Hayes River Overview

It is now a week after our accident. All equipment has been dried out, broken bones are healing, bruises are fading, and egos are melting into the background. Because we were unable to post during the first 11 days of our trip, I would like to share with you now what a wilderness canoe trip in Northern Manitoba is like.

Minnesota bills itself as the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Manitoba calls itself the land of 10 million lakes. There are lakes everywhere, as well as the accompanying rivers, creeks, swamps and beaver ponds. We paddled approximately 250 km in those 11 days and saw a total of two other boats. They were both fishing boats. Let me correct that: we saw two other functional  boats. We came across numerous abandoned boats, wrecked boats, boats filled with water, boats stuck on rocks in rapids and smashed canoes at the bottom of rapids. Most of the time we were traveling through Indian Reserves. We passed maybe eight abandoned trapping/fishing cabins. They had been built in gorgeous locations but over the years have been trashed by visitors. They were unsightly and shameful.

As we traveled each day, we kept a lookout for likely camping spots. The terrain was very similar to that of the Boundary Waters in Minnesota: mostly on what we call the Canadian shield. We sought a large sloping granite rock on which to land, flat tent spaces and an easily accessible clean water source. Usually we found just such a place. None of us minded sleeping on granite because we all have sleeping pads. One night we were on sand and one night we were in a spruce bog sleeping on foot-deep moss. We spent one night on the dock at one of the aforementioned abandoned cabins.

The Hayes River, our avenue of choice, is the longest natural flowing river in Manitoba. That means there are no dams. Instead, there are 45 to 55 sets of Rapids that have to be conquered, whether by running them, lining them, portaging them, or crashing down them upside down as we did. (Don’t try this last method at home!)

A canoe trip on the Hayes is 485 KM from Norway House to York Factory. It usually takes 22 to 28 days. It is one of the most isolated multi-day canoe trips in Manitoba, and revered for its historical and cultural significance, including artifacts found along the way and native artwork on the rocks. Both the Hudson Bay Company and the Northwest Trading Company had routes along the Hayes. We saw remnants of Northwest Trading Company dams as well as pieces of iron rails and the iron undercarriages that traveled on said rails to help transport heavy York boats across difficult portages.

On a  typical day, we arose at 5:00 a.m., were on the water by 6:30, and paddled till 5:00 or 6:00 at night. It was still plenty light at 11:00 p.m. to see, so our activities were not constricted by loss of daylight. When we stopped for the day, we were usually too tired to do anything else. Sometimes we played cards, sometimes I fished, but usually we just went to bed after supper. Our bodies had lots of rejuvenation to catch up on overnight.