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ROUTE: Milk River


The Milk is a true prairie river. Detouring north from the United States for 340 Canadian kilometres, it flows from the foothills of the Rockies, across the rolling hills, ridges, coulees and plains of south- ern Alberta. Being dam-controlled, the Milk flows more reliably than most prairie rivers. As you progress down the river, the steep grassy banks become increasingly broken by sandstone cliffs, rocky outcrops and overlooking hoodoos—all of which culminate at Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park. Plan to spend at least a day here, hik- ing through a bizarre moonscape of cliffs, rock faces, cracks and hoodoos.


Need to know


The town of Milk River is 85 kilometres south of Lethbridge on Highway 4. From the town’s put-in, the Milk runs 73 kilo- metres to Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park. Extend your trip by starting 135 kilometres further upriver at Whiskey Gap on Highway 501. The rapids are class I and II depending on water levels. There is some manoeuvring required to negoti- ate the rock gardens and overhanging cliff walls. Egress is a problem in the lower


regions of the river and permission must be obtained from private landowners if you paddle past Writing-on-Stone.


Hoodoo you think you’re lookin’ at? Believed by the Blackfoot to be the embodi- ment of powerful spirits, the hoodoos adorning the sandstone cliffs of the Milk River are the legacy of an inland sea that covered western North America about 85 million years ago. The sedimentary rock left behind was riddled with harder iron deposits that were resistant to erosion. As wind, rain and freeze-thaw cycles caused the softer sandstone deposits to erode, these sporadic iron caprocks protected any weak- er sedimentary sandstone underneath, leaving pillars of bizarrely shaped rock.


INFO ...................................... Travel Alberta, Milk River, 1-800-ALBERTA (252-3782).


PERMITS ................................ Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, (403) 647-2364.


OUTFITTER ............................ Milk River Raft Tours, (403) 647-3586.


MAPS...................................... Topos–82 H/2, H/1; 72 E/4, E/3, E/2.


ROUTE: Lower Shelburne loop


As the only inland national park in the Maritimes, Kejimkujik (Keji) is the focal point of an area pockmarked by shallow lakes all connected by wandering rivers. The park’s namesake lake is ringed with campsites, but in making the 2.3-kilome- tre portage over Big Hardwood Carry into Mountain Lake, you pull back Keji’s backcountry curtains and unveil its wilderness potential. Hop four lakes fur- ther and you’re into the Tobeatic Wilderness Area. Here, the Shelburne Heritage River adds moving water to the Keji experience, and a handful of class I and II rapids gives a slight edge to an oth- erwise contemplative wilderness river. Below Sand Lake, trippers paddle through a protected forest of old growth hemlock before cutting across a corner of Lake Rossignol and completing the loop back into Keji.


Need to know


Day 1–Launch at Jake’s Landing, cross Kejimkujik Lake and portage into Mountain, Peskawesk and Peskawa lakes. Day 2–Portage into Pebbleloggitch Lake


and leave the park as you enter the Shelburne River which carries you past the class II+ Irving Runs to Sand Lake. Day 3–Pass Pollard’s and Kempton falls before crossing Lake Rossignol and heading up the Mersey River back into Keji. Day 4– Carry around Eel Weir Falls, cross George and Keji lakes back to where you started.


Local Lore When Albert Bigelow Paine travelled through the Tobeatic area he wasn’t too impressed with the portages. His book, The Tent Dwellers, published in 1908, con- tains a timeless portrayal of portage trails that everyone who has felt the sting of a tumpline can relate to:


“It will seldom be a path fit for human beings…A carry is meant to be the short- est distance between two given places and it doesn’t strive for luxury. It will go under and over logs, through scratchy thickets and gardens of poison ivy; it will decent [sic] into pits; it will skin along the sharp edge of slippery rocks…I believe it would climb a tree if a big one stood directly in its path.”


Kejimkujik, Nova Scotia


by Andy Smith


TIPS .................... Late summer means low water in the Shelburne River. Check with Keji staff for local levels.


PERMITS.............. For rates and reserva- tions, contact Keji at (902) 682-2772.


GUIDEBOOK ........ Paddling the Tobeatic, by A. Smith, from Nimbus Publishing, www.nimbus.ns.ca.


INFO .................... Friends of Keji, www.friendsofkeji.ns.ca. Southwest Paddlers Association, www.swpaddlers.com.


MAPS .................. Backcountry Guide (available from park), Shelburne River topos–21 A/3, A/6.


OUTFITTER .......... Loon Lake Outfitters, (902) 682-2290.


2005 Annual 27


Milk River, Alberta


by Doug McKown


PHOTO CREDIT: TRAVEL ALBERTA


PHOTO: PARKS CANADA, JAMES STEEVES


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