Caribou Legs runs Great Slave Lake
'My footsteps are raging against the machine'
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Friday, March 10, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The NWT runner known as Caribou Legs is taking a brief rest after running some 200 kilometres across Great Slave Lake.
Brad Firth, also known as Caribou Legs, is all smiles as he arrives in Dettah Tuesday night after running across Great Slave Lake. - photo courtesy of Capt. Steve Watton |
Brad Firth, 47, originally from Inuvik, was in Dettah and Yellowknife this week after pounding his way across the lake starting last weekend, much of it while wearing snowshoes. He was escorted by five Canadian Rangers from Hay River who rode snowmobiles and broke trail in front of him. There was also an advance party of Rangers who pitched a tent and made camp for everyone.
"It was arguably the most challenging run I've ever faced," he told Yellowknifer.
"It was extremely grueling with snowshoes, running in deep snow. There were a lot of cracks in the ice. Running across the lake can be so defeating. I had to come up with my best willingness to finish it, my best stuff."
Firth left Hay River Saturday and arrived in Dettah on Tuesday evening. He covered distances of 50 to 60
kilometres each day across the frozen lake.
Firth, who is now based in Vancouver, said he runs for a number of reasons including drawing attention to missing and murdered indigenous women across Canada, as well as the plight of aboriginal people across the country.
"What motivates me is people who can't run - people who can't speak," he said. "My footsteps are the voice of people who have been beaten, who have been lost, who have been murdered. That keeps me going forward in any conditions. My footsteps are raging against the machine."
Firth said the trip across the lake would have been next to impossible without the help he received from the Rangers.
"They had my back," he said, adding they stayed a few kilometres ahead of him at all times so the sound of their snowmobiles wouldn't distract him.
"They kept me warm and fed and when I called for hot soup or water, they came with big hugs and smiles."
According to Yellowknife-based Capt. Steve Watton, spokesperson for the Canadian Rangers, the Rangers who escorted Firth also used the trip as a training exercise. They used the experience to map a safe route across the snow and ice.
"They ensured his safety across the lake and gave him a place to bed down at night," Watton said.
"They all slept together in one large tent."
Firth said he ran with antler pieces he intends to run to Behchoko so they can be used in a upcoming handgames tournament.
The long-distance runner said he started running across the country after he was struck by a semi-truck in 2012 while on a 160-kilometre run from Vancouver to Hope, B.C.
He said this experience changed his life and gave him a purpose to run the roughly 18,000 kilometres he has travelled since. These runs have taken him from coast to coast to coast.
Firth said he paints his face when he is on his runs to recognize women and water - two issues he said have been adversely affected by colonialism in Canada.
He has no intentions of slowing down and expects to run across the country again - this time with indigenous youth and the impacts of residential schools as the focus.
Firth will be at Northern United Place Tuesday at 6 p.m. for the screening of a documentary about him and his running.
Proceeds from the event will go to help women in crisis in the city.
