Canoeing the North Saskatchewan River 08/14/2022

My family paddles a lot. For the last several years our summer vacations had some paddling in a canoe and camping involved. We have been to Northern Saskatchewan a couple of times on the Churchill River system.

This last summer we decided to do the North Saskatchewan River. This is a cool river that has a ton of fur trading history associated with it. This waterway has been an important part of Alberta’s history. Mom and Dad have been looking at this river for quite a while. The problem was that there was a lot of class II water. Guess having kids makes you a little cautious.

Day 1: We drive up to the put-in by the Hamlet of Nordegg. Nordegg has a lot of recreational things going for it in the summer. We stopped in for ice cream before finding the put-in on the river. Fortunately, this is only about 15 minutes down the road.

There were a bunch of other people camping near the river. Most had quads or motorcycles. The river people had jet boats. We were the only canoers.

Dinner was smokies on an open fire. The evening was cool as we watched the moon come out. Coyotes did their thing as we crawled into our bags. I love river life.

Day 2: Early start with breakfast of fruit and pancakes. We then packed for four days of travel on the mountain. Today was one of the first trips with the new canoe we bought last spring. It is a 17’ Nova Craft prospector. We had another 18’ Prospector that we borrowed from Karsten Huer a friend of the family.

I travelled with Mom, and Aven went with Dad. Dad was in the stern to start with this day. We are still shaking it out with who is paddling where. We are still expecting a bit of action that day, so we are on guard for anything.

The whole day went well. The problems were pretty simple. Mom and Dad both can move a boat well. We went till about 4 in the afternoon and found a pretty cool camp. We knew we were going to pay in the morning because this site does not get any sun. One of the first things you check for in a site. This was a comfortable location for tents and such, so it was here that we stayed.

Day 3: Late getting up because wait for it……wait for it….. that’s right NO SUN! We crawled out, and mom made her usual amazing breakfast with fruit.

This day was a bit of whitewater on a really fast river. It is amazing to be on a fast river like that. Aven took over the stern on Dad’s boat. She has been doing more advanced paddling this last year or so. She is two years older than me so I guess my time is coming.

Day 4: The morning we got sunlight, so it was a ton easier getting out of bed in the morning. It is always much work to pack up and get going. Today was no different. We got up and running around 10 am. We didn’t have more than 4 hours paddling to get to Rocky Mountain House. Aven and I are in our own boat all day today. It is fun with just the two of us. Aven is good at steering a canoe. I can’t wait to learn myself. Start this summer I guess as I am 13 and a half this summer of 2023.

We got to Rocky around two o’clock, and that was the end of a cool trip. It was off to lunch then the 3.5 hr drive home.

Hope we do this one again.