Willie Trapper, 29, journalist
I went out on a joyride on the lake one day. I wanted to set a record. In one place, I saw a bump. I thought it was just a snowpile. But it was a “mistissini.” When I hit it, my skidoo flew about 15 or 20 feet. I flew off the skidoo in the air. I got up as soon as I landed, but my skidoo kept going. It stopped about 30 feet away.
Lawrence Jimiken, 47, director
Once when I was young, I was in Waskaganish doing some spring goose hunting. We went out in the bay to get our hunting equipment. The ice was still fairly solid in the morning because it was cold. On the way out, the person in front of me fell through the ice. We had to get him out first. By the time we got the equipment it was warmer and we knew we would have problems on our way back.
We had a sled with a boat on it just in case. As we were going back, I looked back and the ice was falling as we were going. We were still 1 kilometre from the shore. Our saving grace was we were going so fast. Suddenly, I got stuck. The front of the sled went under a layer of ice. When I stepped off the skidoo, I went through. I was still 100 feet from the shore.
I got out, but we couldn’t go fast enough to get to shore. Some men came out from the shore with a big boat, and we put everything in it. Let’s just say we walked very fast and very gingerly to the shore. We made it.
Thomas Jolly, 40, president of JBCCS/host of Team France
My dad, he was about 70, had a brand new skidoo and he wanted to show it to us. He came to my place and we sat around for a while. Then he went out to start the skidoo. We heard the machine start and went to the window. We saw the machine going by us with no one on it! It went straight into the bush.
Aurillon Frederic, 33, Team France
We slept in the woods on the second night. We were the only team to do that. We cut some trees and put them on the ground. We made a hole in the snow and a little tent with branches. We made a fire. It was cold! Minus 40. We had no matches—just a spark gun. We took a little gas and soaked the racing card with it, which we lit to start the fire. It was going almost the whole night. There was a little wind that blew the smoke into our “tent.” We were completely asphyxiated by smoke. We slept in sleeping bags, but they were soaked and they froze. Happily, we had survival kits. In the kits were some sausages, which we sucked on for food. Of the three of us, we didn’t sleep much all night. It was horrible! Everything was completely frozen. About 10 kilometres away, there was a trappers’ cabin, where we stopped for some coffee and some cakes (bannock). It was quite an adventure!
Don Saganash, 34, Team Waswanipi
We were heading to Whapmagoostui and we were in 2nd place. So my partner stopped me and I asked him, “What’s wrong?” In the middle of the race, he told me he wanted to take a dump! That’s with overalls and it was -39! There were no trees around. It was open tundra. I reached the other team and he told me, “Where’s your partner?” So I told him he had to take a dump. No choice! So he laughed.
(A true story from Raid Des Braves ’97.)
Michel Letourneau, 47, MNA for Ungava riding
I’m the honourary co-president of the Raid Des Braves with Matthew Coon Come. In Lebel-sur-Quévillon, officials asked us to do a couple of laps during the Prologue. Me, I don’t race a lot of skidoos. So I said how does it start? Where are the brakes? I got to a little hill and I was trying to go up it. It was a brand new machine so I didn’t want to break it! I wasn’t using enough gas, so I started sliding backwards down the hill. It stopped there and an Inuit guy ran out and pulled me back on the track. When I came in, it was four or five minutes after everyone else. I came in with my arms up like I was the winner, but I was the last one. So it was fun. Everybody was laughing.
Margaret Diamond, 47, nurse
My second skidoo was my first big machine. I used to have problems starting it. Once, I had to go someplace. I was in my yard. After pulling at it for half an hour, I was getting tired. I had the bright idea of tying up the throttle with one of those garbage ties. So of course, on the first pull it started and took off! It went right between two trees and got stuck.
