![\"McLennan](\"https:\/\/corehike.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/McLennan-Lake.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMcLennan Lake ~ 500 Km North of Saskatoon<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Cathie Newsome and John Hitt<\/strong>, long time CORE members, spent 5 days canoe camping in the McLennan Lake area of Northern Saskatchewan in the fall of 2015. Here they recount their experiences on that adventure.<\/em><\/p>\n Soft is the Song my Paddle Sings<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you like to paddle to experience true serenity and remoteness, have you ever considered Northern Saskatchewan? We\u2019re talking north of La Ronge where the highway becomes a dirt road, and transportation is often by float plane.<\/p>\n We decided on the McLennan Lake area. To get there, you take the Louis Riel trail 380 Km north to La Ronge from Saskatoon. After that, you drive for 2 hours up the highway, (which has now become a dirt road), to McLennan Lake. If you reach Reindeer Lake, you\u2019ve missed it.<\/p>\n As you go north the trees are all evergreens and they get smaller and smaller, and scrawnier and scrawnier. This area is part of the Canadian Shield so it\u2019s pretty rocky, and a thick green spongy moss grows all over the place. There is more water than land up here, making the number of canoe routes endless. You can go for 4 days or a month.<\/p>\n There is a hotel in La Ronge, and you might want to check out the trading post in town where they sell things like dog sleds, and beautiful embroidered buckskin jackets made by the First Nations people that live in the area. They still trade furs brought in by local trappers. Wild rice harvested in the area\u2019s lakes is available in town.<\/p>\n Making Camp<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n You can park at a small compound at McLennan Lake where they sell the only map of the area that has the campsites on it. This isn\u2019t a park, it\u2019s just wilderness, so campsites are not marked, nor are portages. There is no outhouse, or pic-nic table, or place to hang your food away from the bears.<\/p>\n You need to be prepared for anything the wilderness might have in store for you, including bugs, animals, rain, and blistering sun from being on the water all day. Bring a bug helmet, and plan to go later in the season unless you want to get eaten alive by the bugs. Mosquitoes are extra large here and many other flying creatures abound.<\/p>\n ..<\/p>\n Beaver Lodge<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n You can camp anywhere you want. We discovered that it\u2019s just easier if someone was there before you and cleared a spot for your tent. Most campsites are on islands or on a spit of land where there is a breeze to keep the bugs away. The sites probably were used by the First Nations people, and fur traders who trapped the beaver in the area.<\/p>\n There are beaver lodges everywhere. Muskrats will also take advantage of the free room and board, and occasional visitors such as otters, ducks and turtles will also share the beaver’s lodge. (Beavers build and maintain houses called lodges. There are two main types, the conical lodge and the bank lodge. The most recognized type is the conical shaped dwelling surrounded by water. It is made from sticks, mud and rocks for protection from predators. )<\/em><\/p>\n Portage<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Portages are interesting and can be marked by an empty bag of chips hanging on a tree if you\u2019re lucky, but mostly you just have to look hard to find them. Forget about the wide portages you might find in some government parks. Some portages were quite muddy, and once we walked on rocks down a small stream to the next lake.<\/p>\n (Anyone who says they like portaging is either a liar or crazy.)<\/em><\/p>\n Despite being pretty far north we were able to swim in August. We didn\u2019t come across any sandy beaches, although we saw some on the way back on Lac La Ronge.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lull for a Little Fishing<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n You can swim off the rocks at most campsites or just slide into the water from your canoe.<\/p>\n There are a few fishermen that you might bump into occasionally, and we saw lots of loons. The fishing is good for pickerel and pike.<\/p>\n Sunsets are awesome.<\/p>\n If you register for your trip in La Ronge, you could get rescued if you don\u2019t show up on your scheduled return date, and you can collect your official Voyageur certificate when you come back.<\/p>\n ..<\/p>\n Les Voyageurs<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you use your imagination, you can just see through the mist those hardy fur traders singing les chansons des voyageurs as they paddle across the lakes.<\/p>\n M’en revenant de la jolie Rochelle;<\/em><\/p>\n J’ai rencontr\u00e9 trois jolies demoiselles.<\/em><\/p>\n J’ai point choisi, mai j’ai pris la plus belle <\/em><\/p>\n J’l’y fis monter derri\u00e8r’ moi, sur ma selle.<\/em>..<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cathie Newsome and John Hitt, long time CORE members, spent 5 days canoe camping in the McLennan Lake area of Northern Saskatchewan in the fall of 2015. Here they recount their experiences on that adventure. If you like to paddle to experience true serenity and remoteness, have you ever considered Northern Saskatchewan? We\u2019re talking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2053,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1,23],"tags":[22],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/corehike.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2052"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/corehike.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/corehike.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corehike.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corehike.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2052"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/corehike.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8901,"href":"https:\/\/corehike.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2052\/revisions\/8901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corehike.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/corehike.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corehike.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corehike.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Soft](\"https:\/\/corehike.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Soft-is-the-Song-my-Paddle-Sings-300x225.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Making](\"https:\/\/corehike.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Making-Camp-300x225.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Beaver](\"https:\/\/corehike.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beaver-House-300x225.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Portage\"](\"https:\/\/corehike.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Portage-300x225.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Lull](\"https:\/\/corehike.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Lull-for-a-Little-Fishing-300x225.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Les](\"https:\/\/corehike.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Les-Voyageurs-300x190.jpg\")
<\/p>\n