Well, we got off to smooth start on Friday. Cam Dube got us to the bus station with time to spare so we could organize our gear. We were a little bit stressed about being able to get all of our gear on tot he bus with no hassles, as some bus drivers give you a hard time about extra gear. We had 3 custom made sleds, six 120 liter duffel bags, 3 pairs of skis, and 3 backpacks to put on the bus, and the bus was already totally full! The bus driver was pretty friendly, and had no objections to putting all the gear on the bus if we did all of the loading ourselves. With such a big mission to come, we miraculously were able to stuff all of our gear into the fully loaded bus.
It was a long 39 hour bus ride with lots of Tim Horton stops, lots of weird people, and the scare of no bathroom for 39 hours! The bathroom door on the bus was broke, and the bus driver was unable to fix it. But, Neil was able to fix the door with a Leatherman and duct tape, and saved the day! We all slept pretty good on the bus, and arrived in Grand Rapids at 3:29 am on Sunday morning, January 9th, 2011.
After some shut-eye, we reorganized our gear and our sleds with the intention of possibly setting out on the lake that day, but not without gaining some local knowledge first. We met a native man from the reserve named Robert who told us he could show us where we could start our trip and give us some information. However, he said that he had to find a truck first. We didn’t think we would ever see him again, but after 45 minutes, he returned with three buddies and his wife. One guy’s face was covered with tribal tattoos, and looked kind of like a native Mike Tyson. Mark took one for the team sitting in the cab of the truck with Mike Tyson, while Neil and I rode in the pick-up on our way out of town onto Lake Winnipeg.
We decided to stay one more night in Grand Rapids, and spoke to more locals, and the RCMP to get more information about the conditions of the lake. We also took the time to fine tune our skis, sleds,and triple check our gear. We took the opportunity to pack in as many calories as possible, as we will be burning 5000-7000 calories a day for the next 2-3 weeks. Departure time is tomorrow morning, January 10th, at 9 am. Keep an eye on the site; we will call in via the sat phone every couple of days with an update.