I have been watching the satelite photo's daily and from what I can tell, the Wanipigow River system is open water, including, Wanipigow Lake, Wallace Lake and Siderock.

The bottom end of Lake Winnipeg appears to be breaking up and the Winnipeg River has been open awhile and the narrows at Bloodvein and Matheson Island is mostly open as well.

We are going to drive up to Wallace this weekend for a look see, despite the fact the park there won't open til the May long weekend, we will walk in and see how it all is.

Thanks for the update.

Where are you watching...url?

With the east wind there is lots of open water on the south east section of lake wpg.

If you do drive up, I'd be interested to know how the water levels are on the black river.

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/realtime/?calendar

Just click on the day on the April calendar and it will open the photo's for that day. Our area was 16:45 and 18:25 today and is generally around that time. Just pass your curser over the thumbnails and it will show where on the continent that photo was taken. Todays photo, the bottom end of the lake was cloud shrouded. There is a portion of open water on Hudsons Bay as well.

I figured with the wind today it would help push the ice around, given that the south end is open from flood waters entering the lake, which are visible in the photo's.

We are tossing around the idea of taking the boat up and doing some paddling and possibly staying saturday night at Birch Falls. We will be happy to check the water levels for you and will post photo's upon our return. With temps in the high teens and even 20 for sunday, it shouldn't take long now.

Last year we went into Siderock on the May long weekend and the ice had only gone out the week before, so this year is really early.

These are todays satelite photo's of Lake Winnipeg...

We are heading up north tomorrow for the first time and paddling in April!!

Todays satelite photo shows most lakes and rivers are open already and the 3 days of wind we have had have shoved the ice around and opened alot of water on Lake Winnipeg.

The snow had been out of the bush for several weeks now so I'm expecting water levels to be low, but we shall see tomorrow. Photo's to come...

We just returned from our 500km round trip to paddle for 2 hours...

It was rather stunning to see how low the water is this early. At Birch Falls on the Wanipigow, it was down about a foot from last October. The Manigotagan is low as well and likely the Black too although we don't know what normal levels are for that river. The bush is very dry, there is standing water in ditches but that is about it. There is lingering ice along some shores on the rivers, but it is above the water level and with temperatures in the high teens and low 20's, it won't last long.

We did have a nice paddle and saw, 4 swans, 3 hawks, 16 turtles, dozens of ducks and an eagle. There were some black flies out at Birch Falls but they weren't biting, and we brought a couple of mosquito's home from the Black River stop on the way back. They are out, but again, not biting.

The following photos will show the water levels and for Wood Falls on the Manigotagan, I added a photo from last October when we were up to show the difference.

The October photo of Wood Falls isn't high water, that is normal water levels.

We paddled the Wanipigow putting in at the English Brook park area. We went upstream towards the lake a few km then came back to the park.

The busy beaver photo is just a small portion of a section of riverbank likely 500 feet long that had been clear cut for the lodge across the river.

It was on the way back we saw all the turtles, mostly sunning on logs but also in the water.

You know you're hard-core when...

Canoeheadted.

For us, going up to that area, is like going home. We spend as much time as we can up there every year.

We are pondering going back up there in 3 weeks for the opening of fishing season and will be back on Siderock Lake for the May long weekend.

I did forget to mention the Winnipeg River is low as well. The dam at Powerview is closed excepting the turbines. This is the first time I have seen it that way in 3 years.

Karin,

The comparison picture of last fall with this spring is striking. You have me wondering if this is not going to be a good year to run the bloodvein. Having never been there, I am asking myself if a lot of those rapids are going to turn into portages for lack of water.

What do you think?

There are so many variables it is hard to know at this early stage. We could get a deluge of rain like we had last summer, or it could rain alot in Ontario which would effect the Bloodvein more than rain here. We haven't paddled the Bloodvein so you would need to ask others what it is like in low water as it appears it could be this summer.

Last year, highest water levels in 50 years all season long and now, below summer levels in April. Our own trip might include more walking than paddling the way things are going.

Only time will tell of course and for you, a great expense to come up here for that trip so I understand your reservations with the water levels.

As for April showers... no rain in the forecast all week.

I could paddle the length of my street tonight.

With all the rain we have had in the 'Peg yesterday and today, water levels are way up, in my basement too. It is raining almost as much up north as well. Here in the city it has been like 1-3" on friday, far more than that today, likely in the 3-5" range. My street has 8" of standing water that is 100 yards long.

The forecast is for as much as another 3" tonight, up in Bisset they are forecasting up to another 2". That should take care of low water for a little while.

Karin so true I think we won't have any trouble on theBroadleaf up to 100mm in WCPP in the past 24 Red L 45 mm past 24h with 25 mm forcast today
Hugh

Depends on what you consider North. Only up to maybe Ponton. We have barely gotten any rain, and had very little snow over the winter. We got maybe 1/2" last Sunday, drizzle/mist Mon, Tues, Wed not adding up to much, and nothing since. The rivers up here are definitely the lowest I've seen then in the 7 years I've been here. The Nelson, which is the drainage of a good chunk of North America, is much more affected by southern rain, and is still low but not as low as I've seen it, and it will come up when all that southern rain gets here.