Riding Mountain National Park

Sun 22 June Visit to the Riding Mountain National Park

Yesterday was Sunday and we took the opportunity to spend the day exploring the RMNP (see above), about an hour from where we were camping. It’s one of 2 National Parks in Manitoba and covers 3000 sq km’s so of course we only skimmed the surface. We took a lovely drive to get a bit of a sense of the big picture; it’s a beautiful hilly area. Then we stopped at Moon Lake, one of 400 lakes in the park, and hiked the 9.5 km trail around its apparently cashew shaped perimeter.

We sallied forth in running shoes and shorts, with no insect repellent. The mosquitoes saw me coming and swarmed. But I braved on regardless and have many welts to show for it today. It was a strenuous hike. You can’t lally-gag along. You must try to move at a velocity faster than a mosquito can land and stab, and only occasionally stop long enough to take a couple of gulps of water. There were many swampy areas where we had to manage black soggy mud and water or “bundu bash” higher up in an effort to avoid the wettest places. It was a process of getting one shoe wet first, then the other one covered in mud, and then giving up all attempts to stay clean. By the time we’d gone all the way round I had mud splashed up to my knees and 2 thoroughly wet muddy shoes. Eric somehow managed to avoid the great globs of mud up his legs and we were both sweaty and grimy and tired, so all was well.

Fortunately it was a lake we were circum-walking so we were able to clean up and cool off in the water before going to have a meal in Wasagaming, the town on Claire Lake just inside the park.

Still so much more to discover another time!!