Back in the Saddle... err the Canoe - Lamprey Rapids Trip

Last weekend we headed out on another adventure, a canoe trip to Lamprey Falls. Depending on the route you take, it is between 12 and 14 km to get there. We had the pleasure of getting there in 16 km due to some detours!

The route we took on Day 2, wind was coming from the west.

Focusing on the route for a moment, you can easily spend the morning weaving through the islands and looking at the scenery on your way in to Lamprey Falls like we did. The water, pine trees, rock, and terrain is pretty classic Canadian Shield. There were plenty of bald eagles as well as other birds to look at while we paddled, and some of our friends saw a giant turtle in the water.

The campsite at Lamprey Falls is quite wonderful as well. There is a wooden shelter with a wood stove in it (presumably for winter use) as well as two picnic tables, a fire pit, and an outhouse. There's also room for 5-8 tents comfortably, but you could squeeze more in. On the north side of the campsite there's a great rock out crop for swimming and staying cool when its hot out.

In total we spent about 5 hours, 45 minutes  paddling, 3 hours 15 minutes on the Saturday in and 2 hours 30 minutes out on the Sunday. The winds were pretty calm both days around 8 km to 12 km. If the wind was coming from either the West, South West, East, or North East at 15 to 20 km/h it would add some time to the trip. You can shelter from the wind in the islands and along the shore, but the long channels north and south of the strip of islands in the middle funnel the wind and waves pretty well if the wind is blowing in the correct direction.

This was our first trip on the water since our mishap on Crowduck Lake and we were pretty nervous about Sunday as the wind was supposed to pick up to 25 km/h in the afternoon. Luckily, everyone with us was on board and we cruised out early enough in the morning to dodge it. Passing some other lakes on the drive home after the wind had picked up, everyone was glad we were not out on the waves we were seeing.

Roslyn and I think it was a good first step back into doing trips out on Manitoba's lakes and we are looking for a couple other trips to do this year still. We also want to do some practice on a day where there are  20 to 25 km/h winds just to get a feel for what its like so we are (potentially) more comfortable with some of the weather we get out here.

2020 Goals Update - The Summer We Cancelled All The Trips!

In February we published a post about our adventure goals for 2020. Now that the year is half over, here is a check in on where we are at how we feel about the changes.

Goal #1 - Travel 600 Adventure Kilometers.

This is a pretty straight forward goal, and we aren't doing too bad. Currently we are sitting at 271.9 km for the year, broken down as Skiing 30 km, Hiking 190.4 km, and Canoeing 51.5 km. 

The biggest thing getting in our way is trip cancellations. So far we have cancelled 3 trips worth of plans (9 days total), which meant that we were unable to do about 120 km of canoeing and backpacking that we had intended to do by this point. And honestly, while we really want to hit the new distance goal, the real heartache over it is just not being able to get outside.

The most ironic trip cancellation was needing to cancel our 5 day trip in Banff due to to much snow and avalanche issues, then cancelling the backup trip here in Spruce Woods Provincial Park due to a heat wave!

Right now we still have 4 more trips planned, which should get us around another 45 km of canoeing, and 75ish km of backpacking. The backpacking number may be much lower as part of it is a mountaineering course we want to take and exact travel distances are given. That would get us up to around 392 km, so packing in another 200 km somewhere between here and Christmas is doable, but might involve more snowshoeing and skiing than expected.

Goal #2 - Plan a Trip with a Resupply Point

Right now it looks like we are not going to have any good length trips to do this on this year. The mountaineering course we want to take provides all the food, and while we could force a resupply on a 3-4 day trip it just doesn't feel legitimate.

Goal #3 - Take a Class 1 Rapids Canoe Course

Cancelled as well! Due to Covid-19 we were unable to take this course so we will be doing this next summer. In place of it, we are going to try and take a mountaineering course and get out on a lake with the canoe to try out some YouTube tutorials on recovering from a flipped canoe and similar situations.

Goal #4 - Get More Involved with the Community

While the goal is a bit nebulous, we have been making sure to respond to as many comments on Facebook and our YouTube Channel as possible. We have shared our video about the Mantario Trail campsites with some backpacking specific pages to help others in their trip planning.

We are also planning on doing some more gear review videos to help people get a look at what is out there and how it all works.

All in all, we think we are doing pretty good given the challenges that are popping up with trying to coordinate any plans this summer. Dealing with the actual trip cancellations has been... a bit of a downer that we had to get over, but other than that the rest of the summer is looking good so far still.