dipping the paddle

The trip down the creek can be divided into two parts. From Regina to Wascana trails and from Wascana trails to the valley at Lumsden where the creek meets the river that calls. Or if you are more ambitious you could just do an over nighter and consume the whole trip at once. This was the original plan but what with the constraints of our everyday lives we were forced to call it in at a day trip and decided to do the second leg of the tour instead of doing it all(maybe we lucked out and avoided some Deliverance type shit by doing so). This is for certain the faster leg of the tour, outside Regina the country is still very flat and the creek does not flow very hard at points. The second leg has a larger grade and is also joined by another creek of sizable girth at which point the river really starts to move. Once this creek, whose name escapes me, is passed, no more ice jams occurred on the river due to the extra flow as they had all been swept down towards the climax. This might seem like a blessing but the ice jams are actually a very fun element of danger. Dodging floating ice bergs that easily outweigh a large car entertains an element of danger that gets your heart pumping and the adrenalin rushing ever so slightly. If you are looking for adventure within the confines of your own homegrown roots this is the trip you need to take.

We tend to take the Wascana for granted living in Regina and see the lake often as a feeble attempt to pretend the location of Regina actually made sense, and that our forefathers did not simply get lazy and set up camp when their feet got tired. The Wascana however becomes very beautiful the further out of the city you get. Large thirty feet banks sometimes loom above the canoe as beavers slap their tails in fear of my giant blue craft. Situated in a typical valley formed by the receding glaciers of long ago, it is, like all other valleys of this sort, immensely gorgeous. Trees constantly flank the river and waterfowl are always being scared up as often as the deer are numerous. The Wascana really is a special place and the best way to explore it is by boat. Come to think of it there really is not a lot of things that I would rather be doing in the first week of April(last year there was still a substantial amount of snow on the ground).