On June 9, 14 students of the Kamsack Comprehensive Institute and the six adults accompanying them, collected their backpacks, rolled up their sleeping bags, gathered their tents and hitched their trailer loaded with 20 canoes to a pick-up truck, and headed off to Missinipe.
They are the Voyageurs, the group of KCI students who take several days and nights to explore the Saskatchewan north by canoe.
The group was to spend Thursday night at Murray Point Campground at Anglin Lake, and return to Kamsack on Monday.
At this, the fifth annual KCI outdoor education experience, the group, working with the Churchill River Canoe Outfitters, will travel about 50 kilometres on French Lake to Ducker Lake and to Otter Lake, ending at their starting point at Missinipe.
The trip begins at a location about 95 kilometres north of LaRonge, Greg Thomas, the teacher who has organized all five trips, said last week.
The group includes two students in Grade 9; one in Grade 10; six in Grade 11 and five in Grade 12, he said. In addition to the 14 students there are six adults, one being a former student.
“This trip, which includes about four portages over only about a kilometer of land, is more scenic than the other trips,” Thomas said. “We’ll be able to see both the Robertson Falls and Twin Falls, and we’ll be able to see the Rattler Creek rock paintings, which were created by indigenous people of about 1,000 years ago.
With a total budget of $4,450, each participant pays $200, he said. This cost is kept low because of the community support.
This year, Duck Mountain Ambulance Care and the Kamsack Co-op store each donated $500 towards the excursion, he said. The Kamsack Petro-Canada outlet donated all the fuel for the truck and two vans being used to transport the students, adults and canoes to and from the site.
The Voyageurs are pleased to be able to thank Ken Fissel of Kamsack for repairing their tents at no charge, and Trevor Shabatoski who worked on the trailer’s axel and then donated his time to research the problem and fix it, he said.
The students who went on the trip were: Jayden Raabel, Henry Thomas, Kyle Morgan, Kaylie Bowes, Lexie Tomochko, Allison Thomsen, Breanna Bland, Mikayla Woloshyn, Nicholas Shingoose, Colin Tulloch, Regan Nichol, Chloe Irvine, Koryssa Woloshyn and Julianna Raabel. Accompanying them are Thomas, Mark Forsythe, Barabara Tanner, Rhonda Thomsen, Brian Morgan and Chase Shingoose, a student who has already graduated.
