Powerview/Pine Falls,MB Resupply
We arrived in Powerview/Pine Falls, Manitoba last night for our first resupply! Today we are on day 12 of our trip. We pushed off in Big Falls, Minnesota early on May 6th with a beautiful first day. The Big Fork River had a wonderful current and some amazing scenery to go with it.
We quickly jumped onto the Rainy River and headed west where we were met with some rainy days, but a lovely tail wind. We used our sail to help us make some good distance on the river. Quickly, we were in a routine and able to get ourselves a day and a half ahead of our schedule.
Towards the end of the Rainy River, we officially crossed into Canada and moved onto Lake of the Woods, our first of several large lakes to cross. We spent a few days crossing the lake and its many islands, some areas with favorable wind, others without it. Only one day were we unable to move because of the wind, but we were able to squeak in a half day of paddling before stopping for the wind at a large stretch of open water.
Our last day on the Lake, we had a long day, with a few large stretches of tailwind that allowed us to sail quickly across the northern parts of the lake towards the town of Kenora. Due to increased development in the area, we spent the night in Kenora before making our first of 8 portages around the Dams along the Winnipeg River. The Winnipeg River system had many larger lakes at the beginning and even the smaller stretches of river had very little current to work with. We were able to continue to make good time, but a different pace from the Big Fork and Rainy Rivers from earlier in the trip.
Each day has been fairly similar on the Winnipeg River, crossing some various sized lakes, before the river narrows for sections, then widens again. We have averaged about 1-2 Dams we needed to portage around a day on the Winnipeg River.
Before arriving in Powerview/Pine Falls in the afternoon, we contacting our friend Brian who lives in the area to check on places to camp before entering town. Brian said he had some friends who were out of town, but live just below the dam on the river who graciously allowed us to stay in their yard while we received our resupply.
We made sure to assure the neighbors next door that we indeed had permission to set up a tent in their backyard and to our luck, we were able to meet the wonderful Paul and Linda Desrosiers next door. Both Paul and Linda are two of the nicest folks we have met and were incredibly generous in offering us anything we needed.
This morning, Zach’s dad, Troy, drove up to meet us in Powerview to help with the food resupply and bring back some items we no longer needed. Around the same time, Brian and his wife Penny showed up with the food and gas we had sent home with him a few months ago at the Far North Symposium. We had a wonderful time catching up with them and sharing stories from the early parts of the trip. All of their help with the resupply has been incredible and we are so grateful.
We spent some time mid day reorganizing our food and taking out any unnecessary gear and food for the next lag of the trip. It went quite a bit faster than we expected, but it felt good to do some reorganizing of our stuff. Around 1:30, Troy took off and headed home to Minnesota. We spent a good portion of our afternoon enjoying a day of rest while conversing and sharing stories with the neighbor Paul. A few days full of new and old friends and family with many smiles and laughs to rejuvenate us for the many miles ahead!
We are now leaving the Winnipeg River system tomorrow and working our way north and across Lake Winnipeg - the biggest lake of our trip. We are expecting to have a more irregular schedule as we move when the wind will allow us. Likely, some days we will be unable to move at all. A large lake, but we are excited to see what it all has to offer! We look forward life on the big lake for the foreseeable future and look forward to our next resupply at the end of the Lake in Grand Rapids, Manitoba. More updates to come then. Thanks for following along!
