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The breakdown"Without Jonah and Ruben, I would have been a goner," Don said. "At one point early on in the trip, the slider of my VK540 partially came loose and started to get wrapped around the suspension frame.
"It was a very serious situation. If we couldn't have fixed it, we would have had to abandon my sled and double up to Paulatuk."
But after three hours of ingenuity in -30 degree weather, during which Jonah and Ruben carefully heated the slider over a Coleman stove to straighten it, the duo had fixed the problem. There was delay, not disaster.
After the sled was fixed there were additional challenges. At one point the group rode through blinding blizzards with howling winds and bad ice - these had Don clutching his sled's handlebars for all he was worth, terrified of losing sight of the two guides.
Then, only a few kilometers from Paulatuk, the shock absorber broke off one of the guide's Ski-Doos and had to be gerry-rigged to the undercarriage - another problem that could have been disastrous.
But at the end of six days - after facing nearly unbearable cold, horrible weather and various sledding setbacks - Don, Jonah and Ruben pulled into Paulatuk.
"I kind of expected a heroes welcome," Don says sarcastically.
However, the tickertape would have to wait. Jonah and Ruben were happy to see their families and they said their goodbyes soon after arrival, leaving Don alone to ponder the vast territory he had just crossed.
During the gruelling trip, Don had grown to respect his two companions beyond comprehension, and though he felt like spinning yarns and telling tall tales of the snowmobile adventure with them, he remembered why he had signed up for this daunting expedition … to rise to a challenge.
He now knew he had the right stuff.