DTB Update June 8

Here we are in Portage la Prairie on a day off. Thank goodness the weather cleared up!

We made our way down the last part of the muddy Saskatchewan River and finished that leg at The Pas, Manitoba. For Gib ands I and others on the team, it was 40 hours of paddling over four days. We did a seven hour then a 9 hour into Thunder Rapids at the east end of Tobin Lake then 12 hours to Cumberland House and another 12 hour leg to The Pas. We then set up to paddle most of Lake Winnipegosis and portaged into Lake Manitoba at Meadow Portage. After two long days on this lake, we had to abandon the last bit into Delta due to very high winds (70 km) and sleet. After pulling the canoes through the wet grass and cow droppings in a farmer's field, we drove on to Portage to keep on schedule. We had great receptions in all the small communities along both lakes with many people coming forward and looking for 1967 Manitoba team members. They were children when we went through their communities in 1967 and they are still talking about the arrival of the canoes.

We will be in Winnipeg Wednesday then eastward to Ontario. Follow us on the GPS operated map via www.canadianvoyageur.com. As well, there is a link on that site to three you tube clips so you can see us in action! Also available on that site is my book, Journals of the New Voyageurs". You can follow the 2008 route via my journal entries and experiences in 1967 as, 41 years later, we are on the same waterways and visiting the same communities.

Norm