We don our pirate hats and eyepatches once more and head out on the waters of the North Saskatchewan. Today our trusty side kick, J, and his bright yellow canoe are missing from our flotilla.
Both our vehicles have bars on the roofs, so we drop Murray’s vehicle off at Laurier Heights and drive to Devon with the kayaks and our gear in my vehicle. Once there, we unload everything and then remove the kayak racks from the bars. We load two racks into Murray’s kayak and one on top of each kayak, under the bungee cords. We also load the kayak covers, tie down straps, lunch and our sandals into the kayaks. We are ready to push off!
It is a windy day today, with the wind coming mostly from the west, which is a good thing as we are paddling north and west. The river is moving about the same speed as when we were on it last week. We notice it is not as silty as the other week also.
Murray doesn’t really believe in just floating down the river, so we paddle. Sometimes hard against the wind and sometimes very relaxed. About and hour and a half after we start, we pull off on a sand bar and have lunch. We don’t dawdle as we are in the wind and I am getting cold. This is a good learning experience for me about wet feet, wind and staying warm in cooler weather.
We see a few hawks, no deer at all, some fisherpeople, but mostly river scenery of striated banks, trees and blue sky. As we approach Edmonton, we see more and more houses high on the hills overlooking the river. We also see water lovers and their dogs enjoying time by the river.
Before we know it we pass under the Anthony Henday Bridge, two foot bridges and are approaching the Quesnell Bridge, which is just upstream from our destination. We land and check our GPS. 33 kms! Four and a quarter hours! WOW, the river must have been flowing at a pretty good clip as it didn’t feel like 33 kms.
We secure the kayaks racks onto Murray’s vehicle bars, load the kayaks and gear and drive back to Devon to pick up my vehicle. Once in Devon , we order supper from our favorite Vietnamese Restaurant which Murray picks up on the way. We are famished after our day of trolling the North Saskatchewan. Unfortunately, there were no other water craft for us to plunder.