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A summer to remember

Where has the summer gone? It's seems like yesterday I was waiting patiently for June 24 to come and the big Pulling Together journey to begin. And now here it is, not only the end of summer but the official end of the Pulling Together saga as well.

Where has the summer gone? It's seems like yesterday I was waiting patiently for June 24 to come and the big Pulling Together journey to begin. And now here it is, not only the end of summer but the official end of the Pulling Together saga as well.

It's been interesting to hear people's comments about the journey. Many want to know whether it was hard physically - the answer is a resounding yes. To anyone planning a similar trip, I recommend you make sure your arms are strong and that sitting for hours isn't taxing on your back. If you have fully functional wrists, it's also a bonus.

You need patience with your seatmates. Fortunately, I had a few of the best on my canoe adventure. Keith Nightingale from the Abbotsford Police Department was a super guy through and through. No matter how many times I splashed the poor man, he never once got mad. It's important to remember when you're a new puller to keep your eyes on the road ahead - in this case, the person in the all-important front seat of the canoe. He or she sets the timing for the whole crew. If you're a person like me who's challenged by chewing gum and walking at the same time, it's doubly important your eyes never sway from the pacer setter.

It's easy to wool gather on such a journey. Your mind goes wandering all over the place, and pretty soon you're imagining all sorts of wonderful things - such as if every person in the world went on a similar journey with people they didn't know much about with the objective to understand and share cultures, it might just lead to world peace. At the very least it would be hard for them to shoot their rifles and keep pace with the head puller at the same time.

You need an open mind to travel with 120 strangers and one husband for eight solid days. And it pays when your mate has sore shoulders and hasn't slept properly for several days to keep your requests to a minimum. It's really not a good time to ask him to install the software you need to take another four hundred pictures. Amazingly, I'm still married.

I will never again hear a Native drum without instantly being back on the water with some of the finest people I've ever had the opportunity to get to know.

Summer 2006 is one I'll treasure forever.