Accessing Alberta’s beauty through paddling
The Medicine Hat Paddle Club has more members than ever before and has had a great season getting out onto rivers and creeks.
As Robert Benn, Secretary of the club, stated, “it’s accessing the beauty of Southern Alberta that you can’t get to on road.”
They have a Facebook messenger page for club members to put up ideas on what they would like to do, enabling small groups to form to get out and do different activities. Recently, a group left from the Suffield pump station, about 32 kilometres up river from the city. Earlier this season, while the river was still high, another group paddled from Strathcona Park out to 11th Avenue.
“It’s a nice river to paddle on because there is usually plenty of water,” Benn said of the South Saskatchewan River. “We organize different trips out to the Milk River and to some creeks in Saskatchewan. We also organize trips down the Seven Persons Creek.”
For Seven Persons Creek, the start point is called Heron Point, just off Boundary Road, and it takes three hours to get to Kin Coulee. Although, Benn explained, “most of them are taking four and half because they stop at Cottonwood Coulee for lunch, which is why it’s such a popular route.”
One landowner put a tarp across the creek, thinking paddlers could go underneath it, which wasn’t feasible, so the tarp kept getting cut. Other landowners have barbed wire strung across the creek. Members of the club have gone out and talked to landowners along the creek.
“Any stream that can support a voyager canoe is supposedly supposed to be navigation free, that’s an early Canada law. There’s always that problem, you have a landowner with cattle on the land and he doesn’t want them to escape down the creek. It’s a give and take situation where people need to talk,” said Benn.
When it is this hot, morning and evening paddles are popular. The club holds an informal Tuesday paddle, which is open to anyone who wants to join. It usually starts at 6:30 p.m. at Strathcona Island Park. The group paddles upstream to the bridge and then rides back down to the park. It’s not all about paddling though, members get together for barbecues and other events just to have fun.
If you want more information or to contact the Club, email them at medicinehatpaddleclub@gmail.com.