Minnewasta Lake Trail

Date - April 22, 2018

Length - 12.5 km

Time - ~3 hours

 View looking out over lake Minnewasta

Once again we have no good map of this trail as its before we bought the AllTrails app. The trail is easy to follow, and travels from water level of Lake Minnewasta up to the top of the escarpment over the course of the trail. The last third of the hike is through the town of Morden and on a public walkway through the golf course.

For this hike I had about 18 lbs including my backpack, just getting used to the weight and walking with it. The trail was fun to walk and easy to follow.

First break about 2 km into the walk

Roslyn’s point of view:

The Minnewasta Lake Trail is a good length day hike near Morden. We hiked this trail before any of the tree leaves were grown in so it was a little beak at the time but I can imagine it would be just gorgeous in late spring and summer. The path has some steep inclines and winding narrow paths which keeps the trail interesting and rewards you with some fantastic views of the lake. This trail is popular with bikers, and there are some sections where it would be hard for a fast moving biker to see a hiker in time to stop so be sure to listen for bikers and make your presence known. Near the end of the trail we walked on the edge of a field, cut across town and through the golf course of the community walking path to finish up the walk.  

On this walk we upped the weight in our backpacks for testing/training. My pack this trip was at about 15 pounds and was very comfortable. The next test will be to upping this weight to our expected full pack weight of 25 pounds. I also purchased a matching walking pole to complete my set and tried them out on this trail. They proved to be very helpful on inclines and declines by allowing you to use your arms to help with the climbs. I haven't quite got the rhythm of using them on flat ground yet but I'm sure I will find my groove after a few more treks. But overall so far I am enjoying the walking poles.

Optional rock scramble. Completed it with poles and a backpack which was fun.

Tamarak Trail

Date - April 14, 2018

Length - 16 km, 12 km of trail, 1 km to/from trailhead, 2 km getting lost

Time - ~4 hours

Unfortunately, we do not have a map of the trail as we hiked it since we didn’t have AllTrails yet. However there is a good map of Birds Hill Provincial park available at this link: https://www.gov.mb.ca/sd/parks/pdf/park_maps/birds_hill/birds_hill_park_map.pdf

Roslyn looking back down the trail we just hiked

In Roslyn’s words:

The Tamarack trail in Birds Hill provincial park is very conveniently located for Winnipeg and surrounding residents which makes it easy to get “lost” in the woods on a weeknight or a weekend where you want to get some fresh air without the driving. There is a bit of a walk to get to the actual trail head from the parking lot, but i mean, you came here for a walk anyway right? If there is still a good bit of snow on the ground however, it makes finding the start of the trail across the field difficult. (For those going to try this trail for the first time, follow the sparsely placed pylons on the left side of the field and head straight for the treeline). The path is very flat and easy to walk as well as wide which is nice for walking side by side rather than single file. Hikers share the trail with bikers and equestrian riders, which we did get to see, so be sure to yield for horses. We walked this trail while there was still a half foot of snow on the ground and found it much nicer with over the shoe cleats, although Connor and I both lost one of ours somewhere on the trail. Time to go shopping for better cleats. There are not any spectacular views, it is instead a peaceful walk through the woods, which when you live in a city is a treat in itself. With the snow on the trail, it was quite an aggressive first mid sized hike of the season, but I do look forward to walking it again when there are leaves on the trees.

This was also the first hike where I started testing some equipment. I had my Women's Ozonic OutDry Backpack  on with only about 8 pounds in it (including the pack) just to feel how it sat for a long period of time. It was very comfortable and fit the shape of my back very well. I will make a full review of this pack after a few more uses at full weight. The other piece of equipment I was testing was a Compact Walking Pole from Mountain Warehouse. I was not sure how I would feel about using a walking pole so I had only bought one. It was kind of odd carrying only one stick and I did not see much benefit but felt that with two it may be a different story. I have since bought a matching one and tried it out, it worked quite a bit better.

I found the hike to be a fun trip as well, although the snow made it much more taxing than we were expecting it to be. I had my backpack weighing in at 12 lbs for the test run and found that it went pretty well. At the time of this hike we were both slowly working up to having a 30 lb backpack.

Bunn's Creek Trail

Length - 3 km Point to Point (hiked as a return)
Time - 31 minutes

Bunn's Creek Trail, with a detour due to flooding

View down the creek in the early spring time

Bunn’s Creek Trail is a small 3 km trail running through North Kildonan in Winnipeg, MB. It traces its way along side Bunn’s creek as it winds its way through the suburbs. The trail and creek are lower than the houses in the area, and there are plenty of trees hiding people’s backyards and masking the noise of traffic in the area, making it easy enough to forget that there are thousands of people within a few minutes of you.

The trail is well groomed gravel for most of its length with minimal pavement or concrete, making it fairly easy on the joints as compared to walking on sidewalks or paved trails. Most of the people we have seen on the trail are homeowners in the area and generally well past middle age. Many people also walk their pets on the trail, which has been fine for the most part. On one of Roslyn’s solo walks she did run into an off leash dog, but she managed to find its owner after about 10 minutes. 

For a quick outing to remind ourselves of what trails can be like it serves it purpose well.

In Roslyn's words:

"This quiet urban trail is the perfect weekday adventure when you come home from work wishing someone would pick you up and through you in the woods. The path is impressively long for an urban trail, well groomed, and follows a little creek through a tunnel of trees. The west trailhead is about 100 meters away from a Mountain Bean coffee house which makes a lovely half way break or a trail end reward. There is a parking lot on the west trailhead and residential street parking on the east trailhead. The trail can be very icy in early spring so over shoe cleats may be a good idea. Early spring is also the time when the creak can be a bit smelly. Over all, this urban trail is a lovely afternoon stroll beneath the trees, listening to the creak babble and, at least for a little while, leaving the daily rush and hustle behind you."

A different view down Bunn's Creek in the early spring

Roslyn and I have completed Bunn's creek as a return now three times and plan to do so a few more times through out the summer as a quick outing to get a morning coffee and a snack. Each time the scenery has been a bit different and we are excited to see how it changes through out the spring and summer!

P.S. - We are planning on uploading the actual route for the trail in the future when we are able to walk it again without the detour.

First Steps...

Having been interested in day hiking for years, my wife, Roslyn, and I, Connor, finally decided to try a backpacking trip last September with a friend of ours (who also had never been backpacking). We gave ourselves two weeks to prepare. In a rush of buying items, trying out backpacks, and planning the trip we finally got to the night before we were to leave. Still unable to fit all our gear into our backpacks (we were using regular sleeping bags, had only one 50L pack and a regular backpack) we were a bit on edge about going. Waking up to rain put a final nail in the coffin and we went for a day hike instead. Living in Manitoba, Canada, with September pretty much over, that ended our chance at a backpacking trip for 2017.

Not to be deterred, my wife and I have planned another trip for the third weekend in May. We slowly reviewed and bought gear all winter. We’ve already completed 43.5 km of practice trail. We have binged the internet on vlogs and blogs on hiking. And we have been bitten by the PCT bug. This time, so long as it doesn’t snow on us, we are heading out to do our first backpacking trip.

Having tried to find information on local hiking and backpacking we were disappointed to see that there was a distinct lack of good quality images and video like you see for big trails like the PCT, CDT, and AT. After doing our second practice trail for the year, Roslyn and I decided that we could start to fill in the missing pieces.

So, this is our attempt to document the trails in our area, the gear we use, the people we meet, and our plans for building up to doing 1000+ mile section and thru hikes.

What we’ve completed so far this year:

Buns Creek Trail, inside the city of Winnipeg – 6 km x 2, 5 km x 1 (trail was flooded and the detour was shorter than the trail)

Tamarack Trail, in Birds Hill Park – 16 km (12 km trail, 2 km to walk to and from the trailhead, 2 km getting lost)

Minnewasta Recreational Area Trail, Morden – 12 km

Assessippi Bridge to Campground Trail – 3.5 km

Hunt Lake Trail, near West Hawk Lake in White Shell Provincial Park – 13 km
Kinosao Lake Trail, Riding Mountain National Park - 7.4 km
RMNP East Boundary to East Deep Lake via J.E.T, with a day hike - 42.6 km

Over the next week or so we will be posting reviews, AllTrails maps, and general commentary on each trail.

What we are planning on doing:

Mantario Trail to the first campsite, White Shell Provincial Park – ~25.4 km + a day hike TBD, our first overnight backpacking experience

Pisew Falls – Kwasitchewan Falls, near Thompson Manitoba – 22 km return, two day overnight

Mantario Trail thru hike,  White Shell Provincial Park – 64 km point to point, four day overnight

We will be posting our planning on some of these future overnight trips, as well as overviews of each trail, AllTrails maps, video (hopefully) and plenty of pictures. We are planning on posting Monday and Thursday every week, and will hopefully get caught up sometime this summer.

Can’t wait to get started.