With two days of spring left and not having been on a day trip, Yours Truly headed for the Lucky Lake marsh on the north side of the South Saskatchewan River.
Decades ago, a Ducks Unlimited project preserved a marsh on the alkaline lake with a road trail across the lake — a road that had been closed after erosion.
The drive involved crossing the river on the Riverhurst ferry and a nice chat with the operators. I asked about the bear sightings and was told bear had been seen in Douglas Park and Danielson Park on both sides of the river.
What was once a paved road to Birsay, now mostly gravel, took me there. Along the way a neat old square two-storey home was partly hidden by a hill with a large barn on the hill. Neither seems used except by pigeons and mice.
Crops looked pretty good, considering the lack of rain. All that rain in the next few days would perk them up.
The grid road to the north end of Lucky Lake was quite dusty, so dusty I almost missed the turn into the lake.
On this blustery day few birds hung around in the lake. Plenty of ducks and gulls sat in a little bay. A willet shorebird and a few phalaropes dined in the shallows.
Some ruddy ducks and grebes bounced among the churning waves like bobbing apples at Halloween.
The Lucky Lake marsh was a disappointment, so much so that I didn’t drive around the lake to where there is 800 acres of wetlands — giving an excuse to return on a nicer day.
During a late breakfast at the Birsay Kitchen the women at coffee talked about the high costs of groceries and wondered how young people get by. The men at coffee talked about trucks and panning for gold.
A for sale sign hung in the window of the Birsay Kitchen, a cafe, confectionery and post office. I thought: another rural community faces possible loss of service.
After ordering take-out of two slices of home-made saskatoon pie, back in my green Prius I drove around the little town seeing well-kept homes and the unique United Church.
The road home was via Gardiner Dam, where pelicans battled waves, and Elbow. Crops seemed surprisingly good, given the little rainfall to that point.
The irrigated crops were really lush.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected]
