View topic - Amisk Lake Route 14

I am doing a trip this year with some youth, Route 14 backwards starting at Denare Beach up Sturgeon Weir and back. Does anyone have GPS co-ordinates for any campsites on Amisk Lake or a track of the trip. Plus any other interesting things along this route to take a look at.
Thanks

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Keith Ashdown

Yup.

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Bryan's website - http://pawistik.net
ColdspringPaddling.com

Private message sent with my email address.

I have only traveled downstream but I've traveled down the S-W a couple of times and spent some time on Amisk/Beaver Lake as well. Be sure to check out the museum in Denare Beach, it's my favourite small museum.

Outside of the rapids, the river itself from the highway to the lake is a bit low key - low relief. The lake is amazing with it's geology, there is so much to see and different parts of the lake have such different geology. I think it might be my favourite lake and I've only seen about half of it or less.

This is from Echo Island and is just one example of the interesting formations:

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Bryan's website - http://pawistik.net
ColdspringPaddling.com

A historical fur trade route, worth looking out as seem in Bryan's photo above and contemplating historical travel.

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Brian
http://www.JohnstonPursuits.ca

 

You should purchase a copy of "Canoeing the Churchill" by Marchildon and Robinson - best paddling guidebook ever written.

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Where's Echo Island? The picture looks like a metamorphosed conglomerate - the bedding looks vertical. Metaconglomerates also occur in the BWCAW, Temagami, and just north of Quetico (probably different ages than this one).

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I remember checking out the limestone crevices on Amisk - googling found this site with pics: http://saskborder.com/stories/2015/8/17 ... amisk-lake
I'm fairly certain they were referenced in an old journal - probably Thompson or A. Henry the elder, but may be noted in Marchildon and Robinson.

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Alexander Henry's wintering site is well mapped in his journal - I remember "discovering" the site, only to find confirmation in the museum in Denare Beach.

-Andy

Echo Island is here and it is a great (though popular) camping spot, especially for kids that want to play in the water: https://mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php? ... &z=16&t=t2

At Scoop Rapids be sure to look for the suckers running up and down the rapids where water runs shallow over the rocks. You may be able to "scoop" them just like the pelicans.



Shortly before the release portion of catch & release fishing:

_________________
Bryan's website - http://pawistik.net
ColdspringPaddling.com

Angell's Marina sells a map for the area with numbers that correspond to the numbers that you will find on the islands and peninsulas. Not critical but sometimes nice to have. Plus, I like maps.

_________________
Bryan's website - http://pawistik.net
ColdspringPaddling.com

You can see here that Echo Island is mapped as a metaconglomerate (which has a very limited extent on Amisk Lake): http://www.publications.gov.sk.ca/details.cfm?p=5953

Where is the best place to camp at Denare Beach, will be for some scouting youth. Of course looking for something free, or at least cheap.

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Keith Ashdown

You might call up the provincial park and ask them about group camping. I tried searching the Sask Parks website but the website is terrible and the search isn't working? Based on the info here it must be the Sawmill Bay Campground. http://www.townofcreighton.ca/accommodationsSK.html There are other spots to the south of Denare Beach along the lake, near the south end.

That map is great! Unfortunately, I never learned enough geology to interpret it as well as I would like. I used to have a Canada-wide version hanging on my office wall. Time to put that up on the lime green walls of my new place. Some 11 years ago after running the S-W my family (3.5 of us at that time since my youngest was in utero) camped on an island to the south of Missi/Big Island. That island was made up of black rock that was smooth as glass and some of the broken corners were as sharp as glass as I recall. Or maybe it was as sharp as eroded glass, which is to say that it wasn't so sharp that we were cutting ourselves. It shows up on the geological map as "vb" - basic volcanic.

My older daughter celebrated her 3rd birthday on that island and we baked her a birthday cake over the fire. Good times.

_________________
Bryan's website - http://pawistik.net
ColdspringPaddling.com

Basic volcanic is sort of an old term - you'd more commonly see mafic volcanic, which is a basalt. Without seeing the rock, I'd guess it was "smooth as glass" because it was polished by glaciers.

I recall some p-forms on an island in Amisk (pic below) - this is rock smoothed and sculpted by water - in this case water under high pressure beneath glacial ice. There must have been grit in the water to scratch the rock.

Got back from our trip on Friday. Considering we did it backwards and had to go across Amisk Lake twice it was pretty good. Only got as far as the bottom of Snake Rapids, could not find a portage. That is one big lake, got lucky and it was pretty much calm when we had to travel that biggest part. Could not believe how clear that lake was, river was a little murky but still clean. Found some interesting campsites, checked out the limestone crevices and the museum.
Few pictures in the link.
http://s672.photobucket.com/user/rgashkei/library/CCR

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Keith Ashdown

Glad to hear that you had a good trip. (I just got back from my own trip last night.)
Cheers,
Bryan

_________________
Bryan's website - http://pawistik.net
ColdspringPaddling.com