-
Athabasca River – 2023
Hello, I’m Wayne Wilson
Follow along on this celebration journey down a wonderful stretch of the Athabasca River in northern Alberta – all of it helping to commemorate the 200th Anniversary of
Fort Assiniboine.
-
Fort Assiniboine Bicentennial Brigade – July 2023
Fort Assiniboine Bicentennial Brigade – July 2023
So many crews make up this great Brigade group, and they hail from all over the country…and continent. At the height, there were 15 big canoes that paddled the day we went into Fort Assiniboine. (BTW – the photos I’ve added here are random and may not represent the exact crew I’ve described)
You can get a sense of the size of this Brigade enterprise with all these boats and crews. Bicentennials II (Athabasca Express) – Generally, these paddlers were from Alberta and, as the name suggests, they were at the heart of the celebrations for Fort Assiniboine.
Leaving Fort Assiniboine. Victoria Kayak and Canoe Club – Probably the person I know best from this crew is Ellie James, whom I’d met on the 2011 David Thomson Brigade. The crew was strong and fun and always very fun on the water!
That’s Ellie captaining one of the Victoria boats… 
Pitt Meadows Paddling Club – Here’s another connection from that 2011 Brigade in the person of Katie Stein Sather, who had taken her first crew on that David Thompson Brigade 12 years ago. This crew paddled in a big Langley canoe with a couple of extra seat.
Health Change – This group hails from the area west of Edmonton and was made up of perhaps 15-ish youth ranging from 12? to 18 – along with their teachers (a total of 26 people in 3 canoes I think). The youth were from Fox Creek, Edmonton, Spruce Grove, Alexis First Nation, and Stony Plain. This was credit course for the students, I gather, and the curriculum for the trip was everything from First Aid and cooking to environmental studies and teamwork.
Gearing up and getting into position at Chisholm, Alberta. This last study – teamwork – was what lots of the paddling was about I’m sure because..…if you don’t learn to pull together as a team, you canoe isn’t going anywhere fast or you’re tipping over in the middle of the river! What was clear to many of us as the Brigade progressed, was how much better these youth teams got each day – better cadence, better speed, smoother changes etc.
Amisk – Wayne Elliot heads up this group of eager and talented paddlers. Wayne himself has been paddling these big canoes for decades, and anyone in his crew gets an education every day from that experience and wisdom.
Wayne Elliot captaining. Haybarn Canoe Crew – I didn’t catch a lot about this crew, but there were 14 in all I believe…and the youngest was 9 years old I believe.
I believe this is the Haybarn Crew. Red Rogues – This was my crew, Co-captained by Bob Groves and Chuck Pike. What you’re reading in my blogs is largely the exploits of the Rogues! 🙂
Rocky Mountain House – (Rapidly Declining Crews) Merle Pederson is the Captain of this great crew. Merle once owned his own wilderness canoe and kayak business, so you know that every day you paddle in his boat, you’ll learn new skills. Even watching him take his crew down the river teaches lessons as you see him steering that big canoe through fast moving water, past sweepers and strainers, and skirting gravel bars that seem to come out of nowhere.
Rapidly Declining crew… Boona – Brooke is another of the paddlers I met on the 2011 David Thompson Brigade. She captains this huge yellow boat – ‘Boona’ – that is unmistakable on the water. Again, Brooke has been captaining that giant boat for years, and her bubbly personality I’m sure makes paddling with her crew a real treat.
After leaving the crew change point on the way into the actual village of Fort Assiniboine. Edmonton – Blazing Paddles – one of the great and important tasks this group did was to hold the safety demonstrations at the beginning of the trip. It looked like the kids had a great time tipping the canoes in the little lake and putting them right again.
Klondike Ferry put-in. I tried to get around and chat with every crew, but I may have missed some – my apologies. Email me and I’ll add an edit here. Also, if I got anything terribly wrong, please let me know and I’ll edit.
A richard Wagers photo…
-
Fort Assiniboine Bicentennial Brigade – July 2023
Fort Assiniboine Bicentennial Brigade – July 2023
So many crews make up this great Brigade group, and they hail from all over the country…and continent. At the height, there were 15 big canoes that paddled the day we went into Fort Assiniboine. (BTW – the photos I’ve added here are random and may not represent the exact crew I’ve described)
You can get a sense of the size of this Brigade enterprise with all these boats and crews. Bicentennials II (Athabasca Express) – Generally, these paddlers were from Alberta and, as the name suggests, they were at the heart of the celebrations for Fort Assiniboine.
Leaving Fort Assiniboine. Victoria Kayak and Canoe Club – Probably the person I know best from this crew is Ellie James, whom I’d met on the 2011 David Thomson Brigade. The crew was strong and fun and always very fun on the water!
That’s Ellie captaining one of the Victoria boats… Pitt Meadows Paddling Club – Here’s another connection from that 2011 Brigade in the person of Katie Stein Sather, who had taken her first crew on that David Thompson Brigade 12 years ago. This crew paddled in a big Langley canoe with a couple of extra seat.
Health Change – This group hails from the area west of Edmonton and was made up of perhaps 15-ish youth ranging from 12? to 18 – along with their teachers (a total of 26 people in 3 canoes I think). The youth were from Fox Creek, Edmonton, Spruce Grove, Alexis First Nation, and Stony Plain. This was credit course for the students, I gather, and the curriculum for the trip was everything from First Aid and cooking to environmental studies and teamwork.
Gearing up and getting into position at Chisholm, Alberta. This last study – teamwork – was what lots of the paddling was about I’m sure because..…if you don’t learn to pull together as a team, you canoe isn’t going anywhere fast or you’re tipping over in the middle of the river! What was clear to many of us as the Brigade progressed, was how much better these youth teams got each day – better cadence, better speed, smoother changes etc.
Amisk – Wayne Elliot heads up this group of eager and talented paddlers. Wayne himself has been paddling these big canoes for decades, and anyone in his crew gets an education every day from that experience and wisdom.
Wayne Elliot captaining. Haybarn Canoe Crew – I didn’t catch a lot about this crew, but there were 14 in all I believe…and the youngest was 9 years old I believe.
I believe this is the Haybarn Crew. Red Rogues – This was my crew, Co-captained by Bob Groves and Chuck Pike. What you’re reading in my blogs is largely the exploits of the Rogues! 🙂
Rocky Mountain House – (Rapidly Declining Crews) Merle Pederson is the Captain of this great crew. Merle once owned his own wilderness canoe and kayak business, so you know that every day you paddle in his boat, you’ll learn new skills. Even watching him take his crew down the river teaches lessons as you see him steering that big canoe through fast moving water, past sweepers and strainers, and skirting gravel bars that seem to come out of nowhere.
Rapidly Declining crew… Boona – Brooke is another of the paddlers I met on the 2011 David Thompson Brigade. She captains this huge yellow boat – ‘Boona’ – that is unmistakable on the water. Again, Brooke has been captaining that giant boat for years, and her bubbly personality I’m sure makes paddling with her crew a real treat.
After leaving the crew change point on the way into the actual village of Fort Assiniboine. Edmonton – Blazing Paddles – one of the great and important tasks this group did was to hold the safety demonstrations at the beginning of the trip. It looked like the kids had a great time tipping the canoes in the little lake and putting them right again.
Klondike Ferry put-in. I tried to get around and chat with every crew, but I may have missed some – my apologies. Email me and I’ll add an edit here. Also, if I got anything terribly wrong, please let me know and I’ll edit.
A richard Wagers photo…
-
Home Again – July 17, 2023
Home Again – July 17, 2023
The plan was to have a pancake breakfast in the morning. Kris – the magic coffee guy – was up early again and had the brew going. It was decided quickly and universally that we’d skip the pancake breakfast. The folks heading east were going to stop for a bite to eat at Nordegg while those of us driving west headed to Saskatchewan Crossing for breakfast.
A brief chat before packing up our tents and remaining gear at the Wildhorse Campground. Having said our goodbyes, we headed out to the crossing and John, Bob, Chuck and I were joined by Keith and Deb for a tasty buffet breakfast. Soooo much better that campsite pancakes after the past couple of weeks camp cooking.
A majestic Rocky Mountain backdrop at Saskatchewan Crossing where we had a buffet breakfast before the long drive home. The rest of the day was the drive back to the Okanagan Valley and home. Another smooth and relatively uneventful route across the new and unusual bit of highway engineering east of golden where the highway hangs out over the Kicking Horse River. Gotta love engineers.
From my back seat perch in John’s truck on the way home. 
While there are glaciers in these mountains, it’s clear they are disappearing quickly. I don’t remember the exact time, but I think we were back at John and Darlene’s place by about 2pm. Cor and Cecile as well as Annie and Colette were there to meet us and take us all home. After a short visit and a reload of our gear, Bob, Colette and I drove out to Kelowna and home…a beverage, and tasty meal….and most important….a shower!
A page of my Travel Journal – I tell my kids that, 100 years from now, there’s a better chance that someone might know about this trip from a first hand record of the Athabasca River.
-
North Saskatchewan River – upstream of Nordegg – Day Two – July 16, 2023
North Saskatchewan River – upstream of Nordegg – Day Two – July 16, 2023
I think we left 9:30-ish for the drive this morning. We were off again for a bit of paddle on the North Saskatchewan River, but this time further upstream just above the little town of Nordegg. A beautiful drive as we moved deeper and deeper into the picturesque Rocky Mountain. While these are not the highest peaks in Canada (That’s the Mount St. Elias Range in far NW BC and SW Yukon Territory), they are spectacular at every turn. No wonder we kept passing tour busses.
A bit smokey but such beautiful countryside – Kootenay Flats and Ecological Reserve are at Preachers Point on the North Saskatchewan River. 
This was the view from our Put-in at Wildhorse Campsite upstream from Preachers Point. Our first stop was Preachers Point camping area to see how it would work as a take-out for this leg of our travels. All in all, it was a bit steep and rocky hike up from the river but, in the end, it was probably the best we could hope for. This was a far cry more civilized campsite than it looked 5 years ago when we camped here on our cross Canada paddle journey to celebrate the nation’s 150th Anniversary. And it was warmer too – last time we were here was in early June and one morning we woke up to snow on our tents!
Here was our tent site from the 2017 trip…brrrr! 
Preachers Point campsite in 2017! From this point we drove further upstream to a put-in we’d used 5 years ago – this one upstream of the whirlpool/back eddy that the river is well know for. Again, it was in the middle of such beautiful Canadian landscapes. We only had two canoes to launch at this point, so it all moved smoothly. Again on the road crew, I helped get the canoes in the water watched them turn into the fast moving and icy glacial water. It is such a beautiful blue at this point. Our canoes started out about 1:30 – so we estimates it would be about 2 hours before they arrived.
Loading into the big voyageur canoes. This was the drifting start for the Red Rogue crew as it heads downstream. Chuck, Dick and I drove the vehicles back to Preachers Point to wait for the arrival. It was HOT and sunny and the landscapes of the Kootenay Flats area was stunning in the slightly hazy light. Sure enough, about 3:15 we saw the canoes running the current down the river, and when they saw us on the shore they started to move to river right for the landing and take-out. Again, what an exciting view to see these big boats turn across the current as they approach the riverbank.
Turning across the current to pull into shore is always a great feel – the tug of the current. Another spectacular paddle by all accounts!
Our camp for the night was about half way between Preachers Point and Thompson Creek Campground in another of the relatively new provincial camping areas. We had scouted the site earlier in the day and set up our tents to stake the site before doing the paddle. When we got back to camp, all was in order and we settled in for the evening. Merle decided not to stay for the night, and after a couple of hours he drove off back to Rock Mountain House. The rest of us settled in for a very informal meal of ‘stuff’ that was left in the larder. It was a bit sketchy as meals go, but no one complained and we had a good time for our 2023 paddle excursion.
A final gathering as we end the 2023 Paddle trip at the Wildhorse creek campsite.
-
North Saskatchewan River – upstream of Nordegg – Day Two – July 16, 2023
North Saskatchewan River – upstream of Nordegg – Day Two – July 16, 2023
I think we left 9:30-ish for the drive this morning. We were off again for a bit of paddle on the North Saskatchewan River, but this time further upstream just above the little town of Nordegg. A beautiful drive as we moved deeper and deeper into the picturesque Rocky Mountain. While these are not the highest peaks in Canada (That’s the Mount St. Elias Range in far NW BC and SW Yukon Territory), they are spectacular at every turn. No wonder we kept passing tour busses.
A bit smokey but such beautiful countryside – Kootenay Flats and Ecological Reserve are at Preachers Point on the North Saskatchewan River. This was the view from our Put-in at Wildhorse Campsite upstream from Preachers Point. Our first stop was Preachers Point camping area to see how it would work as a take-out for this leg of our travels. All in all, it was a bit steep and rocky hike up from the river but, in the end, it was probably the best we could hope for. This was a far cry more civilized campsite than it looked 5 years ago when we camped here on our cross Canada paddle journey to celebrate the nation’s 150th Anniversary. And it was warmer too – last time we were here was in early June and one morning we woke up to snow on our tents!
Here was our tent site from the 2017 trip…brrrr! Preachers Point campsite in 2017! From this point we drove further upstream to a put-in we’d used 5 years ago – this one upstream of the whirlpool/back eddy that the river is well know for. Again, it was in the middle of such beautiful Canadian landscapes. We only had two canoes to launch at this point, so it all moved smoothly. Again on the road crew, I helped get the canoes in the water watched them turn into the fast moving and icy glacial water. It is such a beautiful blue at this point. Our canoes started out about 1:30 – so we estimates it would be about 2 hours before they arrived.
Loading into the big voyageur canoes. This was the drifting start for the Red Rogue crew as it heads downstream. Chuck, Dick and I drove the vehicles back to Preachers Point to wait for the arrival. It was HOT and sunny and the landscapes of the Kootenay Flats area was stunning in the slightly hazy light. Sure enough, about 3:15 we saw the canoes running the current down the river, and when they saw us on the shore they started to move to river right for the landing and take-out. Again, what an exciting view to see these big boats turn across the current as they approach the riverbank.
Turning across the current to pull into shore is always a great feel – the tug of the current. Another spectacular paddle by all accounts!
Our camp for the night was about half way between Preachers Point and Thompson Creek Campground in another of the relatively new provincial camping areas. We had scouted the site earlier in the day and set up our tents to stake the site before doing the paddle. When we got back to camp, all was in order and we settled in for the evening. Merle decided not to stay for the night, and after a couple of hours he drove off back to Rock Mountain House. The rest of us settled in for a very informal meal of ‘stuff’ that was left in the larder. It was a bit sketchy as meals go, but no one complained and we had a good time for our 2023 paddle excursion.
A final gathering as we end the 2023 Paddle trip at the Wildhorse creek campsite.
About Me
If you’ve wanted to keep a Travel Journal (or paddle Journal, Hiking Journal, Road Trip Journal etc) then you’ve come to the right place. I’m Wayne Wilson, and for years I’ve been teaching people how to nurture their creative spirit by keeping wonderful and unique Travel Journals.
Be sure to join the Facebook Group at: Travel Journal 101
Athabasca River 2023 