A few years back, I took an excursion train from Cochrane to Moosonee, Northern Ontario, Canada. About 180 miles, give or take.
There is a big granite monument at a church there, that commemorates all the native soldiers who volunteered in WWI. Commendable, obviously, but not the main reason I typed this up. (Historical note - natives were not subject to Draft).
At the time of WWI, there wasn't even a railroad line from Moosonee down to Cochrane. Rough country, even today, rock, water, trees - stuff that made the Group of Seven artists famous. So.... given all the water and rock mixed, the only real way to traverse the 180 miles was to wait for Winter when the lakes were frozen.
The natives in Moosonee had dog teams (for sleds) back then, but they didn't want to take them down to Cochrane as they had no idea if/when they'd be back from the Great War.
So..... circa 1914, these guys WALKED 180 miles in the dead of a Canadian Winter - through very rough terrain that still sits empty today - to go volunteer to fight overseas.
I think of that story now and then - often comes to mind when I watch a Canuck in the wintertime now who is too lazy to get out of their vehicle to get a cup of coffee.
The part that really gets me..... if one could hop in a time machine and go back and talk to those guys... I'm sure all they'd say was something like "No big deal, just something that needed doing".
Rgds, D.