Sea Kayak Trips Bulletin Board

User Profile

Robert N Pruden

I began my kayaking life by lurking here, at the GBBS, absorbing all the information I needed to build. I started building my first Waters Dancing Lightning 17 in 2000 - that was before I learned to paddle. Upon completion of the above unnamed boat (first omen of bad luck), I launched her in a very wobbly and paranoid manner on the duck shilty waters of Leduc, Alberta's Telford Lake. I thought for sure that I would either roll and swim or the panels would fly apart and then I would swim. Turned out that I wouldnt' swim for another year yet, but that is another story.

Since then I have built another Lightning 17 and have successfully used it to begin what I now call my Big River Trip. The trip is my self-defined epic seakayaking journey across Canada via the North Saskatchewan and Saskatchewan Rivers, Hudson Bay and finally, the Atlantic Ocean, a watery journey from the Alberta Rockies to Newfoundland.

It's true that I am not comfortable while on the water, but my love of where the water can take me and the close proximity that I get to wildlife keeps me paddling. That forms the basis of the "why" I am doing my big river trip. The first year that I attempted to start this trip: June, 2002, I ran afoul with a major rapid that I did not know existed near teh origins of the North Saskatchewan River. That story can be found at the following link: ( http://www.kayakforum.com/cgi-bin/Trips/index.cgi/read/2522 ) I persevered during June, 2003 and completed the first successful leg of the trip that went from the Alberta Rockies to North Battleford, Saskatchewan - that story is here: http://www.kayakforum.com/cgi-bin/Trips/index.cgi/read/4128 . I attempted the second leg during June, 2004, but very bad weather caused that trip to end a day and a half later under the old Borden Bridge near Borden, Saskatchewan - see the story here: http://www.kayakforum.com/cgi-bin/Trips/index.cgi/read/6178. I completed the next leg of the journey during June, 2008. That trip took me to the end of the river where it drains into the north end of Lake Winnipeg. I have no link to the trip report and images for the trip due to technical difficulties at this site. I will correct that once Nick gets the site working properly again.

If you're ever in Edmonton, Alberta and you see a wooden kayak painted with a white graphic on the deck with a big red Canadian maple leaf with a smaller blue Quebecois fleur-de-Lis and yellow Metis infinity symbol painted on the deck, that will be me. Catch me if you can and I'll regal you with my kayaking stories. As the years go by, my story library grows and the tales get longer. If you want to hear a couple, I'll light the firepit, open a couple of Guinness, you put your feet up, lean back, close your eyes and listen up.

The Happy Paddler

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