On Sunday morning, we awoke to a beautiful sunny day and the stunning site of the lake. After breakfast, we collected our rations and camping stoves as we had been unable to bring these over with us on the flight. Following a few last words from Jake on ‘bear awareness’, we set off for our first night’s destination at Roseland Lake. During the afternoon trek, we were fortunate enough to see a couple of beaver lodges and also dams constructed by the beavers. Later that evening, whilst members of the party were on the shore of the lake beaver spotting, Major Steve Rayson noticed a beaver lodge on the far side of the lake. He started to describe where this was to everyone when WO1 Mick Lincoln interrupted with: "Is that the one next to the tree?", to the great amusement of the rest of the group as there was a forest of silver birch trees surrounding this particular lake! We then all retired to bed, as the sun was going down, at the particularly late time of 8.00 pm!

Monday morning dawned bright, sunny and warm, and after a hearty breakfast of sausages and coffee we set off on the second leg of our expedition, which was an 18 km trek to Honey Lake. This lake had been named after LSgt Hedley Honey and was where we were to return later in the week for the dedication ceremony of this recently erected cairn. During the morning, some alarm was caused when Major Steve Rayson and Major Alan Clydesdale, who were at the front of the group, spotted a black bear in the trees ahead. However, as they were contemplating their next course of action the ‘bear’ turned around and it became obvious that this was in fact a very indignant looking cow!! That night, we went to sleep to the sounds of the coyotes calling to each other in the woods behind us, only to be awoken shortly afterwards by thunder and lightning and heavy rain.

However, the next morning we arose to the start of another hot and sunny day and no signs of the storm from the night before. Following our usual breakfast of sausages and coffee we set off on the third leg of our journey, a 23 km trek to Munro Lake which was situated on the land of Bernadine and Leo Waine. Shortly after leaving Honey Lake, we were lucky enough to see a moose and later on several deer ran across the path in front of us. One of the other highlights of the day was to pass through Normandeau where we thought we would see some signs of civilisation … and maybe even a shop! However on arrival, we discovered that all that remained of Normandeau was a grave yard. Not even the church existed.

On arrival at our destination we were warmly greeted by the Waines, and after we had set up our camp by Munro Lake, our hosts paid us another visit to check on our welfare and bring us some much needed refreshments. This caused us to have a very late night … 9.00 pm, before everyone retired to bed. This had been a particularly hot day (around 23^oC) and a number of people had sustained minor injuries (blisters) which our resident medic, Sgt Chris Child RAMC aptly dealt with.

The next day, heavy rain brought a change in the weather. Our illustrious leader, Maj Steve Rayson, decided we would spend an extra night here, and the day was spent looking for an alternative route around the far end of the lake, which we could use to return to Honey Lake. Without our bergens, we made much less noise, which resulted in us seeing even more wildlife – an unidentified large bird of prey, a stag and even a lone wolf, all at just a few yards range. Unfortunately we found no passable route North through the swamp, so, following the traditional sausage breakfast on the Thursday morning, we returned to Honey Lake using the same route as we had used to get there. The start of our journey was completed in the rain but during the afternoon the skies cleared and everyone’s spirits lifted. This also meant that on arrival at Honey Lake our tents soon dried out. To celebrate the end of our trek Maj Alan ‘fire starter’ Clydesdale treated us to the biggest fire of the week as the weather had turned quite cold and apparently even snow had been forecast.

Friday morning turned out to be dry but rather cold, and after our last breakfast of our usual ‘you know what’, we packed our kit and put on our cleanest clothes in preparation for the cairn dedication ceremony. A large number of LSgt Honey’s family attended, along with members of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Cairn Committee, Royal Canadian Legion, a Chaplain, and (to the delight of WO1 Angie Jones) a Canadian Mountie, SSgt Colin White, in full dress uniform. Afterwards, we picked up our bergens for the final time for the trek back to Lac La Biche. After a much needed shower, we enjoyed a barbeque with our hosts to celebrate the completion of our trek. We were very impressed with the Canadian hospitality and their patriotism especially towards service personnel. Unfortunately, the following morning came round all too soon with an early start of 4.00 am to enable us to reach Edmonton airport in time for our flight.

We had had a great time, and hope to be able to visit Canada again - but preferably without having to carry a week’s worth of food etc. on our backs!