Miles Meets Manitoba 

What did we notice most about Manitoba?  Water…lots of water!  As we entered the province from the west on Highway 16 from Langenburg, we started to notice more and more water in the fields.  In some cases sandbags lined the highways to keep them from flooding.  And wheat and canola fields slowly gave way to cattle ranches and boggy fields full of bulrushes and songbirds.  Geese, cranes  and beaver dams were abundant in the marshes along the roadsides.  The land became rockier and the trees, mostly spruce and birch became thicker.

Our first stop was Riding Mountain National Park… a beautiful wildlife preserve that is home to elk, bear, moose, beaver and bison as well as all kinds of waterfowl and songbirds.  The park is situated on the northeast corner of Clear Lake and the little summer resort there is called Wasagaming which is the Cree word for “clear water”.  It would be the Riding Mountain equivalent of the townsite of Waterton in Waterton National Park in Alberta.  Bikes and canoes and kayaks can be rented,  restaurants are available and shopping can be done.  We were more interested in the hiking trails in the park so we tried to do two different trails but had to turn back half way into each one because of so much water on the trails.  The area has had a huge amount of rain in the past week so that was unfortunate for us.  The weather was stellar while we were there.  Camping was so nice!

We drove north through the park to Dauphin, intently watching for wildlife the whole way but to no avail.  We had planned to stay near Dauphin that night but the wind was howling off the lake and it was cold!  Coming from southern Alberta, we should have been used to wind but we didn’t feel like battling it that day!  So we continued east.   And the wind was relentless…coming from the north and making it hard to handle our tall van on the poor Manitoba secondary highways with their gravel shoulders.

After driving through the scenic Narrows of Lake Manitoba, we arrived in Ashern. This is where my Greek grandparents had raised a whole bunch of kids including my birth mother.  We skipped through town knowing we would be back tomorrow.  The new plan for tonight was Steep Rock, a summer resort north of Ashern on Lake Manitoba.

Steep Rock was amazing, even in the poor weather!  The sides of the lake are steep escarpments of limestone and because the wind was still blowing so hard, the lake, which looked more like an ocean due to its vastness, was crashing against the rocks in giant swells!

We had our supper and looked for a spot to park for the night but after our experience in North Battleford, we felt uncomfortable in such a deserted area.  Besides, the weather was so cool we would have been confined to the van for the whole evening.  We instead headed south again to a provincial campground called Watchorn Park and settled in for a cool rainy night.

After travelling on what Jim calls “fifthendary” roads due to the huge potholes, we were in Ashern first thing the next morning, inquiring about my Safioles family and two other families…Schindles and Porteous…at the municipal office.  The gal at the office was very helpful and then suggested her Grandma might be able to answer some of our questions.  It turns out her Grandma was in the restaurant across the street where we had planned to go for breakfast.  So off we went….”Would any of you ladies know the name Safioles?” asked Jim.  “Well, I have an Aunt Toola who used to be a Safioles” replied one of them.  “No way!  My wife has the same Aunty Toola!”  So that’s how we met Sharon who turns out to be related to me by marriage and is also related to Schindles who I was also inquiring about for a friend!  Sharon was wonderful… She toured us all over town, took us out to the old family farm south of town and to the graveyard where we could pay our respects to my grandparents.  Then she took us to the legion to view the wall of honor where I saw a photo of my Uncle Alex while he was in the forces.  We ended up staying to play cards for the afternoon and meeting other people who had stories to tell about my aunts and uncles in their younger days!

By early evening we were on our way into Winnipeg to catch the last period of the hockey game then off to bed in the Wally World RV Park.  It had been a full day!

We were up early the next morning to meet my cousin, Linda, at the Forks in Winnipeg.  The Forks, at the confluence of the Red River and the Assiniboine River,  has been a meeting place for over 6000 years so it seemed fitting to meet her there.  We hadn’t seen her in about 10 years and have never had a chance to really get to know her so I was looking forward to spending some time with her.  She proved to be an incredible tour guide as she was born and raised in Winnipeg and is somewhat of a history buff.

We started with a short River tour which gave us our bearings and offered some of the historical facts about the area.  Apparently artifacts have been found in the river systems that show travel has been from as far away as the Gulf of Mexico thousands of years ago!  From there, we sauntered around the Forks Market and Shops, went into the very busy train station…designed by the same architect as Grand Central Station in New York…and then headed across the iconic Esplanade Riel Bridge.  In the middle of the bridge, suspended over the water is an excellent restaurant where we stopped for lunch and had a chance to really visit.

After lunch, we continued across the bridge to St. Boniface, the French part of Winning and the resting place of Louis Riel.  The cathedral was built in 1906 but burned in the big fire of 1968…only the facade remained intact.  Built of limestone and Tyndall stone, you can actually see the fossils that make the Tyndall stone so unique.  The new, modern church with amazing leaded windows is built behind the old facade.  The old gravestones around the grounds dated back to the 1600’s.

It was a packed day of walking and talking.  By evening we were “done” so we made plans for the next day with Linda and headed to a campground where we could catch up on laundry and some van housekeeping!

The next day was another packed day.  We decided to park the van at a shopping centre and take the public transit into the city centre since parking is so difficult.  We met Linda at Smoke’s Poutinerie which is famous  for it’s…you guessed it…Poutine!  I can attest that it is indeed yummy!  From there, we had arranged to take a walking tour of the Exchange District.  The tour was titled Death and Debauchery and touched on some of the shadier parts of Winnipeg ‘s history while pointing out the historic buildings in the area, including the first car dealership and an old Vaudeville theatre, The Pantages.

After the tour, we made our way to the Manitoba museum, a fantastic display of dioramas depicting Winnipeg over the ages and notably since the Huson Bay Company set up its trading posts in the area.  A highlight was the replica of the Nonsuch, the famous Hudson Bay fur trading boat.

When we had finished in the museum, we came outside to discover a fine, warm rain was falling.  Winnipeg has created a series of pedways that move people between buildings for many blocks without ever going outside.  This would be especially desirable in the cold winter months but comes in handy in any kind of inclement weather.  We managed to follow these indoor walkways across much of the downtown area with a stop at the original magnificent Bank of Montreal to view the opulence of it before heading to the Legislative Buildings, sitting proudly facing the river with The Golden Boy secured to its domed roof.  We had a quick look around and then had to get to the bus stop for our trip back to the shopping centre.

When we got to the shopping centre we hopped onto the Park and Ride bus to the Bluebombers Football game… a preseason exhibition game against the Allouettes.  It would be the only time you would see Jim cheering for the Bombers who won handily 36-13.   They might be a team the Eskimos may have to reckon with in the upcoming season!

We started the next day with a tour of the Canadian Mint where all the circulation coins for Canada and many other countries in the world are minted.  For those of you who may not know, the Loonie was not the first choice for our one dollar coin.  A depiction of a canoe with an early voyageur was the first choice but the mint was lost in shipping and still to this day has not been found so the second choice, the Loon, went to mint!  Because this year is the 40th anniversary of the Mint in Winnipeg, all circulation coins will be changed in honor of the event.  The public was asked to submit artwork for the new coins and the entries have been chosen.  One of the winners is 11 years old!  Hopefully nothing gets lost in shipment this time!  Another thing we learned…all Canadian coins have a thin layer of copper in them.  Why?  So that vending machines can identify them based on the amount of copper!

Leaving Winnipeg, we headed north west again to visit the limestone quarry in Stonewall.  Unfortunately, a few bus loads of students were there for the day so we weren’t able to tour the quarry but we did see some of the old buildings.

Then on to Lower Fort Garry at Selkirk where costumed interpreters guided us through a day in the life of a Hudson Bay Company settlement in 1850. It was very informative and fun and of course made us ponder the power of the HBC and the control it had over the fur trade in the early days.  It was extremely influential in the opening up of Canada as a whole.  The fort was later used as a training ground for the Northwest Mounted Police in 1870, then an Auto Club in the early days of the automobile before it was deemed a historical site by National Parks Canada.

After nearly three days of intense touring it was time for some down time.  When we were at Ford & Lori’s wedding in Edmonton, a friend had suggested we should go to Grand Beach.  It sounded like the perfect spot to kick back and do nothing.  We were certainly not led astray!  We would never have imagined a beach of this caliber existed in the middle of our country!  Sand dunes eight feet high turned into long stretches of fine white sand beaches along smooth blue water as far as the eye can see.  Add to that a beautiful campground and hot sunny weather and you’ve pretty well found paradise!  How lucky Winnipeg people are to have this just 60 km north of their city on Lake Winnipeg. We stayed two nights and loved it!

Our last day in Manitoba was spent driving past all the little summer villages along the south part of Lake Winnipeg and on through the Boreal Shield of Whiteshell Provincial Park.  The sandy landscape became rocky and small lakes were continuously joined by dams and rivers.  On every lake we could see boaters out for the weekend and every lake looked pristine in the sun with mixed forest lining its banks.  Birch, Aspen and Jack Pine are the resident trees and along with them and the long grass, we found we needed to be aware of ticks.  We stopped for a self guided hike explaining the techniques of reforestation and made sure we removed any of these unwanted visitors before we got into the van again….pesky little things!  They lead to paranoia!!

On that note, we leave beautiful Manitoba behind us and venture on to the huge expanse of Ontario.