Introduction

This canoe trip in northern Saskatchewan runs from Paull Lake down the Paull River to the Churchill River and terminates in Missinipe. Paull Lake is accessed by float plane. The paull is a tributary of the Churchill. In some years, the water levels can be low enough to make this trip difficult. Not this year. In fact, some portages were washed out. For any canoe trip in northern Saskatchewan, the missinipe canoe outfitters, http://www.churchillrivercanoe.com/ , are highly recommended for supplies and advice.

July 31, 2006

We were dropped on a beach on Paull Lake. From there we paddled almost 20km to our first campsite on our first day. This was pretty hard on the girls first trip. They were worn but they made it. We also had a hard time finding a recommended campsite at a location "where the river widens" and had to double back. But no worries, we all slept well that night and the next morning the weather cooperated sufficiently to allow us to have our bacon and eggs.

August 1-2, 2006

We made our way to Tuck falls where we spent two days. The weather couldn't have cooperated more. This is a beautiful campsite and we had it to ourselves. The wood supply around this campsite is getting a little thin. Aline caught her first fish at Tuck falls. It was very good. It's amazing how the roar of waterfalls can put you to sleep at night.

August 3-4, 2006

We left tuck falls and made our way through the gorge and campbell rapids onto Mcintosh Lake. We got a great camping spot on the east side of the most eastly island with recommended spots. I was suspecting northwesterly winds. It was a nice spot. Anyway, we got up early the next morning and paddled accross the great McIntosh lake on a glass water surface and sunshine. We stopped at the fishing camp. I remember when I was here years ago, we had bought snacks and spent time on the beach. Now the fishing camp did not seem very welcoming to paddlers. Nevertheless, we talked them into selling us a pop and chocolate bar... and had a swim on the beach. Following our lunch break, we made our way to Rock Trout portage and set up camp.

August 5, 2006

The following day was pretty miserable to say the least. We were socked in with rain.... and had time to think. My thoughts were that we had 3-4 days of food supply, which wasn't a problem. The problem was, we had only about 2 days of fuel supply, given our to-date rate of consumption. So, we figured out how to burn the thin birch branches.... it's amazing that those things will burn when they are soaking wet, if you pack them in the right density in a wood stove from missinipe outfitters. Given how bad that storm was, I was still pretty worried about getting out of there and across the great Nipew lake.

August 6, 2006

Again, luck was on our side. We rose early the next morning and made our way across Nipew by 11:00. Again, it was calm with sunshine, we enjoyed a lunch and some bathing on the east side of the lake and easily made our campsite above the great devil falls by mid afternoon. What a beautiful campsite and great sunset.

August 7, 2006

The next day, we started out with the portage around great devil. What a bugger! With these high water conditions, the trails are in very mucky shape. Later we found out that a voyageur competition last year had really torn them up. Following this portage, we paddled down to the head of little devil and had some lunch. Despite my reservations about running little devil with the kids in tow, Aline was going to have nothing of another ~1km portage. We shot them loaded according to the advice of the Missinipe outfitter, mostly hugging the north shore. They were a piece of cake, completely washed out (in these high water conditions), no more than class 2... just as we were advised. After we were done, Ashley exclaimed, is that it?

Getting through little devil made the rest of the day easy. It was a beautiful day and we spent several hours lounging and fishing at murray rapids. That made us a little late getting into otter rapids for our final campsite. We ran both canoes empty through otter rapids. This was very different from the otter rapids experience that I remember. Gone was the big 6 foot standing wave on the left side. The washed out otter rapids is characterized by random haystacks and the outcropping on the left side at the bottom of the shute becomes a slightly submerged hazard. I had rememberd this outcropping as a fishing point and wisely avoided it on my runs. Later that evening we saw a fishing boat get bunged up on the that outcropping... ouch!

The following morning we did a leisurly paddle into Missinipe. What a great trip, highly recommended!

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