Canada by Canoe

Our eleventh segment was one of our most challenging so far. We began by paddling over to the Burntwood River, near Thompson. From there, it would all be upstream travel for the rest of the segment.

The Burntwood River has an unnaturally strong current because most of the flow from the Churchill River has been diverted down it for hydroelectric projects further south. When we were paddling, we noticed that most of the banks had eroded down to steep mud slopes covered in fallen trees. All of the portages had been washed away, overgrown, or simply never existed to begin with, so we had to bushwhack or drag up every single set of rapids.

Thankfully, we got a brief rest at Wuskwatim Generating Station. The Manitoba Hydro workers there showed us an incredible level of hospitality! They fed us a nice dinner and gave us a warm place to stay for the night. We are extremely thankful for their generosity!

We eventually made it to the Rat River, a less chaotic tributary of the Burntwood. To save on time and distance, we did an 11 km bushwhack on an abandoned and he burned out winter road from Suwannee Lake to the Churchill River. Surprisingly, it only ended up taking a mere 6.5 hours.

From there, we paddled across Granville Lake and up the Keewatin River. The Keewatin also had very few actual few portages, so we ended up dragging and lining the canoe up almost all of the rapids, some of which went on for 3 km in a row. Finally, we reached the Lynn River, a tributary of the Keewatin, and of course almost the entire Lynn consisted of rapids that we had to drag up.

For almost the entire segment, we had clouds, cold temperatures, wind, upstream travel, and a fair bit of rain. We’re hoping the conditions improve soon.

We want to give a huge thank you to the Manitoba Hydro team at the Wuskwatim Generating Station. We showed up at their boat launch on the evening of August 7th after an exhausting and freezing day up the Burntwood River, and they greeted us with truly incredible hospitality. It had rained heavily the past few days, so all of our clothes were thoroughly soaked and extremely dirty.

The station crew offered for us to stay with them at their camp, where we were able to shower and do laundry for the first time since we left Ontario. We gratefully accepted, and we were able to enjoy a lovely dinner with the team before departing the next morning.

This segment had been very challenging, with much more difficulty to come, and we cannot express our gratitude enough to the team for providing a much needed respite when we least expected it.

Our tenth segment was short, but brutal. Things started off smoothly as we departed Sea Rapids and set off down the East Channel of the Nelson. This part of the river was full of spectacular open rock faces and countless little islands with a mild yet enjoyable current.

After Cross Lake the character of the river distinctly changed. The Main Channel merged with the East Channel and the water volume picked up considerably. Manitoba Hydro had built portages in the past for this stretch of the river; however, after years of neglect, they’ve all been reduced to brutal bushwhacks.

Easily the most notable feature of this stretch of the Nelson was White Mud Falls - an enormous, powerful beast of a rapid with a standing wave perhaps 10 metres high! The scale and strength of White Mud Falls was simply incomprehensible! Never have we seen water behaving in such a manner before. Even 1 km downstream, there were still standing waves large enough to effortlessly swamp a canoe.

At Sipiwesk Lake, we portaged off the Nelson on a surprisingly well-maintained snowmobile trail to Landing Lake where we fought a relentless headwind with gusts of over 50 km per hour. Eventually, we reached the small rail-side community of Thicket Portage where we witnessed very harsh living conditions and many abandoned buildings.

We then spent hours clearing a path on two abandoned winter roads to eventually reach Paint Lake. There, we were surprised to suddenly see cottagers, campers, and boaters going about their summers. We did a 7 km road portage to Upper Ospwagan Lake and did our food drop early, finishing off the segment.

Our ninth segment was our longest yet in terms of distance. We paddled across Red Lake and gradually all traces of civilization faded as we headed west to Woodland Caribou Provincial Park. There, we made our way across open, rocky portages and stayed on spacious, pristine campsites. We soon reached the headwaters of the famous Bloodvein River.

We decided to re-route and travel all the way down the Bloodvein so we’d have fewer bushwhacks. On our 100th day, we crossed into Manitoba and entered Atikaki Provincial Park, where the Bloodvein picked up steam and rapids became commonplace. Most of the river in Manitoba was surrounded by surreal, scorched areas from wildfires in recent years. It felt otherworldly. We encountered far more paddlers on the Bloodvein than anywhere else up to this point.

We stopped at Bloodvein River First Nation, where we were shown hospitality and kindness. We were lucky to arrive just in time for an educational event marking the 150th anniversary of the signing of Treaty 5 and the tragic consequences experienced by Indigenous peoples around Lake Winnipeg.

We then headed north along the shore of Lake Winnipeg, the sixth largest lake in Canada. We were disappointed and horrified by the abysmal water quality and vast algae blooms covering the lake. We had to paddle up rivers along the shore to find drinkable water because our filter can’t stop algae toxins. The beaches and flat rocky islands were beautiful. We saw a surprising number of terns, gulls, and pelicans. We also had a close encounter with a greedy black bear munching on Saskatoon berries outside our tent, but he caused no problems.

We were relieved to reach the end of Lake Winnipeg and enjoy being able to see both shores as we reached the Nelson River and paddled through Norway House. The locals were extremely friendly, and the community has a rich fur trade history. We did our food drop at the first set of rapids on the Nelson, the picturesque Sea Falls. We finished the segment a day early, despite the extra distance. We averaged about 55 km on paddling days, our highest daily average of the trip.

Segment eight began quite smoothly with an efficient food drop from Latto’s Outdoor Cabins on behalf of True North Aid at Highway 599. We paddled down the Marchington River and passed by some beautiful small waterfalls along the way. We took a shortcut over to Bindo Lake by portaging down Highway 516 from Stranger Lake.

Then, over the course of 2 long days, we paddled across Lac Seul - the 7th largest lake in Ontario. On our second day on Seul we faced brutally high temperatures and vicious headwinds. We checked the weather and found out that the wind was only going to get worse the following day, with gusts of up to 50 km/hr. So, we decided to buckle down and get off Lac Seul as quickly as possible, paddling over 100 km and reaching Ear Falls at 2:00 A.M. Along the way, night fell and we witnessed the northern lights for the first time.

We continued to face extreme heat and headwinds for the remainder of the segment as we paddled up the Chukuni River toward Red Lake for our 8th food drop. Smoke has begun to roll in from the multitude of wildfires across Northwestern Ontario. Luckily, no fires are currently blocking our route. We hope it stays that way as we head into Manitoba.