The South Saskatchewan is the last of the 7 major rivers in Alberta I wanted to paddle this summer (Actually there is one more, the Slave River, that I would have liked to paddle but it will have to wait for a future trip)
Click the photo to enlarge!
I set out from the beautiful city of Medicine Hat. Here I am at the start of the trip, Police Point Park is on the left, and Strathcona Island Park is on the right. It's nice and green at this point in the trip.
Just outside Medicine Hat I noticed some coloured things in the cliffs above the river. (Not really visible in this photo, but you'll see it in the next one).
The things turned out to be cars that had tumbled over the cliff.
This was my longest and most difficult trip so far. The river was no help at all. The current was nonexistent and the water level was pretty low. If I stopped paddling for even a few seconds my kayak started spinning around and then slowly drifting to shore. And for the first two days the river just meanders all over the place. I worked maddeningly hard for not much straight line distance.
My total trip distance was 161.8 km. I had to work for every one of them. My total time was 32hrs. On Day 4 I paddled for 15hrs, the last 7 of them by moonlight, until 2am, just to be done with it.
The trip was amazingly beautiful though. This is around sunset on Day 2.
The view from a hike on Day 3, this part of the river is also seen in the panorama up above. After about here the river straightens out a bit.
On Day 4 I passed through lots of interesting landscapes.
Also on Day 4 I rescued a Ladybug from the water. I scooped him up with my paddle and brought him on board. I watched for over an hour as he stretched and dried his wings until he was able to fly away.
Towards the end of Day 4 I was in the Badlands. There were lots of hoodoos and interesting rock formations.
Late on Day 4.
I stopped at twilight to make some oatmeal (cold, because I had run out of cooking gas) before continuing. There were lots of Elk around and they were bugling (making lots of noise) since it's rutting season. This big bull elk came down right about to where I was to get a drink. He scared me a little with his bugling. I'm not too big on wildlife sightings but this was pretty impressive.
The bridge where I would catch the highway back to Medicine Hat. A very welcome sight on Day 5.
Hitchhiking back to The Hat.
