Category: Canoeing

Special Places

Camping, Canoeing, Forest, Water, Wildlife
Tuesday, December 6th, 2022

The stretch of North Saskatchewan River between Rocky Mountain House and Drayton Valley is not spectacular. There are no mountains, no waterfalls, no deserts, no open vistas. It is a pretty standard river flowing through your average mixed boreal forest. I don’t know of any endangered species in the area. There is oil under the ground.

I first canoed this section of river in 2016, and I remember it being a peaceful and quiet trip. At one campsite we heard wolves howling nearby. This summer I led another trip down this section, and every day and every night we could hear the hum of oil wells and the rumble of trucks in the distance. There was no silence to be found. It was distressing to me and to the students on the trip – we didn’t get our peaceful experience of nature. It’s kind of selfish. I want peace and quiet, but Alberta workers need a livelyhood and the world needs oil and gas, especially with winter coming and the situation in Europe.

But it’s not just me that wants peace and quiet for a week on the river. There are many animals that call this place home. And home is getting stressful. Right now COP15, the UN Biodiversity Conference, is happening in Montreal. Wildlife populations worldwide have fallen 69% since 1970. That is terrifying. Is this encroachment of noise and development the cause? I don’t think we can draw a direct line – there are many things happening that affect the biosphere from climate change, to air pollution, to microplastics, and yes, noise pollution. But loss of habitat seems to be a primary driver of this decline and I can say for certain that the habitat around the North Saskatchewan River is less appealing to me than it was a short six years ago.

So how do we protect areas that are not spectacular? I can’t point to any reason that we should protect this area in particular. Except that I have been here and I love it. This place that started out as not very memorable has become special to me. My only hope for saving these wild or previously wild places is finding more people that find them special – people that value the things that we are losing. And people don’t value things they don’t experience in some way. So my small part in protecting these places is letting people experience them. And the more people that experience and value these things, the more chance we have of saving them. And maybe even go beyond saving to helping them. I want the future to be aspirational and not just trying to avoid one disaster after the next.

Here are a few more photos of this section of river. What’s your special place that is not spectacular?

Guiding Memory 14

Camping, Canoeing
Saturday, April 25th, 2020

Paddling can be a hard skill to learn, so before we leave on trips, we have to teach people how to paddle. With one of the groups I was leading, this took the form of an afternoon paddle down the Battle River, which barely has any current at all, into Driedmeat Lake. We were canoeing around a swampy island when we heard a crashing and then a big splash. We had startled this moose, and it swam across the channel in front of us, ran up the bank and disappeared into the forest.

This series is during spring 2020, when all my trips are likely going to be cancelled for this next summer due to COVID-19.

Guiding Memory 12

Camping, Canoeing
Thursday, April 23rd, 2020

Warm days on the river are the best – just watch out for sunburn and drink lots of water!

This series is during spring 2020, when all my trips are likely going to be cancelled for this next summer due to COVID-19.

Guiding Memory 11

Camping, Canoeing
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020

Getting up early is usually a challenge for me. My sleeping bag is cozy and mornings are cold. But I’m almost always thankful when I do make the effort.

This series is during spring 2020, when all my trips are likely going to be cancelled for this next summer due to COVID-19.

Guiding Memory 10

Camping, Canoeing
Tuesday, April 21st, 2020

On the trips I guide, before we leave, we often talk about what we want out of the trip. With one of the groups, they really wanted to see wildlife. While you can never guarantee anything with wild animals, they are generally most active around sunrise and sunset and these are your best chances to see them. We decided to take long breaks at lunch, canoe into the evenings, even if it meant setting up camp in the dark. It paid off! We saw a herd of elk grazing by the river, we saw a black bear scramble up a steep cliff, plus lots of smaller wildlife. I never knew red squirrels could swim, but I have now seen two of them swimming across the North Saskatchewan River through fast, choppy water. They get to the other side, shake themselves off, and scurry up the bank.

This series is during spring 2020, when all my trips are likely going to be cancelled for this next summer due to COVID-19.

Guiding Memory 9

Camping, Canoeing, Night Photography
Monday, April 20th, 2020

There’s something magical about campfires – I think everyone knows this. Conversations are different, silences are never awkward.

I try to have campfires whenever possible, but there are times when I won’t. I’ve been to campsites that have been stripped bare of any burnable wood. I’ve even seen people chop down trees, sometimes even live trees, in search of firewood. This makes the campsite much less enjoyable for the next group that comes along. Backcountry campsites either need very thoughtful use or a lot of time to recover, and often they get neither. One strategy is to only use well-used campsites and use the pre-built fire pits – it is pretty easy to leave them in the same condition (or cleaner) you found them. The other strategy is to camp where no one else camps and leave very little trace. This has the benefit of usually having ample firewood, but you do have to be more careful with trampling and fire-scars. Anyway, this is a whole debate and basically boils down to: be respectful to nature and the people who will be here next.

This series is during spring 2020, when all my trips are likely going to be cancelled for this next summer due to COVID-19.

Guiding Memory 7

Camping, Canoeing
Saturday, April 18th, 2020

My tent set up at a beautiful campsite on the North Saskatchewan River. I took this late at night after the family I was guiding had gone to sleep. Guiding means late nights, early mornings and hard work, but it pays off in beautiful places, good conversations, and enjoyable challenges.

This series is during spring 2020, when all my trips are likely going to be cancelled for this next summer due to COVID-19.

Guiding Memories 5

Camping, Canoeing
Thursday, April 16th, 2020

This is the last night on the Nordegg to Rocky Mountain House trip. On the last night there’s always a bit of sadness that the trip is coming to an end and bit of excitement for the post-trip burger.

This series is during spring 2020, when all my trips are likely going to be cancelled for this next summer due to COVID-19.

Guiding Memories 3

Camping, Canoeing
Tuesday, April 14th, 2020

Here we are loading up canoes on the North Saskatchewan before leaving in the morning. Being efficient with having breakfast, doing dishes, packing up, and securing all the gear in the canoes is a challenge. There’s a delicate balance pushing people to get going and having a relaxing trip. By this time, the group was doing pretty well.

This series is during spring 2020, when all my trips are likely going to be cancelled for this next summer due to COVID-19.

Guiding Plans and Memories

Camping, Canoeing
Sunday, April 12th, 2020

I had a summer planned. And it was a good plan. I was going to guide trips all summer – canoeing, backpacking, biking. I was super excited about this, especially as I haven’t had a lot of time to get out this past winter. Now spring is here and everything has changed. Will I have any trips? Will any of us have trips? It’s looking less likely all the time. So I’m remembering trips from last summer and hoping we can get out there again soon! This is first in a series of memories of guiding last summer.

Memory 1
Cooking supper on a cold and rainy night on the North Saskatchewan River close to the Bighorn Dam. This was kind of a miserable night after a hard day – a lot of people were cold and wet despite waterproof layers, we found a campsite just as it was getting dark, and all the firewood was soaked so it was a tough lesson in fire-lighting. Despite the challenging conditions, everyone pulled through and we had a great trip!