Hashtag Lakelife

I had the pleasure of showing a few places out in the west beaches area of Lake Winnipeg so I went early to make the most of it.

I grew up going out to Winnipeg Beach with my paternal side of the family so there are a lot of memories and reminiscing.

Matlock is a nice stop when heading up that direction. The piers are always a relaxing place to stop. The morning was cool, almost sweater weather, and I managed to still have over half a cup of my favourite Starbucks drink when I rolled in. Nothing like a warm chai latte, a light sweater and a moody sky over the lake to help you zone out for 20 minutes.

I visited with my parents at the marina. I can't believe I didn't think to take a picture there as the marina and pier with all the boats is a nice sight. From the south parking lot you have a unique perspective of the water tower through the bushes and cattails on the edge of the park. It always makes me want to pick up my paint brush. 

We decided to hit up The Emporium for lunch where I enjoyed a delicious home made crepe and my friend enjoyed the Drunken Chicken pizza. The Emporium is known for their crepes, pizzas and drunken chicken. If you go after 4pm they are wood fired pizzas. It is a really nice little place.

While waiting between showings we took a drive though downtown Winnipeg Beach. I didn't have time to take a walk on The Boardwalk to find my grandparents plaque or to stop at Dairy Bee to reminisce about gramma and grampa taking us for ice cream but we did come across a place that looks old but has only been there since 2012. We decided to pop in as it was right up my friends alley with all the unique decor. It is called Candies & Curiosities. Such a nice little place and they had a few treasures that took me back. 

There are so many more great places to check out if you are in the beaches area. The jam busters at Fred's (on the highway) are a great addition to a picnic, there is an off leash dog beach in the provincial park area near the water tower, there is the artesian well on the corner of Laurel and Grove, a new walking bridge just north of that, the waterfront park, and so much more. It is a leisurely drive down highway 9 and is less than an hour from the north perimeter. If you wanted add a few stops to your trip you could also see the locks in Lockport, Lower Fort Gary on highway 9, and the marine museum in Selkirk. 

What are your favourite spots to stop in the west beaches areas?

Lazy River Adventure

I am totally in love with lazy river tubing but the Pinawa area is the most beautiful spot I have done this in Canada (the caves in Xcaret Mexico were still my favourite despite the BAT!). I have tubed a couple of places in Manitoba (Asessippi & Roseau River) and in Penticton, BC but Pinawa had such beautiful rocks and trees along the river banks. It was just gorgeous.

Jamus & I have our own tubes so we didn't need to rent any but the rest of our group did. I would recommend the kind with a canvas-like cover to protect from getting it pierced. Wilderness Edge in Pinawa rents tubes for $20 each with tax and that includes giving a member of your party a ride back to the starting point so you can leave your car at the ending point without having to bring 2 cars. You can book this online as some weekends they do sell out. They also have change rooms, bathrooms and showers at their facility. So once you have gone to Wilderness Edge to check in and change they give you a claim ticket for tubes and the ride at the starting point and direct you on the map on where to go next.

So you go to the starting point at the end of Highway 211. Someone from your group will follow the driver back to the ending point and leave your car there while the rest of your party gets the tubes ready. We rented a cooler tube as well so we could bring lots of water, fresh fruit & berries in snack bags, cut veggies in snack bags, hard boiled eggs, cheese sticks and other snacks for the 2-3 hour ride on the river.

Once the drivers got back we headed down to the channel's starting point. You definitely need water shoes for this part as it is large rocky gravel. The temperature was 33 Celsius on a Saturday so you can imagine how busy it was so we did have to wait our turn to get started but it wasn't a long wait at all. You do have to carry everything down to the river's edge and part of it is steep so keep that in mind when you are packing up a heavy cooler.

Then you just get on the tubes and start floating. There are some rocks near the beginning but once we got past that we rafted our tubes together and enjoyed the float. There was some rocks and faster spots towards the end as well.

We saw lots of children on this tube ride. They do recommend bringing life jackets for the little ones as they have a limited number of kids ones in different sizes. It is very family friendly as most of this run is very slow and shallow although there are spots that get about 10 feet deep. As with any water activity, life jackets are important and rafting the tubes together so your children are always close to you recommended.

Here is the list of things I recommend to bring:
Shoes you can wear in water
Lots of water proof sunscreen
Water guns (we had a super soaker which was fun but others in our group got these water cannons at the dollar store for $1.25 and they were wicked!)
Waterproof case for anything like your cell phone & keys if you are taking it on the river but Wilderness Edge does not recommend doing that. They recommend hiding your key in the bush.
Water, lots of water... freeze some of it so that by the last half you still have cold water
Sunglasses (and maybe a sports band to keep them on)
Hat (even better if you can tie it to your head)
Waterproof camera or Go Pro with a floaty on them if you have
Snacks in waterproof bags
Towels, extras to put on the seats of car when you get out at the end
Change of clothes so you can change after you are done
Life jackets for kids or poor swimmers (they will provide but have limited amounts)
Small first aid kit in water proof container (my sister is always prepared!)
A water proof bluetooth speaker would be fun
Your adventurous friends!

Have you tried tubing somewhere in Manitoba? Where was it? I want details as we would love to try different spots.

Glamping in the Whiteshell

We had the opportunity to get a Yurt at Nutimik campground for a couple nights. We were in Bay 1, Yurt 19. Yurts are soft sided canvas structures with a proper floor and furniture so it is not quite cabin but not quite tent. They have a double bed with a single bunk on top and a futon, a dresser, a table and 4 chairs, a lamp, a fan and a heater. They also have some clean up items like garbage and broom. 

They are set nicely in private sites. We had enough room to set up our dining tent, park our car and still have lots of room for the fire pit. The modern bathroom was about a 150 foot walk. The showers were down the road somewhat and the beach you can either walk a trail to get to (which has a beautiful scenic view but was too wet for us to trek this time), or you can take your car and park. 

The campground beach is small but it doesn't seem to get too busy most weekends. There are so many other beaches nearby. We love the scenery in the area. Blueberry Hill is that hill to the left. You can access it by hiking in behind some cabins before the store. It has a wonderful vista of the lake. Unfortunately, because of 2 full days of rain it was too wet for us to be trekking out on the wet rocks so we stuck to doing other things. 

There is so much to do in the area we didn't even touch the surface. Sturgeon falls is a short walk, over a bridge that was put up less than 10 years ago. Petroforms and Pine Point Rapids are really close by as well. There is a museum right in Nutimik. Of course, you can fish or go boating. 

I had specific things in mind for our two days there. I wanted to read and unwind, cook over the fire, go to the spots where my family had my grandparents memorials, and check out at least one spot we have never been. I grew up going to the Whiteshell every summer so even though there is unlimited things to do out there it would be interesting to see what we come up with. On Saturday we set up our stuff and got settled and then went off to one of our favourite spots that we always visit. Rainbow Falls at White Lake. It is Easy to get to from either side of the Whiteshell so we seem to go no matter where we are staying. We were going to do the hike but it was so muddy and the woman in front of us slid and fell in the muck so we decided to just enjoy the falls and the view on the lake. There were a ton of dragon flies landing on us and in the water. 

We capped off the evening with cooking steak on the fire and playing cards in the dining tent. 

Sunday we started out bright and early by heating some chai latte mix with milk in the kettle on the fire and sat and read for a while. We decided to head to Seven Sisters picnic area. It is outside of the Whiteshell but is where we had my grandpa's memorial. It was packed there with day campers out to have picnics but we grabbed a spot on the side of the rapids and just sat on the rocks. We had a picnic and reminisced about the many picnics we have had there both before and after grampa passed away. We walked around the area and compared the water levels to years gone by. I enjoyed watching the pelicans bathe in a calm pool in amongst all the rapids. 

We decided to head to Pinawa to find the suspension bridge but we took a wrong turn and ended up at the old dam instead. Since were were there we decided we would take a look as neither of us had ever been there. We ended up spending hours there looking around and walking. It was hot but Jamus loved looking at all the old ruins and I love hiking so this was a win for both of us. I especially loved getting in behind the old dam where you can be close to the water. We weren't prepared to go swimming so we just sat with our feet in the water. We had brought our cooler with us so we had lots of snacks and drinks. Despite this being a provincial park the outhouses there are not kept up at all. There was no toilet paper and they were disgusting compared to most of the trail outhouses we have seen. Despite that we can't wait to go and spend a full day there in the future. 

We ended that day by heading back to the yurt, having a big fire and cooking dinner. We were tired from all of the heat but enjoyed the quiet campground as it was almost empty now that it was Sunday evening. 

Monday morning we cleaned up our site and the yurt. We had a fairly comfortable stay. Jamus is a bit too tall for the bed or the futon but otherwise it was great. We decided to go for a late morning swim since it was already so hot and packing up was sweaty business. We used the showers before we left the campground and then set out on our way. 

Our next stop was Brereton Lake. We picked some daisies and then we went down to Gram's old dock - we still know who owns it and they told us to go whenever we want. We had Gram's memorial there so we sat on the dock and reminisced about the good old days. Did you know there is a trail to a beautiful ravine behind the cabins at the store? We used to go up behind there with the other kids in the neighbourhood all the time when we stayed with Gram and Grampa Bill.

Anyway, we decided to stop in Falcon next since Jamus had never been and I had only been in there once before. We went in to the Lakeshore Campground and asked a ranger there if we could use a campsite for an hour to make lunch. He said he wasn't going to stand in anyones way of enjoying the outdoors on such a beautiful day so we had a little fire and cooked up some dogs and left over bacon from breakfast. We still had some cheese left from the day before too so we had some pretty gourmet camp dogs. After stretching our legs around there we decided it was too cool for a swim now and headed home. It was still a long drive and it was getting to evening already. 

All in all we had a great time. I finished a book. We went to 2 new places and had a ton of fun.