 80 km of ground carrying their food, shelter and clothing packed away on their backs.

They left the afternoon of July 16 and arrived back on the Mackenzie River July 21.

According to organizers, the goals of the hike -- to bring youth back to their roots, show them employment opportunities available on the land and help with the clean-up of the trail – were all achieved.

"It doesn't matter how many times you go in the Mackenzie Mountains, it's just the breathtaking realization of the mountains and I guess the sense of, there's no other roads or development or highways or access or anything there," said Keith Hickling, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources' regional superintendent in the Sahtu.

Despite that sense of isolation, Hickling says he is amazed at knowing others have travelled the same area for centuries.

"There's been people there for 8,000 years. Everywhere you'd seen, certainly others had seen it before you."

Hickling said he has been in the Mackenzie Mountains numerous times, but it was a unique experience hiking the Canol Trail with youth.

Norman Yakeleya, hike organizer and MLA for the Sahtu, said the 80-km hike was well worth the aches and pains.

"It was tough and lovely, just like the Sahtu people," MLA Norman Yakeleya said.

Myles Erb, youth and elder co-ordinator for the recreation department in Norman Wells, said that combination is what keeps him coming back to the hike year after year.

"It's tedious. It's exhausting. You're dealing with rain every day. You can be pretty miserable. But the small little things make it worth it, like being able to take in the scenery, drink camp coffee," he said.

At 21 years old, Erb has already been on the hike six years in a row.

"I'm just very proud to have walked on the Canol and I feel like it's helped shape who I am a little bit, and my Northern identity."

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