MANITOBA
(This page last updated on 3 February 2004)
My involvement with The Trail started when I read a letter in the Winnipeg Free
Press in 1969. It was from a Mr. D. Campbell, of the Chinook Trail Association in Calgary. My records show that I first wrote him on October 24, 1969.
Apparently their group had marked a portion of the Trail across the Sarcee Reserve west of Calgary. There was an active group working in British Columbia because my sister, who lives in Vancouver, took my two younger children on it when they were visiting her and they are now married with, in my daughter's case, adult children.
Canada celebrated its centenary in 1967 and in 1970 Manitoba was about to celebrate the centenary of its entry into Confederation. I was actively engaged in Scouting in what is known as Pembina District. As I was always looking for interesting activities for the Packs and Troops in our District, it occurred to me that we could mark a portion of The Trail as our contribution to Manitoba's centenary.
An analysis of the situation indicated that the trail would likely come down the Qu' Appelle valley west of my home-town of Birtle. I then visualised it as following up the Birdtail Valley to west of Rossbum. It would then turn eastward and follow the highway that is known, in those parts of the province, as The Turkey Trail.
The trail would eventually drop down off the escarpment east of Erickson. Making its way around the south end of Lake Manitoba, the trail would ultimately be forced to cross the Red on the bridge at Lockport.
From there it would trend eastwardly through Beausejour following PTH 44. As that highway had recently received a new roadbed parallel to the old one (so traffic would not be impeded during the several years it took to build the new road), I visualised the trail as simply following along the old road with markers placed on the fence-posts at reasonable intervals.
Eventually the trail would pass through Whitemouth and Rennie. That part of Manitoba is known as The Whiteshell. There are many lakes and rivers (and I paddled some of them with my Troop when I was still an active Scouter) on which people have summer-cottages. There are also various camp-grounds.
My thinking was that Mother would drive Dad and the two older children to one of the access-points of the trail. She would then take the baby back to camp while Dad and the two children with him would spend the day hiking the trail. They would then go back to the Highway at the next access-point where Mom would pick them up in the afternoon.
My thought was that the access-points would be about five or six miles apart.
Obviously, I trust, you will appreciate that my thinking has always been to associate The Trail with highways.
We started marking the trail near the junction of Highway 44 with the road that runs in to the fish-hatchery at Ingolf. Working northward, we eventually reached the trail that runs from Caddy Lake to the dam at the outlet from McGillivray lake. Crossing the dam, we then worked our way northward to approach the highway. In the open, we make cairns since there are always lots of rocks lying around.
Through the swales we remove enough of the poplars to create a path. I don't know what Cindy Bell and her team are doing today but, at one time, we marked the two ends of these paths with an assortment of markers carrying the Scout symbol.
That more or less covers what I have to say. I have had to recognize that the phenomenon known as Old Age means that I will not be hiking The Trail any more. Lots of happy memories, of course, and it is in good hands.
Good hiking!
Vernon L. "Skink" Dutton
"Skink" is my Scouting name. Manitoba has the "northern skink" (Eumecies septentrionalis) that is found in western Manitoba along the Cypress and Assiniboine rivers
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