The Winnipeg Tribune, Monday, March 18, 1946

    The Whitehorse-to-Winnipeg mushers - including one woman, four men and seven huskies - arrived in Winnipeg Saturday.

    Met near Polo Park by a city of Winnipeg police motorcycle corps, the travellers were escorted down Portage ave. to Main st. and then to the city hall, where Mayor Coulter, accompanied by members of the Fort Garry Kennel club, extended the city's welcome shortly after all signed the city's guest book.

    For the party it concluded a 2,400 mile journey. They started Dec 7. Their trek took them down the Alaska highway to Edmonton, and then across the prairie west to Winnipeg.

    Heavy freight toboggan on wheels, and six huskies strung out with Pal at the lead, the party entered Winnipeg on Portage ave. west.

    They arrived at the city hall at 1.35 to officially conclude the long trek.

    The lone woman was 22-year-old Mrs. Helen Czech. Dressed in a parka of pure-white Alaskan rabbit with a fox collar, she had made the trip from Edmonton. Unless they travel in a bus, women are not allowed on the Alaska highway. There is no accommodation for them along its 1,700 miles. Mrs. Czech had flown to Edmonton from Whitehorse.

    Other members of the party are Paul Belanger, manager; Mike Czech, Fred Webber, and bearded Chuk Caddy. The dogs, from Pal the lead dog back, were Pilot, Chub, Prince, Taku and Jumbo. Prince is half wolf, half huskie. The seventh dog, Mollie, in the van of the big truck which accompanied the team on its trip, had ridden the last score miles. She gave birth to five pups at Headingly Friday night.

    This is the first dog team to make the trip from the Yukon to Winnipeg using the same team of dogs for the entire journey.

The Whitehorse-to-Winnipeg dog team before reaching Winnipeg Saturday.

    "When we started out." Mr. Belanger said, "we had 11 dogs. Had to shoot one because of distemper, one went lame, and two others had pups."

    Four people admitted they were never happier when they rolled into Winnipeg on their queer sleigh with its "Whitehorse-to-Winnipeg" banner flying.

    They had mushed through blinding snow. "It was so bad at times on the Alaska highway," Fred said, "that we'd get up in the mornings and the dogs would be just big mounds of snow."

    "The huskies, worth from $50 to $100 each, sleep out in all weather. They like the cold best, get sluggish in warm weather."

    They mushed across highway that was down to gravel, and mushed through rain. They improvised with wheels on the sled, starting at Macdonald, Man., because of the thaw. By the time they reached Portage they had worn out 10 pairs of wheels at the rear end.

    "They got hot, burned out," Paul Belanger explained.

    About five miles out of Portage, Thursday afternoon, they lost another set of wheels and were held up an hour while a new set of wheels was bought in Portage.

    Arriving in Winnipeg after their 2,400 miie trek, all had lost about 20 pounds but Fred Webber, who gained, and no one could explain why.

    The dogs travelled the entire journey by foot. They averaged about seven miles an hour. While the party brought mocassins for the dogs feet, they never had to use them, Mr. Belanger said.

    "Their feet are so tough now that even the gravel won't hurt them. But they are a little trail weary."

    The dogs were muddy and wet. "We had more trouble the last 100 miles than during the whole trip," Mr. Belanger said. "At a couple of places they almost had to swim before we got here."

    The dogs are at McLeav's Stables.

    Only member of the party to have been through the west before was Chuck Caddy, and he was so small then he "couldn't remember it."

    The mushers said they'd never seen land so flat, and Caddy expressed it by saying, "The only mountains we saw were grain elevators."

    Mrs. Czech said she hadn't met people so kind before. "They were very nice," she gave a pretty grin and looked slightly bashful.

    She discovered from the trip that she is publicity shy. In fact, they all found that there was all the publicity they could handle.

    They stopped at every small town along the way, gave lectures, and showed films of the Alaska highway and the Yukon. At every point, town, city or on the country road, crowds gathered around them,

    "I wouldn't have been surprised soon," said Caddy, "if they'd tried to feed us peanuts."

    "Well, we've learned a lot about your country," Belanger said, "And we also learned that very few people know anything about the Yukon or the highway.

    "But we think our trip was a success. People would come for miles to see us. One school teacher in Saskatchewan declared a holiday, and brought all her pupils 22 miles by horse team to see us. We met stuff like that all along the way."

    The big blue body of their car has thousands of signatures scribbled across it representing people from the Yukon to Winnipeg. The men's parkas are also covered with autographs and drawings.

    The party cooked its own meals during the Alaska highway trip, but after that usually had meals in restaurants if they could.

    The dogs eat only once a day - at night, after the day's work. Biggest part of their meal is meat.

    The dogs are to be on display at the Hudson's Bay Co. parking lot from 9.30 to 11.30 am. Saturday. The dogs are not allowed free as they would fight. Even in their harness they have to be kept in line or they would start mixing it up.

    The trip was sponsored by the businessmen of Whitehorse to publicize the tourist attractions of the Alaska highway and the Yukon Golden Jubilee to be held at Whitehorse July 22-27.

    The party will stay in Winnipeg "maybe a week." Monday evening the travellers will be guests of the city at a dinner in Moore's restaurant at 6.30.

    After their long trek the five Yukonites are anxious to get back home. Paul is the only unmarried member of the group. The dogs will be shipped back, and the five people from the top of the world will make the return journey in their big truck.

The trip is over as Winnipeg Mayor Coulter congratulates Paul Belanger, manager.