Back On The Water Again!

After waiting out another thunderstorm, Samuel headed out at 5pm Saturday evening. After 2 days of rest, he was thrilled to be out on the water again. He covered 18 kilometres and then pulled up onto an island to camp for the night. After a filling meal of chili and wieners, he relaxed by the fire as he listened to the serenade of the coyotes.




This photo was taken from the top of one of the hills Samuel has to climb just to get cell reception, and even then sometimes the signal is unreliable.

Taking A Break

I have been taking a little break for the last two days. My paddling muscles will need lots of practice and training to get into good condition, not to mention lots of rest.

The weather has not been all that cooperative. Rain and thunderstorms are not something that I enjoy canoeing in. Well the rain is not so bad, but I could sure do without the thunderstorms while I am on the water.

Here is a nice picture of the sunset on the South Saskatchewan River. There was a lot more red in the sky that the picture did not reveal, but I was very glad for the break in the clouds and rain to get the picture.

To keep everyone updated, I will be posting as often as possible, but there are lots of "dead" zones along the river. I often have to hike quite a ways away from the river just to get cell reception. So on those days, PJ will post updates for me.

To any who are interested: Come on out, visit and paddle for a while. I would be happy for the company, and so would all the kids who suffer from A1AD.

See you on the River!

Canoe Trip - Day 2

Samuel paddled all day yesterday and covered over 70 km. This brings his total to up over 110 kms. He stopped at the Eston Riverside Regional Park and will be resting all day today while he re-energizes and dries his gear.

Samuel Is On His Way!

I dropped Samuel off yesterday at the point where the South Saskatchewan River crosses the Alberta/Saskatchewan border. It took all day just to drive over there so he did not get under way until around 5:30 PM. He paddled for 4 hours then camped for the night. He tried get some sleep but was frequently awakened by a curious cow. He set out again at 6 am this morning and has been paddling all day with the occasional break to eat and nap.

He is traveling through dead cell areas so I have no idea how far he has gotten now. Last I heard from him was around 11:30 am this morning and he had traveled somewhere between 40-50 km total. He told me he is traveling at an average speed of 6.5 km/h.

Unfortunately, I am having trouble with my camera and I may have lost the pictures I took of him starting out. I will be re-supplying him in a few days and he will have lots of pictures for me then.

Good Spirit Lake

PJ and I went to Good Spirit Lake to ride the trails. Here are a few pictures, I will try to post the rest on the site www.arctictoboggan.com before I leave on the trans-Saskatchewan canoe trip, but that may be wishful thinking.


After entering the park, the first right will take you to the Trans Canada Trail.



After a couple of kilometres the trail will cross a small river.



We decided to head upriver to the lake to make our ford on a more solid bottom.



Back down stream we could easily find the trail.



There were lots of fallen trees across the trail. The trail did not seem to be used much in the summer, but a local cross country ski club uses the trail in the winter.



They say it is bad luck when a black cat crosses your path. We stayed far back from this black cat with a white stripe.



About five kilometres from the start of the trail we came to the ski club cabin.



The Trans Canada Trail continued, but this is where we turned around. Perhaps we will come back in the winter and ski this section of the Trans Canada Trail.

Packed And Ready To Go

As you can see, I am packed and ready to go!

My start date seems to be set at this coming Tuesday, August 3rd. I decided to wait the extra day instead of trying to battle the heavy long weekend traffic.

I got a little paint happy, and made my letters a little big on the side of the canoe. It should be visible from shore though. So if you see me paddle by, be sure to wave and say hello.

Also, I should point out that I will be starting with two paddles on the trip. The new and improved single blade paddle is in the canoe, and the newly build double bladed paddle is sitting on top. It has a rectangular oak handle and thin birch blades. It is fairly light for the material, but still heavier than what I am used to.

Keep checking back often, as I will be attempting to post every day. PJ has consented to meet me a various places along the river and trade me camera cards so that she can upload a few pictures from time to time.

Samuel is in the News!

A local newspaper, "Yorkton This Week", ran a feature story all about Samuel and the Alpha 1 Adventure. It was on page A15 of the July 14th issue. It is so nice that the media are finally starting to pay attention to Samuel's awareness efforts.

I would like to send out a special thank-you to Chris Putnam, the reporter who wrote the story.

Thanks for your support, Chris!!!

Whitesand River

On Thursday July 8, I went canoeing with Samuel on the Whitesand River; we started at the bottom of the Theodore dam. The water was foamy and it stunk.



We saw some pelicans on the bank, a few great blue herons, and lots of ducks. There were a few bridges, and we had to keep watching for barb wire fences crossing the river.



I was using the small paddle but then I switched to Samuel’s medium paddle, I had a lot more control and we were going a lot faster, then I switched to Samuel’s big paddle, it was a little too big for me, but the medium one was about the right size. When I switched back to the little one it felt like I was trying to paddle the canoe with a stick.



The river was full of turns and if you stretched it out it would be twice as long, but the river was swollen, so paddling was not hard.



Then we got to a road that the river had overflowed and the water was flowing fast, I was a little scared at first but when I got there it was nothing, then we turned the wrong way and we were paddling over a field but the field ended so we went back to the river.

[Sadly, an elderly man recently tried to drive his truck across the overflowing Whitesand River and his truck was swept into the river. Two men are still missing. - Samuel]



A little after we started we lost track of the river, everything was so flooded that we had started paddling though the trees.




After that the river became very bendy, turning 180 degrees, there was a flooded field that we could have paddled across and cut off a half hour, but we decided to stay with the river.



When we got to the next bridge past highway 47 it was time to stop for the day so we called my mom to come get us. We also saw some odd birds that looked strange because their beaks were bent up.



The water overflowed the road at another spot so we paddled along the ditch to where mom was. While we were tying up the canoe Samuel found a tadpole that had all four legs, but still had a tail, after taking a picture of it we put it back in the water, loaded up our gear, and went home.
- Will