In mid-June, we took a trip to Prince Albert National Park in Saskatchewan. We've been here before and were looking forward to coming back, this time slightly ahead of the summer crowds. The wildfires to the north of the park caused a bunch of closures in the park, which altered our paddle plans some. Our first day there, we paddled the first bit of the Waskesiu River, from the marina to the bridge.
Before you can paddle in the park (this year), you need to have your boat inspected and cleaned (if your boat has been out of province in the last 45 days). This requires an appointment booked head of time and a quick hot-water wash to kill zebra mussels. No big deal and the staff were great.
The marina has lots of parking and four boat ramps with docks as well as a sandy launch to the right in the photo above. There is normally a fee to launch but not for paddlers.
It was a bit stormy the day we paddled so the photos are a bit dreary. It was nice in person! We went left (east) off the launch and over to the mouth of the river.
There were lots of pelicans and we got chewed out by a very angry loon.
The river is basically what you see below: reeds giving way to a mostly fir forest. There is a current, but barely, so you can float downstream if you want. It was a very easy paddle back upstream when we were done.
We saw lots of birds but no big animals (we did see a bear on the road in, though, and lots of elk and deer at other times).
The float eventually ends at the bridge. You can carry past the plastic floats, stone dam, and footbridge (maybe 100m) and continue on to the highway if you want. This would be a long paddle and you'd be in and out of your boat a lot carrying over low spots, based on what we saw when we hiked downstream of the bridge the next day.
We turned around and paddled back. There were eagles and osprey overhead, pelicans, lots of ducks with babies, and a big beaver lodge.
This was about a 4km round trip with no power boats anywhere around us and took maybe an hour and a bit (we went slow, enjoying the float).
Happily, the weather improved for the rest of the trip!
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