1984, where it all started. I was a relatively new arrival to Saskatchewan. A fellow gymnast, Billy Paul drove up from California for a visit (another story, to be told another time). Keith Russell, forever the energetic host, also had his father in law visiting from New Zealand at the time, and thought we should show the two of them Nortern Saskatchewan.

Day 1

So, Keith loaded up his old Volkswagon van with their gear, a canoe, his son Shane and his father in law. Billy and I loaded up his truck with our gear and a canoe borrowed from the university. A short while later we were transferring our gear into the canoes. You can see Keith's old VW in this picture. He is very proud of it, but it is slowly disintegrating around him!

Loading up at the Kingsmere River

In this picture, you can see Shane Russell and his grandfather.

We were blessed with hot dry weather and no wind, so once we completed the paddle up the Kingsmere River (and the tramway portage) we chose to the route across Kingsmere Lake to Bagwa, rather than the back lakes. The back lakes can always be done, no matter what the wind conditions, so we felt we should take advantage of the conditions.

The paddle was very pleasant, but Billy and I had to work hard to keep up with Keith. At the time, we attributed it to his canoe being faster, but I now know that Keith is a good and strong paddler. We could see that he was (essentially, Grandpa dipped his paddle in, and waited for the moving water to push it towards the back of the canoe) the only one paddling in the canoe. He later graciously said that it was only because we paddled twice as far, a reference to the zig-zag path I must have taken across the lakes. I now also know that I was using what is fondly (?) referred to as the "Goony" stroke, which is essentially take a stroke, and then drag your paddle behind you and use it as a rudder to steer the canoe back to where you want to go. Not an efficient stroke.

Anyways, we got to our destination, but only after a hard pull across Bagwa Lake, as the wind had come up late in the day, as it reqularly does. As always, we had to paddle straight into it. Keith appeared to not really notice the wind... We set up camp, and settled in for the a pleasant evening, the wind keeping the bugs away. We had arranged to stay at this site for two nights, so there was no rush to do anything at all.

Overnight, the heat continued, and the wind dropped. Billy and I awoke late and discovered that the mosquitoes were so thick on the netting that they almost blocked out the light. Billy and I debated for awhile as to what would be the best technique, and eventually settled on beating on the netting to get them in the air, then quickly unzip the door and run out. It worked, sort of. Only about 30 mosquitoes got into the tent...

Day 2

Looking at the detailed map, we thought it would be interesting to paddle up to a small lake, to the south of the Bagwa channel. We left our gear at the campsite and paddled off in the heat. We finally found the outlet stream, hidden in the bushes, and were able to get the canoes up about 20 feet of the stream! So much for paddling/wading up to the other lake. We hopped out, and hiked up to the lake, which turned out to be a dried up pond, full of stumps. The bugs and heat discouraged any further exploring so we headed back to the canoes, and to the safety of the water. It still amazes me that as soon as you get 20 feet from the shore, the bugs disappear. Except for one or two persistant or confused ones.

We headed back to camp for a dip, dinner and another pleasant evening. Sitting around the fire, Billy learned about mosquitoes. Being a California boy, he had never really been exposed to mosquitoes. Here in Saskatchewan, we have some of the slowest, dumbest mosquitoes in the world. They make up for this with numbers. It is common to slap at them on your arm, and kill several at once. I think my record is 6 at one blow. They are so single minded in their attack, you can frequently pick them off by pinching them between a thumb and forefinger. Anyways, he was actually insulted when one managed to get him through the back of his jeans. It penetrated the jeans, the extra material of the pocket and his underwear!

Overnight we had a visitor or two. A moose and her calf wandered out along the pennisula to feed. This meant that they passed within 10 feet of our tents. BIlly and I were treated to a moose pissing 10 feet away. It sounded like a garden hose, and went on for minutes. They then carried on further out to the tip of the pennisula. When they returned much later, Billy and I were asleep, but Keith was awoken when the moose stopped, and proceeded to strip the branches of a tree next to his tent.

Day 3

The next day we mosied down Lily and Claire. The portages were pleasant, except for exposing us to the mosquitoes. We got to the rail portage, and of course, the push cart was at the other end. We got it, dragged it back to the top, loaded our canoe on it, and took off down the slope. We were in high spirits, and got the push cart up to high speed. This should have been much of a problem, because the cart had reasonable brakes... We came around the final bend, and I applied the brakes. Nothing happened. Billy reached over and helped pull on the lever. I leaned over the edge and looked at the wheels. They were locked up. It turned out that the rails were wet, and the steel wheels slid quite easily. We all bailed out about 20 feet before the 800 pound cart slammed into the solid wood dock at about 15 miles an hour. The canoe shot off the end, and made it most of the 20 feet to the water all by itself (lucky it was aluminum!). The dock was made of logs and 12x12 inch timbers so it wasn't damaged too much, just moved back a foot or so. Fortunately, the rails continued on under the dock a short ways. Unfortunately, the cart had jumped the rails, but Bill and I managed to lever it back onto the tracks using small logs. We finished pushing the canoe into the water, tied it up, and headed back up the deliver the cart to Keith.

We never mentioned our little accident to Keith.

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