Churchill River Odyssey - August 2013

Saskatchewan

Stanley Mission to Nistowiak Falls to Stanley Mission

Canoe Trip 

 

 

 

 

Although this journey began with 6 prospective paddlers, as the weeks wore on and the deadline came closer, folks began cancelling until only I, Alex, remained. Undeterred, as the time had already been booked off work, this journey was undertaken solo.

 

The starting, and ending point, was Stanley Mission, Saskatchewan.

 

As the map above demonstrates, its far and away up north from my summer stay in Tisdale, Sk. A total of 454 km, deep in the North Saskatchewan wilderness.

 

La Ronge (see below) was my destination for the first night. This is pretty much the last settlement of any size along this highway. Anywhere north of La Ronge is lake and forest, with scattered Indian reservations.

 

 Road signs while driving...

 

 Campfire + Campsite at La Ronge

Forest behind my campsite

 

Anyone remember these old pedal-flush toilets?



A Mushroom by my site



Dreamcatcher a hitchhiker (who claimed to be a Cree Medicine Man) gave me



 

The first day was spent driving up north, stopping for supplies at various spots along the way. I gave a hitchhiker (who claimed to be a Cree Medicine Man) a ride from La Ronge to Stanley Mission, and this gave me a chance to ask about the route, what to expect bug-wise, and some of the local history. As a parting gift, the man gave me a dreamcatcher (seen above), as well as a blessing for my spirit stones (which are never far and away from me).

 

 

This is my first view of the mighty Churchill, Canada's 2nd longest river (located entirely within our borders) and a major route for Voyageurs and Explorers of the 17th-19th centuries.

 

After a great night's sleep (the Cree blessing perhaps?) I set out early in the morning. From La Ronge, Stanley Mission is still 100km northeast down a highway (for 30kms) and dirt road. I loaded up on a traditional breakfast of A&W Bacon 'N' Eggers, bought some local made beef jerky, and drove off.

 

 

 

I arrived at roughly 10am in Stanley Mission, which had been my push-off time on the itinerary. After unloading the truck and parking, I proceeded to begin loading up the canoe with supplies. 3 canoes pulled up while I was preparing to leave, and had just come from a 3 day trip to the Falls and back. They were concerned at my going alone, and that I didn't have a map (I had Google Maps on my phone...), and so gave me their map and offered advice on the Stanley Rapids and the Frog Narrows, two tricky canoe points along the way.

 

 

My first stop was just across the water. The Holy Trinity Anglican Church was built in 1860 by the founder of Stanley Mission, and is the oldest still-standing structure in Saskatchewan. Raised Anglican, it was a spiritual moment for me when I walked up to the church.

 

View of Stanley Mission from the church pier



 

The view of the church on my way downriver

 

Luckily for me, I picked what was one of the hottest and least windy weekends of the summer to partake in the expedition. The water had a definite current which was especially noticeable in the various chokepoints between land and islands, but as I was heading downriver it served to keep me moving at a steady pace.

 

 

A nice view just after the church

 

A video of the first lake (East Mountain Lake) before the Stanley Rapids

 

There were lots of boats full of fishers and tourists going past me nearly the entire trip. There were even a few other canoeists too, although we didn't cross paths until later. After coming to the north end of the first lake, I approached the first portage, which avoided the Stanley Rapids (Big and Little). Looking back at this point, I was pretty happy to have the map the other paddlers had given me. Without it, I may have accidently gone the wrong way into the Big rapids (which would have severely ruined my trip).

 

Still, the portage was no cakewalk, as the rollers and wood meant for making portaging as easy as pushing the canoe (instead of unloading and carrying piece by piece) was half underwater, with a VERY swift current.

 

Views of the Little Stanley Rapids from the portage

 

Portage #1

 

 Looking back up the portage (sorry for the finger)

 

Video at bottom of Little Stanley Rapids

 

After this first portage, it was (almost) open water straight to Nistowiak Falls. For lunch at this point I ate a bag of beef jerky while I crossed Drope Lake. Also, I happened to pass 2 people in a canoe out in the lake, whom I ran into later on in the trip on my return voyage. The lake was about 5 kilometres across, with a dogleg on the far side called Frog Narrows.

 

The Frog Narrows aren't rapids, but are a channel between 50 and 100 feet across, and about 400 feet long. It's pretty cool to reflect on all the water flowing all the way down from the mountains through this one little chokepoint. The current was swift, and pushed me through without even my having to paddle. This would however cause me problems later on.

 

After the Narrows came Nistowiak Lake. Paddling across this stretch (I estimate about 5 kilometres) was fun, with much more boat traffic than before. Fishing cabins dotted the sides of islands, and at the mouth of the Rapid River was Jim's Fishing Camp. Rapid River was home to the Falls.

 

Here I pulled in and checked the time - the distance travelled already was about 20 km, and I had arrived at 3:00pm, which was great time considering I pushed off at 11:00am.

 

With the canoe tied I wandered into the camp to find the trail leading up to the falls. Just to show how small the world is, the one person at the camp who wasn't out fishing turned out to be the uncle of a girl who had just the previous week married the cousin of one of my best friends. Talk about 6 degrees eh?

 

I found the trail fairly easily and wandered up to the falls, and my mind was literally blown. I've seen a lot of nature in the SK, but this waterfall was something else!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After spending about 30-40 minutes basking in nature's glory, I made my way back down to the fishing camp

 

 

Checking the time, and seeing it as still only 4pm, I decided to begin making my way back. At this point, I still thought I might be camping out for the night, so my plan was to get back to the Stanley Rapids where there were a few clearings for campsites.

 

I paddled back towards the Frog Narrows, and stuck to the south side of the channel. Going as far as I could with as little effort as possible, I prepared to paddle harder than I had all day. The point I was at was roughly 50 feet wide, and the water had a very strong current squeezing through this chokepoint. Pushing off from shore, I paddled extremely hard for close to a minute, and while not moving forward, neither was I moving backwards. I was pretty worried, as a portage here would take close to an hour.

 

Luck was with me, as I managed to hit an eddy which pushed me forward, free of the main current. 5 more tough minutes followed before I was safely past the Narrows and back in Drope Lake.

 

 

I made it to the Stanley Rapids at about 7:00pm, and stopped to cook some supper (smokies) at a fellow canoeist's campsite. We got to talking and I discovered that the 2 of them in one canoe were not able to paddle up the Frog Narrows, and they had to do the very difficult portage after 3 attempts.

 

I carried my canoe and gear over to upriver of the rapids, and prepared to push in. Another group of canoes pulled up at this point, and after talking to them a while I realized that the one guy and I had been in Navy League (a pre-sea cadets org.) in Regina together back in 1999-00. Small world...

 

At 7:30, instead of setting up camp, I put the canoe in and decided to complete the last 1.5 hours that night. So, on I paddled as the sun began to set, on the final stretch back to Stanley Mission.

 

 

 

I was dead tired towards the end, and it was mostly inertia which carried me the rest of the way.

 

 

At 9:00pm I pulled in at the same dock I'd pushed off of earlier that day.

 

Not a bad time, a 2-3 day 40km trip completed in 10 hours.

 

 

The kicker? That night I drove almost all the way home, reaching Star City by roughly 2:30am (speed limits were seen as suggestions), about 40km away from home. I stopped in to see a friend, and wound up sleeping on the couch.

 

The next day, I made it the last little stretch, and put the canoe away for the summer.

 

 

Until next year,

 

Paddle On.

 

Alex "Odysseus" Phillips