Grand Rapids, Manitoba Resupply #2

We left Powerview/Pine Falls feeling rejuvenated and ready to keep moving north across Lake Winnipeg. The morning we pushed off, it was cold and rainy. Even so, Paul and Linda, who we had met in town were there in the cold and pouring rain to watch us push off early in the morning. We waved goodbye as we entered into the lake with a heavy rain, but calm conditions. We felt welcomed onto the lake with its placid waters, but we found out quickly that this sleeping giant would never be calm for long.

At lunch the first day, the waves began to form and within minutes, rolling whitecaps and the wind picked up to gusts over 30 mph. We found ourselves stuck on a beach, waiting for the wind to calm to find a small window that would allow us to move north.

For the past 2 weeks, we fell out of the steady schedule we had at the beginning of the trip and instead embraced a routine of “hurry up and go” and then wait. Early mornings and evenings usually allowed us a few hours of progress before the winds picked up and forced us to the shore to wait them out.

Quite a few people told us about the very low water levels this year in the lake, supposedly the lowest in 30 years someone mentioned. Because of this, the shoreline along the whole lake was largely exposed beach, or big boulders and thick woods.

We passed only a few small communities where larger rivers flow into the lake, otherwise the lake held an incredibly remote feeling to it. Stretching over 250 miles, we often times felt that we very well could have been the only paddlers on the lake for much of our time on the water.

1/3 of the way up the lake, we crossed the “narrows” over the the west side of the lake. This side had several larger bays that forced us deep into them with the wind and sometimes even backtracking to the south just to make progress north.

The waters of the lake were much clearer and less turned up once we reached the upper lake and the lake bottom turned more into larger rocks than the sand and clay from the lower half. The west side and its big bays also boasted some incredible limestone bluffs along the shore, some of which faced north and held sheets of ice that had not yet melted - a reminder how close behind the thaw we were.

For the last week or so on the lake, we resorted to night paddles when we could, we enjoyed the beautiful array of stars and a few subtle periods of the northern lights appeared for us. We were also blessed with some rare south wind for the last few days on the lake, which allowed us to utilize our sail and make steady progress while giving our muscles some much needed rest.

In a fitting way, just as we had entered the lake, our final evening presented glass like waters for us to paddle into Grand Rapids. We paddled throughout the night under its impressive star-filled display and off the biggest lake of our trip. We had family meet us in town to resupply our food for the next section of our route. We have greatly enjoyed the small opportunities to see them at these resupplies!

We were lucky yet again to meet so many incredible people in the town of Grand Rapids. We were fortunate enough to meet Rosely and Caleb shortly after arriving in town. They put us in touch with Muriel and Johnny Halabisky and their family that not only took us in, but our family as well when they arrived on Sunday. They blessed us with an incredible fish fry for dinner where we enjoyed many laughs and moments together throughout the evening.

Monday morning, our family said goodbye as they made the long journey back home while we are finalizing the packing of our gear and resting up before we set off on the next stretch again tomorrow morning. We will head upstream on the Saskatchewan, Sturgeon-weir Rivers, down the Churchill and up the Reindeer River to the community of Southend on Reindeer lake where we will be doing our 3rd resupply. We look forward to River travel, even though most will be upstream, it will be a nice change of pace!

We appreciate the encouragement and support from everyone that has been following along. More to come soon in Southend, SK!