Wilderness Canoeing in Canada

Sandford Island - Milton Island, Reindeer Lake

Distance 34km [323 km]

Reindeer Lake really turned it on, after yesterday battling strong headwinds for 16km we awoke this morning to beautiful blue skies and a zephyr which dropped off to total calm for most of the day and ended in a warm sunny evening. We set new records by breaking camp in just over an hour and were on the water paddling by 8.30am. The lake was awesome, crystal clear – you could see the bottom to about 5mts and on three different occasions when we stopped on the water, for a compass reading or a pee we saw fish, probably trout, swimming below. Two of these were large over a metre and there were also a pan sized pair. Today could be described as the perfect canoeing day. The sky was full of big fluffy cumulus clouds living up to Saskatchewan’s “big sky” reputation. The lake amazing with lots of islands, beautiful sandy beaches, very healthy trees – a lot more Jack Pines than we generally see. Reindeer Lake is amazing.

We made camp about 4.30pm in a good camp site though John had to do his usual trick of using boulders instead of pegs. After dinner we both had a quick bath in the cold, cold, cold lake. John’s second for the day as he also had a quick dip at lunch, talk about self flagellation. After the past two days when we felt we were on the Reindeer Lake boat highway today was very quiet, one boat whilst we were having lunch and only three after we camped. Very little bird life, all in all a very quiet day. Beautiful evening sitting in the sun with John doing the maps and me writing this journal.