Our canoe trip down the Bloodvein River from headwaters to Lake Winnipeg struck my brother and I as a paddler’s version of A Tale of Two Rivers.
The first section - The Bloodvein River headwaters in Woodland Caribou Provincial Park - involved lots of lake paddle. After portaging in from Trout Bay at the west end of Red Lake, we paddled through Douglas Lake, Hatchet Lake, Crystal Lake, and Indian House Lake on the way to Knox Lake. Then it was on through Murdock Lake, Larus Lake, and Mary’s Lake to Artery Lake and the Ontario-Manitoba border. Along with some backbreaking portages, the first week on the headwaters offered two of the finest pictograph sites we have ever visited, as well as a few other minor ones that were worth the detour.
The second section - The Bloodvein River in Atikaki Provincial Park in Manitoba – that is, West of Artery Lake, is where the Bloodvein truly becomes a river – a more intimate one framed by stretch after stretch of vertical granite rock face along its shores. The rapids (some eighty by Hap Wilson’s accurate count!) are of the ledge type, making most necessary portages short and easy. One memorable campsite would be bettered by the one the following day, and it in turn would lose its rank the day after that.

The Manitoba section of the Bloodvein River from Artery Lake to Bloodvein First Nation on Lake Winnipeg makes an incredible two-week canoe trip - ten to twelve days to spend on the river and, depending on where you're coming from and whether you can afford to include a bush plane drop off or pick up, two to four travel days.

I’ve just finished a series of posts for the ten days we spent on the Manitoba section of the river in Atikaki Wilderness Park. While it may be a bit late to be planning a Fall trip, the summer of 2015 won’t be long in coming!
If you want to see more, here is the first of the posts on the Manitoba section of the Bloodvein - just click on the link to get started.
http://wp.me/p25mXk-2o8