North Saskatchewan River: Quesnel Bridge to Dawson Park

In late July, I had some family visiting and we decided a fun way to see the city is by paddling through it on the North Saskatchewan. We put our boats in under the Quesnel bridge (south side, just off the road into Fort Edmonton) and pushed off. 

The river was up a bit over normal flow at this time year (rain and maybe a bit of water release upstream). What would normally be a 2.5 hour paddle was done in 2 hours with little paddling on our part.

The water was pretty muddy still and we saw a guy running a sluice box below the Mayfair golf course.

It turned into a beautiful sunny morning.

There were some sirens going over the Walterdale bridge and that set off coyotes on the north and south side, including this guy below the old water treatment plant.

We had to strip off some layers at the halfway point because it was suddenly 25 degrees!

There was enough water the run the channel on the south side of accidental beach but the access was blocked by people trying to cross out to the island!

We eventually pulled out just below the Roland Road bridge in Dawson Park.

Overall, a fun way to see the city and give my niece a Canadian experience.