Manitoba trip
I have taken each of my children on a solo trip after their high school graduation. My daughter and my middle son chose to go west through the Black Hills and the eastern Rockies. My youngest chose a trip north… a long way north. We headed out of Minneapolis, past Winnipeg, west over to Riding Mountain National Park, then a big dog leg up as far as Lynn Lake, MB with a final push to Kinoosao, SK. With the exception of the ice road or a barge to Churchill, it is as far north as you can drive your own vehicle in Manitoba.
The Manitoba Provincial Parks provided wonderful camping points and as we went further North, the roads became more remote and the fewer folks we met. MB Provincial Trunk Highway 6 is long, straight and flat. Heavy B-trains own the road and are difficult to overtake due to their length. There are good fuel points every 200 km or so along 6, with the best at Grand Rapids, Fortunately, we were able to avoid the forest fires throughout our travels, seeing smoke billowing on the horizon, fires set in some cases out of protest to Manitoba Hydro we were told. The night skies held a smokey haze obscuring star gazing and any chance of seeing the Aurora.
Still, the road from Thompson to the SK border is one of the most remote tracks I have been on and requires acute awareness of range and provisions. It is 321 km from Thompson to Lynn Lake and another 120km to Kinoosao. My 2006 UZJ100 has approximately a 400 Km range and recon told us you cannot count on fuel at Kinoosao… and in fact, we were told that occasionally the CO-OP runs out at Lynn Lake, prompting us to carry 10 gallons in Jerry cans on the trailer. Manitoba Infrastructure (think DOT) patrols with 2m radio and fuel bowsers in the back of their trucks as there is no cell service once you pass 50 Km out of Thompson. But again, don’t count on it. The road to Lynn Lake is 70% gravel and 30% poor, broken pavement with several single lane bridges, areas where the road has washed out and was then poorly repaired. It passes First Nation villages with gates and checkpoints such as Nelson House and Leaf Rapids which has fuel, but it is up to the tribe if they will admit you. The rock cuts are gorgeous, the lakes and streams cool and clear. And the fishing was amazing. But, as the signs say… Be Bear Aware! Caught this guy at Zed Lake.
Wolf mural in Thompson
Rock cut near Leaf Rapids
My cousin accompanied us on his 2007 Kawasaki KLR which added both scout capabilities as well as a bit of a logistics concern as we counted on FMRS for comms, not to mention the lack of range. Several times we exceeded the range of the comms… but the KLR continued to amaze with its reliability and miserly fuel consumption. Something to keep in mind. The towers you see along MB 391 are microwave towers for land lines, not cellular.
This is a one way route. Kinoosao is the “end of the road”, with the only true destination being the Grand Slam Lodge. The proprietor, Floyd, is a truly great human and invited us to share a fire as we offered to share some hand formed 1/2# ground chuck burgers over that same fire; more fresh beef than he’d seen in a while. He owns and operates the lodge that sees as many surveyors and prospectors now as fishermen.
The road from Lynn Lake to Kinoosao was closed at Zed Lake for regraveling other than to local traffic due to wash outs and severe ruts from the spring thaw, requiring low range use in many places. We elected to leave the trailer at Zed Lake Provincial, appropriately named as it is the last Park along the route you can access. As the road starts in MB but ends in SK (in fact, SK 994 is the shortest highway in SK, at only 1.2 km long) there is always controversy as to who is going to foot the bill for repairs in the spring. We met a few folks that had turned back to Lynn Lake with their fishing craft having not being able to negotiate the track with their wide trailers. Several abandoned vehicles along the trail, windows blown out or with shredded tires provided a reminder that this is a wild road, and manners should be minded.
Abandoned trawlers outside Kinoosao
Provincial line.
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