Northern Tier Canoe Base Expedition

July 10 - July 20, 2002

Saturday, July 20, 2002
Was It All Just A Dream?

We got up, had our last breakfast at Wynne's, got ourselves packed, uniformed, and then waited for the shuttle to arrive that would take us back to Winnipeg. It was hard to believe that it was over. I called the 3rd Transcona Scout Group who would be hosting us that night to let them know we were on our way. They warned us not to each lunch on the way as they were preparing a spread for our arrival. The trip back to Winnipeg was uneventful and pleasant. True to their word, 3rd Transcona had prepared a wonderful meal for us. The outpouring of kindness that we enjoyed at the hands of both scout groups really made us feel welcome there. After lunch they took us shopping (I'd managed to lose my reading glasses on about Day Four) and then on a brief sightseeing tour around the city. We stopped at a mall for awhile where we split up to do some more shopping for souvenirs to take home to family and friends, and then went back to the Transcona church building for dinner and another night of fellowship with our new Canadian friends. One of the adults with the group showed us some beautiful walking sticks he had made out of a material called diamond willow. The diamond willow wood is mostly white, but the best pieces for carving grow in such a way as to develop interesting diamond shaped patterns of darker grained wood embedded in the white wood. Carved, smoothed, and varnished the result is absolutely beautiful. Then, to our surprise, we were all presented with our very own rough samples of diamond willow to take home and finish into our own walking sticks. We were honored by the gesture as we'd learned that finding the best limbs for carving was a very time consuming process. Not only did the Canadian scouts give us the willow limbs, but they also presented us with a collection of scouting patches and pins. We had fun spending time with them during the evening and watched a movie or two before turning in.