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The Milk River is in southern Alberta. It arises in Glacier National Park in the USA, flows
across southern Alberta, then back down into the USA to eventually join the Mississippi.
Peter, Lisa's youngest brother, was in Lethbridge for a conference. This seemed like a good
opportunity to paddle the Milk again. Lisa and I drove down to meet him. We stayed in Lethbridge
at the UofL conference centre and then drove to Milk River
the next day.
We had arranged to rent two canoes from the Milk River Raft Tours and Canoe Rentals, (403)
647-3586 (no website; they are a very low key, trust based company). They provided drop-off of
canoes, car shuttle, and pick-up of canoes. We left the money in the car; they did the
work. Something to be said for small towns and trust.
We had lovely weather, no people, few bugs, and lots of birds. For what more could one ask?
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Since there were three of us, we took turns paddling the
single canoe. There are no serious rapids on the Milk River,
but a few places where one could hang up a canoe. The single
was fun to paddle through the faster bits.
Lisa and Peter did manage to test the paddling information on the map. They tried the
"what not to do" part. It worked just as shown. Luckily, the rock didn't hit quite in the
middle of the boat so they were able to pivot off the rock. Something to be said for
indestructable boats.
The information not on how (to) pin a canoe comes from the paddling map of the Milk River
produced by the Alberta Recreational Canoe
Association. If you paddle the Milk River, buy a map. They are available at most
paddling and outdoor recreational stores. ARCA's website lists
where one can buy them. It is well worth the $6.95. Besides being a map, it has interesting
and useful information on it ranging from history to emergency phone numbers.
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 Peter paddling past Hoodoos Ref: 2004-484 |
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 How to (not) pin a canoe Ref: canoePin |
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Canoing is wonderful because one can take all sorts of
stuff. We had chairs and wet food and stuff in plastic
boxes. Stuff one could not carry on a hike.
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 Lunch on the river bench Ref: 2004-402 |
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The Milk River has interesting cliffs that range from bentonite clay to conglomerate to
sandstone. Many birds use the cliffs as nesting spots. Cliff swallows are the most obvious
at the beginning. During the second day, we passed 3 or 4 pairs of prairie falcons nesting
on the cliffs. We also disturbed a red-tailed hawk on its nest and the great-horned owl at
Owl Point on its nest.
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 Cliff swallow nests Ref: 2004-411 |
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The pictures have more complete descriptions on the larger images. The toenail images just have
the picture caption.
The full sized images are suitable for printing at 4in by 6in.
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