Late in 1983 I decided to go to Canada for a fishing vacation the following summer. But this time I wanted to visit a part of Canada that I had never been to before. After a couple of days of research at the library, I decided to look for something around the area of Flin Flon in Manitoba and found just what I was looking for. About 30 miles south of Flin Flon is the little hamlet of Cranberry Portage which is situated on the narrow 3-4 kilometer gap that is between First Cranberry Lake and Athapapuskow Lake. Athapapuskow appeared to be much to big of a lake for us so I chose a resort on First Cranberry. I called them and reserved a 2 bedroom cabin with a kitchen and an indoor toilet.
We all flew in to Winnipeg. My son Jason came from Chicago where he lived with my ex-wife, his mother. My wife Anita and I lived in Orange County, California, so we had a much longer flight. But we met without any problem and rented a car from one of the rent-a-car companies. We had all our equipment, maps and emergency kit with us and took off for the nearly 550 mile drive.
To us, living, as we did, amid a mass of concrete and hordes of people, this part of Manitoba was empty! We drove and drove and drove on the highway which was bordered by small lakes, swamps, endless stands of small 30-40 foot tall trees of many varieties and rarely a dwelling of any kind. The terrain there is very flat and the road is very straight and consequently you can see quite a long distance. Suddenly, off in the distance there was a green dot on the horizon. As we came nearer it turned into a big square. “A sign of some sort’, we said. It grew larger and larger and then we could read it. It announced that we were at the 53rd parallel!
That was a treat and a good conversation starter, but we were still a long way from our destination. Being in the far north we had expected to see a variety of wildlife. But, surprisingly, on the drive up to and back from Cranberry Portage we saw only an occasional deer and never saw a moose or bear. That was not quite what we expected, but later we were told that was not at all unusual.
Eventually we arrived without incident at Cranberry Portage. The directions we had to the resort were very easy to follow and we quickly found it and parked the car next to the office. As we made our way across the parking area, a man was entering the office with a 9 pound Walleye in hand. He needed to have his picture taken with his trophy. With this greeting Jason and I were almost jumping out of our skin. We were ready to go fishing - NOW!
Over the next few days we went to town occasionally and also drove a few blocks over to Athapapuskow Lake. It is big! We bought a few items at one of the stores and had some fast food at a little eatery. The people were pleasant and helpful, but cautious of tourists. Perhaps they had learned to be from tourists that had preceded us. If you like the outdoors, fishing, hunting and the wilderness, you should consider this area of Canada for your next vacation.
Now
Read about the fishing on the Cranberry Lakes.
Laugh at our rent-a-car predicament.
and
Discover the geology of the Cranberry Portage area.
