more weather...

even better...

Timely tip:

When cleaning fish for supper, always give them a whack first or they may jump around. Christy learned the hard way, the fish flipped, the brand spanking new Normark Fillet Knife found flesh, she cut herself across the back of the middle finger of the left hand to the bone, and across the back and around to the front of the index finger to the bone as well. That was the Thursday of the thunderstorms. She bled about a quart of blood before getting it stopped enough to examine and dress.

She needed stitches and alot of them and we were 45km by river into the bush. Egress would not be easy, as we were wind bound the next day and another 2 days to get to Leaf Lake. At that point she decided it was healing well enough to stay a couple days to enjoy the weather and fishing so we didn't leave right away.

By the time we arrived home it was mostly healed and garnered only one day off work. The index finger did not heal straight so there is a slight twist to it now, but all is well.

It was a very good thing we had made up a much better first aid kit this year after having a minimal kit last year when she ripped her leg open.

Canoeing with Christy means having search and rescue on alert, ha ha ha.

and now we come to the end of this trip report. I hope you all enjoyed it and possibly will venture this way and use the info provided. I thoroughly enjoyed doing the journaling and mapping the portages and hope to do it again at some point.

It ended in a sopping wet picnic area, me left alone whilst she rode off to get the truck. Every last mosquito was in attendance for the wait and I walked out to the road and back to keep busy with something.

At one point a truck came along with canoe on roof and I chatted with the occupants, one of whom turned out to be Wapoose. It really is a small world when I can meet a CCR member while standing in the middle of PR 304 in the rain on a Tuesday. Thanks for the smokes, I much appreciated them.

Until next time...

A great experience--only in Manitoba.

_________________
Brian
http://www.JohnstonPursuits.ca

 

Thanks for the detailed and picture-full report!

Bryan

_________________
ColdspringPaddling.com

That's an awesome trip report - thanks for taking the time!

It has been my pleasure to bring this to y'all and thank you.

Thanks Mihun09!
I posted separate entries for the Wanipigow and the Broadleaf; hope I didn't mess up.
Yours in paddling, Allan

_________________

A literal mind is a little mind. If it's not worth doing to excess, it's not worth doing at all. Good enough isn't.  None are so blind as those who choose not to see. (AJ)

It is excellent Allan, thank you very much. I am honoured that you felt the report good enough to include.

On Thanksgiving weekend Christie and I will be going back up to cut a new portage on the W3-6 section of the Wanipigow. The Wallace Lake park gates will be closed as of October 10th so access will be from the Birch Falls picnic area. From my maps the portage will be about 300m in length and we intend to make it as straight as possible but not use the existing trail at the bottom pool as it is too twisty to haul a 18' canoe through. We would have to cut down large trees and I don't want to do that.

The new portage will be heavily flagged and cleared to make it very straighforward for future travellers. The old trail that wends it's way up the river edge will be signed for viewing of the falls and the portage will be signed as well.

This weekend Christie and I got back up north to Birch Falls and paddled up the Wanipigow to the evil portage at W3-6 and did indeed make a portage all the way across. Now, nobody will get lost up there. It is 350 paces across, there is an abundance of tags marking it, I have GPS waypoints on 5 locations, we took a chain saw and cut out all the deadfall as well as hacking a path with a machette. It is like a wilderness superhighway in comparison to what was there.

We also did work on W7, 8 and 9 as well. I will get all the photos, maps and pics of the rapids up as soon as I can.

The maps have been edited for the new portage and info on this section of river. See page 1 of this report.

Last trip of the season in the books.

This was the lowest water we have seen all season.

The following is picture intensive, with the portages and the rapids and falls on the portion from W3-6 down through W9.

I believe that only W8 is runnable, the rest are rock infested or have excessive rock at the bottom.

Next spring we intend to go back up to do further work on the W9 portage and possibly straighten out (shorten) the W3-6 portage. We did work on the landing at W8 and W9. We may try to modify where the take out is at W9 to eliminate the slope. The logging we put in at W9 take out would be under water in high water.

Karin

W3-6

Falls and Rapids at W3-6

Second falls