Best paddling by a dam site
Gardiner Dam to Outlook on the South Saskatchewan River makes an excellent day trip, for even the novice paddler.
Old Guys Need Practice
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In the last few years my dad and I have gotten into kayaking. So far this has been a matter of buying gear and taking lazy afternoon trips on the nearby water with our family.
This year we’ve sought to broaden our horizons a bit. Looking for a good test-run before tackling multi-day adventures (as a gauge of paddling fitness, a gear check, practice loading the boats for transport, and so on), we figured the Gardiner-to-Outlook trek was as good as any.
Fortunately, the trip serves this purpose perfectly.
Great Trip - But Watch for Low Water
Everything about the trip is pretty straightforward:
- We left from the east bank of the end of the Gardiner spillway. The water was calm and the beach accessible.
- Access to the beach comes from a road just past the spillway on the east side. You head past the power station and end at the very end of the spillway. There’s a trail going back but you can also turnaround (including with a trailer, like we did), and head back on the gravel.
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- We did our trip in early May. The Alberta melt waters don’t come in until late June, so the river was quite low—a condition exacerbated by drought in the area.
- You can find the daily outflow data from the Sask Water Security Agency here.
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- While we never had to get out and portage, we did run aground in numerous spots. It was necessary to stay on a constant lookout for the deep channel (usually around 1-2.5m). This task was made easier by the calm conditions, allowing you to generally spot the faster (and thus deeper) water.
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- The result, as shown by our GPS tracks below, mean we rarely travelled in a straight line, meandering every now and then to avoid the low water.
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- Neoprene paddling gloves will save your paddle head (and keep your hands from freezing) as you work to get yourself unstuck.
- There are plenty of islands and sandbars, so you’ll never find yourself short a place to spot. I recommend bringing camp chairs, though. They’re a bit of comfort a kayak easily affords, and they’ll help keep the sand of you (and out of your boat).
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- The route is covered in the ‘South Saskatchewan River - 4’ topo map, which I got from GoTrekkers.
- The Meewasin Valley authority has come up with an incredible guide to the trip (all the way past Saskatoon, in fact). A great—and often fascinating—read.
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Get Out Your Paddles!
- It’s always a great sight when the Outlook train bridge rolls into view. (Maybe some day we’ll be able to go on it again…)
- I’ve uploaded this trip onto the GoPaddling app.
- I encourage anyone interested to take advantage. There’s nothing like being on the water in your own backyard.
Trip Data
Date |
May 9, 2021 |
Time |
10:30 am - 5:45 pm |
Pace |
4.5 km/hr total average |
|
~6.5 kph average in good moving water |
|
~2 kph current |
Distance |
~32km |
Diefenbaker Discharge |
75 m^3/sec |
Weather |
Low wind and 16 degrees C high |
Stops |
70 min lunch & 20 min break |
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Sean Clark (Saturday, 29 January 2022 13:12)
Came across footage of the dam from 1967 via YouTube and the ‘Historic Saskatchewan’ Facebook site. Fantastic footage, available here: https://youtu.be/vsnw09on2c8