This was an exciting trip for me. I was venturing out with my cousin for the first time on the water and the Bird River to Elbow Lake canoe route in Nopiming Provincial Park was new to me. I was also excited as it was the first time back on the water since my Solo trip. We had a relatively short timeline, and this route seemed to fit perfectly.
LOCATION DETAILS
We chose the Bird River to Elbow Lake Canoe Route in my favourite area, Nopiming Provincial Park (surprise, surprise). It is a fairly quick drive from Winnipeg at a little over 2 hours. The launch point at Tulabi Lake is off road 315 along the southern edge of the park heading east before the start of road 314 where the winding and legendary washboard road starts.
The launch point is in the same area as Tulabi Falls Campground. Bird Lake on the west side of the falls and Tulabi Lake on the east side. There is a good size parking lot, and there is a short Portage from the parking lot to the lake. The shore is sandy and good put-in spots for the canoe.
THE PADDLE TO ELBOW LAKE
Going to a new area meant some unknowns regarding the portages and paddle time. The park map listed 4-5 hour paddle time. I guessed we would be closer to 5 hours since we were in a slow moving 17ft Coleman Ramx canoe. Tulabi is small and didn’t take long to reach the mouth of the river on the NE end of the lake. The paddle down the river is quite nice and the water levels were very good.
Portage #1
It didn’t take long to hit the first 155m portage. The take-out spot was a bit challenging because of the rocky shoreline. Therefore, there was no way to avoid getting a bit wet and muddy. The portage has a moderate elevation change, and the wooden steps and a well worn trail made it easy to traverse. The tank of a canoe was uncomfortable and heavy, it was a killer to carry! The put-in consists of walking down an eroded bank and into a shallow and muddy shoreline, there was no avoiding getting almost knee deep in muck. *This could be a very slippery trail in rainy weather.
Portage #2
The second Portage can be seen from the end of the first portage and is a short 15-20 minutes paddle across. For some reason I had it in my head that the first was the longest, to my surprise this portage was longer at 367m – a bit of a downer! The take-out spot to the right of the stairs was decent, but required a little bit of rock climbing to get on the stairs. You can take-out in front of the stairs, but it is a rockier spot.
The trails were dry and easy to walk. That said, I almost put the canoe down (by that I mean drop!) about two thirds of the way in but managed to talk myself into pushing forward. In other words, this beast of a canoe was a grind to carry! The put-in was good, the water is shallow on the right side and was able to float the canoe in the reeds while we loaded it up and walked it out.
Portage #3
The third (and final) portage was a short 30m, which was a nice reward after that last one! We just carried the canoe partially loaded.
FINDING CAMP ON ELBOW LAKE
We would soon be on Elbow Lake and headed to camp, the third portage is approximately midway. We encountered some delays and were a bit disoriented when we arrived at Elbow Lake. I somehow printed out an old version of the map which didn’t have numbered sites and a couple of the location dots were either missing or in the incorrect position. Lesson learned, make sure you have an updated map!
We targeted some island sites at the North West side of the lake. We paddled around island campsites, which I now know as 9, 10, and 11 and they were occupied. After that, we paddled back to campsite 7 which we knew was unoccupied. It turned out to be a very nice spot. All in all it took us approximately 18km and 5.5 hours from when we pushed off on Tulabi lake to the time we settled in.
FISHING ON ELBOW LAKE
Day 2 was our fishing day, which was also a scorching hot day! We fished from shore with no real action and got out on the water to try and find them. We covered a lot of water battling winds and scorching mid afternoon heat for 3 hours. Just when we were going to call it quits I noticed an attractive spot that had potential.
The fish were near a rocky underwater hump identified by a cluster of pencil reeds. Located on the North East side of the island where campsite 9-10 are (in between the island and the mainland). We were getting lots of bites casting close to the reeds and ended up catching two nice eating size walleyes. There was a good wind and it was taking a lot of energy trying to stay in position. We decided we had enough and headed back to prepare our shore lunch.
The shore lunch was simply amazing! It was super hot out, and unbeknownst to my cousin I had secretly packed 2 beers for such an occasion. What a way to enjoy the day, amazing shore lunch, cold beer and great weather! After the epic shore lunch we went for a swim to cool down in the bay next to our campsite. There is a nice sandy shoreline with a gradual slope into deeper water.
PARTING THOUGHTS
Overall the trip was a blast! It is a great paddle with beautiful scenery and a Nopiming canoe trip wouldn’t have been complete without a moose sighting, which we saw crossing the river! Because of the amount of traffic on this route I heard it was rare to see a moose, I guess we were lucky!
It was a busier lake with lots of incoming and outgoing paddlers. When it is busy there is an added pressure and fear of whether or not you will get a campsite. I can see it being busy in peak season. You would want to get an early start on the water and preferably start early-mid week to avoid the weekend rush.
We were surprised upon return to Tulabi launch point by the number of people scattered along the shoreline. It wasn’t a big deal, but we were tired from fighting a strong headwind for the past hour. And it was a bit overwhelming having to transition so quickly from backcountry to frontcountry! After all, that is a big reason why I go to the backcountry!
I look forward to return and would like to navigate further to McCregor Lake. Based on the amount of people traffic I will definitely be looking to go early spring or late fall. I highly recommend Nopiming if you are planning for a canoe trip.