My 2017 canoeing season started May 21, delayed two weeks because of late ice out on the originating lake. I planned to canoe until mid-October, but had to leave September 12 when forest fire blocked my route and I was flown out, unfortunately without my canoe (camp 44). At that point I was 145 km and 10 portages short of reaching my vehicle. The first trip was from May 21 to July 27 in the centre portion of Central Saskatchewan, a 279 km circle route south and north of the Churchill River. My second trip, from July 29 to September 12, a planned 366 km circle route, ended at 221 km in the eastern portion of Central Saskatchewan, extending into Manitoba, mainly south of and along the Churchill River. Most of the second trip was plagued with heavy forest fire smoke. Both trips largely involved rarely travelled routes, some with no evidence of being previously travelled.
My shortest stay was one day, occurring four times because I had to make up time after falling behind schedule (camps 18, 19, 21, 23), resulting in a strenuous end to my first trip. There were 44 different campsites spanning almost 17 weeks, involving running 13 rapids (eg, camps 18, 35), and walking 43 portages totalling 19,135 metres in length with several quite strenuous ones (camps 10-14, 20, 22, 30). Six portages were virgin ones where I had to cut my own trails, totalling 4220 metres (the most difficult at camps 13 and 14). Total distance canoed was 500 km.
My meals were supplemented with freshly caught fish, totalling 55 pike and 25 walleye. This year was an especially good one for me for walleye. Almost all suppers included fresh salad (mainly fireweed, but also poplar leaf, birch leaf, agoseris, cattail, goldenrod, dandelion) or fresh fruit (mainly bunchberry, lingonberry, red currant, lowbush cranberry, but also blueberry, pincherry, rose hip, Saskatoon berry, northern comandra).
I saw quite a number of animals, the most interesting being:
- two nosy snowshoe hares, camp 3
- a charming otter family, camp 4
- a cloud of mayflies, camp 4
- three bears, intriguing photos camp 5, an unfortunate run-in with a problem bear at camp 39
- hatching gull eggs, camp 8
- four moose, including two swimming moose camp 29
- two talkative loons beside canoe, video camp 30
- a beautiful lynx, camp 33
- a beautiful lynx, camp 33
- two bald eagles dropping a fish, camp 38
- a curious wolf, camp 41