You have your choice of destinations.
We got out under the bridge the spans the Assiniboine at Highway #1
near the Grand Valley Park (Thunder Mtn. Waterslides). You can also get
out at the bridge that crosses the Little Saskatchewan just before it
enters the Assiniboine. This bridge is about a kilometre straight west
of the water slide park.
The rapids are usually passable only in the
early spring, unless we get an exceptional amount of rain as we did in
1998. The water is fast - watch for rocks. More importantly, watch for
fences - the first appears around the first bend. As the water level
drops you may want to walk around some of the rapids and save your
canoe.
When you pass what looks like the
remains of an old bridge (it's really from a dam) you are approaching
the site of the Glenorky Ski Hill. All that remains is an old tractor
engine that powered the rope tow. You are soon within sight of the
first exit point. From there its a short easy paddle to the Assiniboine
and from there it's only 10-15 minutes to the Highway #1 landing.
View from the air. Traces of the Glenorky Ski Hill can be seen just
above centre. Destination is to the right, just above centre.
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View of Kirkham's Bridge (Upper left) and the first section of the trip.
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A Cautionary Tale
Some people might tend to view the Little Saskatchewan as a small and
harmless stream, and it usually is. In the spring however, the current
can take one by surprise. Here you see two anonymous canoeists who
carelessly let their guard down while trying to turn the canoe
downstream. A surpisingly strong current rocked the canoe and causedthe
bow paddler (who bears only a purely coincidental resemblance to the
author of this article) to lose his balance.
And before either of our intrepid travellers
could say "dog paddle", they were swimming behind the canoe wondering
why their feet couldn't reach the bottom.
The rapids, just ahead of them, were followed by a shallow stretch and
they are able to make their way to shore. Not able to admit defeat they
then ignored the springtime water temperature and finished the hour and
a half trip to Glenorky Bridge. They had to - it was the only way to
recover the rest of the gear!
And just to show that we
are capable of learning from our mistakes, many years later we were
caught on film (or on pixels) negotiating the rock garden on that same
stretch of river.
The Westman Wildeness Club organizes trips on this route each Tuesday
evening in the spring season. There are rapids and rock gardens that
should be scouted.
