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Reception was 'overwhelming' FP et et : - A ~<a ~ . PB my mand "TI was told about it, but I didn't expect the jubilation. We started up the river. It was very quiet, like wailing for a gun to go off. We'd hear some clapping, and then quiet again: Then we could see all of the people. I! was overwhelming for me: sO many people and all so happy." Sieve Ogden of Waverley, describing the arrival of himself and his 16 companions who paddled in 40 days from Quebec City to Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, arriving last Saturday afternoon. The 16 men and one boy, who all volunteered 'o0 make the trip, a modern retracing of a trip made roulinely at least once a year belween Quebec Cily and Sainte-Marie in the early 1700s, when Sainte- Marie was an outpost of Jesuil missionaries among the native Huron Indians, were as happy to be home as their relatives, friends, co-workers and supporters were to see them. As the four canoes approached the landing area in Sainte-Marie Park below Sainie-Marie among ihe Hurons, 'wo soldiers froyn the Historic Naval and Military Establishments saluted them with muske! volleys. People lined the far riverbank, the dock, the bridge embankment, and the bridge crossing the highway separating the park and the historic site. The hundreds of people who had been wailing in the heai of a cloudless July afternoon, spectators and those of the over 350 who took par! in Shondecti earlier in the day, left their picnics and chairs and pressed forward to meei the paddlers where they landed, until the crowd was shoulder-to-shoulder, those in froni standing ankle-deep or more in mud and river reeds. "Hello Friends of Sainte-Marie. Is it good to be here!,"' said Bill Byrick, co-ordinator of programs ai Sainte-Marie, and one of the paddlers. Byrick said the trip was an incredible experience. He was sure that the Jesuits of the original Sainte Marie and their helpers felt as he and his companions did as they finished their long and sometimes arduous 'rip to Sainte-Marie, to be received by their friends. "Those original paddlers were incredible men. These guys were only going to work: once they gol here, their work began. Many of them made the trip twice a year for a number of years."' Following a brief welcome, which included a prayer given by Fr. James Farrell of the Martyrs' Shrine, and the singing of songs and giving of speeches by the paddlers, each of whom kept to the character of the person from history who he was portraying, the paddlers continued under the highway and landed on the banks-of Sainte-Marie, and a'tended a formal welcome ou'side 'he main gaie. Official welcomers included Premier William Davis, Minister of Tourism and Recreation Rueben Baeiz, Simcoe Easi Solicitor-General George Taylor, Simcoe North MP Doug Lewis, chairman of the Council on Franco-Ontarien Affairs Roger Regimbal, Midland Mayor Moreland Lynn, and Friends of Sainte-Marie chairman Sandra Flint. Paddlers happy to finish trip Members of the Destination: Sainte Marie group seemed las! Saturday to be as excited that their 40 day trip by canoe from Quebec City by way of the Si. Lawrence River, the Oitawa River, Lake Nipissing, and Georgian Bay, was over, as by the fact of the éxperience itself. Father Siephen Sommerville, who assumed the character of an Italian priest, Pere Bressoni, said, "Ii's good !o be back. As soon as I get home I'm going io sit in every chair in the house. I speni all of ihe time on the trip sitting on the ground." Bill Byrick, who took the character of Robert LeCog, a business agent who made the return irip 18 times in 10 years, said, "I'm glad thai I went bul never again."' I: was physically rough bu mentally worse, he said. 'I was amazed ai how comfortable the rocks were,"' he told a friend. 'You find one with a hollow in il and jusi snuggle in." Less' pleasani memories for Byrick are five foo! waves near Trois Rivieres on the St. - Lawrence, a portage around 'he Lachine Rapids during which the paddlers took 15 hours to proceed 17 miles, and more five foot waves on Lake Nipissing. They wore life jackets all the time, even when they were being filmed by a film crew. The risk wasn'! worth it, Byrick said. Faiher Sommerville said their lasi week on Georgian Bay was "beantiful..= The paddlers didn't have to pu! on shows for people and they could paddle a! iheir own speed, he said.