Canada’s geography determined all travel –and mine

I must confess my fascination with hydrological divides: a  height of land on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea. In Canada we are affected by four divides:drainage divide

1/Great (Continental –basically Rocky Mountains) Divide

2/ Arctic: running from snow Dome on the Columbia Glacier in an east north east direction.

3/ Laurentian: running eastward from Triple Divide Peak in Montana, basically along the 49^th parallel, until just before Lake Superior where it curves sharply north until it runs east again between the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay and on to the Atlantic in Labrador

4/ St Lawrence: Starting at a point wherein the Laurentian curves north short of Lake Superior and essentially following the southern coast of the Great Lakes and up the St Lawrence finishing near Gaspe in NB.

These divides totally prescribed the course and means of all inter territorial travel In Canada until the development of railways; and even then the railways were greatly influenced by the Great Divide and to a slightly lesser extent the Laurentian Divide.

 Fundamentally my trip this summer can be viewed in two lots:

a/ That part contained within the drainage basin of the Great Divide on the west, the Arctic Divide on the north, and the Laurentian on the south: Everything is funneled into Lake Winnipeg and out to Hudson Bay via the Nelson and Hayes Rivers.

b/ That part contained within the drainage basin of the Laurentian to the north and St Lawrence to the south: everything is funneled into the Great Lakes and St Lawrence River.

That said, I have to climb up to and then over the Laurentian Divide in the course of my journey. In order to realize this, my journey up the Winnipeg River, Lake of the Woods, Rainy River, Rainy Lake, Lac la Croix, Quetico Park, and Lacs des Milles Lacs will take me to that width of land over which I need to pass  to get into the Great Lakes – St Lawrence Basin.

I get excited at this point because the next 30 km will require all my resourcefulness, as it did to those travelers in the period roughly 1803 – 1850 as the key link in the trans Canada system. It was first used by Jacques de Noyon in 1688, but fell out of use because the Grand Portage, now in Wisconsin, proved more effective.

To set the scene, there are streams and rivers that have not seen traffic of any consequence in forever which will be my guide but whether I will get literally bogged down is open to conjecture. Put it this way, there is no chamber of commerce or tourist office that can tell me whether (from west to east) the Savanne River, the Savanne Portage (lost for all intents and purposes but I do need to cross the Trans Canada Highway (17) and the CPR and CNR mainlines) to Lac de Milieu (Height of Land Lake), then Prairie Portage to Cold Lake which has a creek running east into the Dog River, is open to anything except slogging through creek and bog towing my kayak? But don’t get me wrong; this is exciting because it isn’t being made easy –it should be a reasonable facsimile to Jacques de Noyon’s trip in 1688 or Roderick Mackenzie’s rediscovery in 1802.

If interested, google the town of Raith on Highway 17 north of Thunder Bay and you will see the transportation corridor afforded by the level height of land. Just north of Raith, you will also see where the Little Savanne River is crossed by Highway 17. I pointed out this bridge and river and my imminent plans (ok four years in the fruition) to my teammates as we cycled across Canada in the Make a Difference Marathon in 2008.

My descent of the Kaministiquia River and its tributary the Dog River, should be exciting as well. Some context is needed: the climb from Lake Winnipeg to the height of Land is 770 ft in altitude over 800 km. The descent to Lake Superior is 850 ft in altitude over 120 km. Surely, some 130 ft is consumed in the cataract called Kakabeka Falls, but the balance suggests serious portaging and I don’t mean on well developed portages adjacent to the Rivers. Some highway travel will be required with me towing my kayak on wheels.

As my reward, I look forward to seeing my friends Bob and Leslie Climie in Silver Islet on the shores of Lake Superior a day’s journey east of Thunder Bay