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.