Back in the day, we used to make a yearly trip to Lac La Ronge in Northern Saskatchewan. The purpose of the trip was to spend some great times with great friends aboard a houseboat that one of them owned. La Ronge is wonderful in that it is a big lake with hundreds of islands and is secluded enough that chances are good that you will not see another person for the time you are out there. And the fishing is terrific.
The boat couldn’t sleep everyone, so we would find a spot on Bear Island (our favourite) and pitch a bunch of tents. We would use the spot as a base of operations for the time we were up there. Speaking of bears, there are definitely bears on Bear Island. If you squint real hard, you can see the bear that destroyed our tent as it runs off into the forest. Needless to say, we did not spend the night on the island this time. The tents were struck and we moved on. Unfortunately we had to rename the next island Mosquito Island. A pretty miserable night, thank heaven for beer.
The next shot is Rapid River. This very short river connects Lac La Ronge to Hale Lake. The significance is that the people who owned the boat are Hale’s. The back story is that lakes in Northern Saskatchewan are named in the memory of soldiers who died in Canada’s wars. All of them have a plaque noting who the lake is named for. This lake is named after their uncle, who was an airman in WW2. He died in the Netherlands.
All in all, a beautiful place to go, full of memories, none bad.
