Trip Coordinators: Arleen Drysdale and Brenda Noble

Since the Voyageurs had yet to do the Devon to Laurier Park trip in 2025, Brenda Noble and I decided to co-lead a trip down this stretch of river at the end of August. Despite being a last minute addition to the Voyageurs annual trip list, within a week we had assembled a manageable list of paddlers to accompany us on this trip. Included on the list were Don L. and Gene L. in their tandem canoe, as well as Paul O. and Brenda N. in their tandem canoe. In addition to the two canoes, there was Ben C., Denise J., Eric F. and myself in our solo kayaks.

We met at Devon Voyageur boat launch at 9:00 am. We found the boat launch was packed with people and boats getting ready to do the same trip as us, under the supervision of a local boat tour company, Canoeheads. It is so good that there are companies offering this service to encourage people to develop an interest in paddling. Amid all this hustle and bustle at the boat launch, we quickly proceeded to unload our boats and then did the necessary car shuttle, leaving Gene, Eric and Ben to guard our boats and gear. Fortunately Ben C. had arranged his own shuttle, so it made it possible for me to bring back all of the shuttle drivers to Devon in just my own car. We arrived back in Devon at 10:00 am, ready to tackle the mighty North Saskatchewan. To my surprise, parking my car for the day at the boat launch now costs money. I believe the cost was $6.00 which requires the use of a cell phone and credit card as they do not take cash. I was not prepared for this but Denise saved the day on this one. Thank you Denise, for paying the parking fee. I was later told by the other people on the trip that this fee is only required in the parking area immediately adjacent to the boat launch. If I had left my car in the row just beyond the payment zone, the parking would have been free. So my trip tip from this day is to carefully read the signs indicating where the paid and the no payment parking areas are, to avoid any financial surprises.

With the final preparations made we all set off about an hour after the large tour group had left. While we were more experienced paddlers than those on the tour group and could be expected to out paddle them, the separation in start times between the tour group and ourselves was enough that we never really saw the tour group again until we reached the take out point. It was an absolutely perfect day for paddling with bright sun, no wind and temperatures approaching 26°C. The current and water levels were decent, with no major waves or any shallow gravel bars to impede our progress. The river was surprisingly busy on this beautiful day with boats, jet skis, and paddle boards on the water, with gold panners and dog walkers on the shore. As we paddled downstream, we visited with each other, watched the scenery go by and traded stories. We had two beaver accompany us for a short while as we paddled past the Devon Lions Campground. It was fun watching them as they came up and then dive back down again. We also saw a total of three bald eagles along the way, perched on high tree branches watching us pass by. On the steep slope opposite Terwillegar Park, some of us saw a deer traversing the slope doing its best to remain invisible. We saw no other additional wildlife, but I’m sure they were watching us.

We stopped for lunch on a gravel bar on the south end of an island upstream of the Windermere Golf and Country Club. While we wolfed down our lunches, Eric F. took his drone up to photograph our lunch spot and the surroundings. He incorporated some of this footage into his video of this entire trip which can be found on his YouTube site under his alias “Stumpy Paddler”. Everyone is encouraged to watch his video of this trip, along with many other NWV trips over the last two years that he has participated in. Be sure to share a like and subscribe to his channel.

After a quick lunch, it was time to paddle on to the take out. Everyone but Eric left the lunch spot via the main channel on the east side of the island, but Eric decided to explore and took the smaller channel on the west side of the island. Unfortunately this smaller channel was much shallower and as a result, Eric was forced out of his kayak and had to pull his boat over several gravel bars.

It always amazes me the amount of erosion taking place along the river with more and more tree roots exposed. The houses along Whitemud Road perched close to the bank were still standing (I always take a look at that), with Don L. able to give a running commentary of the conditions and events related to the major landslide that occurred along this stretch of river in 1999. Don was formerly the City’s senior geotechnical engineer at the time and was responsible for the geotechnical investigation, site cleanup and the construction of the remediation measures used to stabilize the slope – at least for the time being according to Don.

We arrived at Laurier Park at about 4:00 pm. Despite the Canoehead paddlers having an hour head start on us, they were still milling around the boat launch at Laurier when we got there. While this did cause some congestion and a bit of tension as everyone was trying to get loaded at the same time, everything got sorted out and no blood was spilled. As everyone else left to directly return home, Paul and Brenda drove me back to Devon to pick up my car. I also appreciate the help we got getting my kayak up onto Paul’s truck. It was somewhat harder than I thought it would be. The three of us celebrated our successful day with ice cream at a Dairy Queen. Overall, it was a very relaxing day on the water and it could not have been much better.

Thanks to all who participated.