Paddling the Foster River!

In June 1994, we finally got around to paddling the Foster River. Lots of class 3 and 4 rapids and I was really looking forward to it. We ended up doing this trip with just 2 canoes. Hard to find friends able to take 11 days off work! Keith thought it would be fun to try and finish the trip at his cabin on Nemeiben Lake, so we extended it a bit. Since we were all good paddlers, we figured we could average 30 kilometers a day, which would get us out in 10 days, which was just in time to get Sandy back to work. She felt considerable pressure to make it back on time this year. Last year she was a few days late, and had felt guilty about it ever since.

Who went:

			Keith Russell & Judy Russell
			Warren Long & Sandra Gibney-Long (our home page)

Summary:

			Day0: drive LaRonge
			Day 1: fly in, 32k paddled, Portages 1,2
			Day 2: 24km paddled, Portages 3,4,5,6,7,8
			Day 3: 18km paddled, Portages 9,10,11,12
			Day 4: 39km paddled, Portages 13,14,15,16,17
			Day 5: 35km paddled, Portages 18,19,20,21
			Day 6: 32km paddled, Portages 22
			Day 7: 31km paddled, Portages 23,24,25,26
			Day 8: 34km paddled, Portages 27,28,29
			Day 9: 33km paddled, Portages 30,31,32,33,34
			Day 10: 19km paddled, take out in Bell Bay

Saskatchewan Route Summaries:

This trip is an amalgamation of two trips, the Foster River (Route 57) and NemeibenLake to OtterLake (Route 17).

94-06-30: Thursday:

Day 0: drive to LaRonge

Warren went to work untill noon while Sandy stayed home and packed up our stuff. While at work, I got a message from Keith: the airline wants to double the price on us (to $1200!!). We discussed not going, but finally the airline agreed to fly us for close to original price.

Almost as expected, Keith and Judy arrived late, around 2:30. They had a good excuse. They had car problems, along with canoe problems the night before. Keith had put new kevlar skid plates on his canoe, and couldn't get the kevlar to dry. He ended up taking whole canoe into his basement at 2:30 am. to warm it up. It rained most of the night.

We drove to Prince Albert, a little slower than usual because Keith's car still had an overheating problem. In PA, we ate at Venice House (an excellent Donair pizza!). We then passed by Fresh Aire Experience, Sandy and I buying some camp pillows from Ron.

We then continued with the drive to LaRonge. Once there, Keith and Judy took off to meet with the previous owners of their new cabin on Nemeiben. Sandy and I set up out tent at the NutPoint campground, and when Keith and Judy failed to show up in La Ronge, we drove back to the campsite and went to bed. Keith and Judy arrived soon after (~12:00am).

Rest is still:

On to the next page...

Back to the intro

Would love to hear from you: warren.long@shaw.ca

Warren & Sandy's home page

Warrens Canoeing Pages

Warren's Fun Stuff To Do Pages