INUVIK
Brad "Caribou Legs" Firth is reaching into the past as a foot messenger to preserve a resource for the future.

Brad "Caribou Legs" Firth and Joseph Kaye ran out of Inuvik April 2 when Firth began an epic run to Whitehorse to deliver letters to the Yukon government demanding protection for the Peel River watershed. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo

Firth, a noted ultra-runner from Inuvik, began an epic three-week run to the Yukon legislature in Whitehorse the morning of April 2.

He's planning on delivering letters gathered from Inuvik and the surrounding area asking or demanding

the Yukon government reverse its decision to allow resource development in a huge chunk of the Peel River watershed.

"I'm carrying a bunch of letters to Whitehorse for the premier and for the rally and for the people to hear our worry about what's going on with the Peel watershed."

"I'm honoured to run those letters to Whitehorse," he added.

"I wanted to take on that role of creating awareness and start more campaigns down the road to protest development. The Gwich'in people don't want that."

Firth said he's returning to the grand tradition of the foot messenger, which many people all over the world used to deliver important missives.

"A long time ago great messages were carried by people running," he said.

"I feel this message needs to be run down like in the past. It creates a lot of media attention, a lot of focus."

He's been training for this run for the past three months, running several hours a day. Many of those hours have been in the company of his new running partner, a small husky-pit bull-shih-tzu puppy named Trixie.

"It's going to take a lot of bananas, a lot of goji berries, lots of dry food, peanuts, stuff like that. I'm just going to try to pace myself and keep my focus."

Firth has been an ardent critic of the Yukon's decision to open 71 per cent of the watershed, which is still largely untouched, to resource exploration and mining, since the announcement was made earlier this year.

It's the longest run he has attempted so far, at an estimated 1,200 km. It's good practice, though, for a truly mammoth run he has planned for the spring from Vancouver to Inuvik.

Firth said the longest

run he has attempted before this was approximately 700 km.

He's planning on running 10 hours a day for three weeks to cover the distance. He is being accompanied

at least part of the way by

Robert Alexie, the president

of the Gwich'in Tribal Council. The council has announced plans to join a lawsuit filed by other Gwich'in organizations, as well as environmentalists.

It took Firth about 90 minutes to run out the junction of the Dempster with Kaye, who was participating as a youth representative. Firth had put out an open invitation but only Kaye responded.