Paddling on frigid day 'interesting,' says Saskatchewan canoeist

Saskatchewan's recent spate of brutal cold sent most of us running for blankets, fires and safety from the elements. But on a day this week when temperatures dropped to 35 C,Solomon Carriere went for a paddle in his canoe.

Carriere (who can be seen in the video above during a slightly less-frigid December canoe trip)found some open waterand went for a more than hour-long canoe tripnear his home, 60 kilometres north of Cumberland House, Sask. (a village just over 350 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon).

Carriere, who is training for a 1,000-kilometre canoe voyage to James Bay, says he'soften seen open water in the middle of winter on the Saskatchewan River delta.

But he said this was the firsttime he's gone out in his canoe on a day thatcold.

"You start paddling and then you feel the ice building on your paddle. Right away it starts building up. Then as you go you feel your canoe start to get heavy, you can just feel the ice building on the bottom of the canoe," said Carriere.

To deal with the ice buildup, Carrierebrought an axe to speed up theprocessof pulling onto an ice bank and smashing the ice off his paddle and his boat.

Carrieresays canoeing in the bitter cold is good fun, but even wearing warm gearthere was little he could do to fight the cold. He said at one pointhis wool gloves were entirely crusted in ice, but he was still able to hold the paddle so he decided to keep going.

But if he fell into the water,Carrieresaidthere would be no way to save himself."Oh, you'd be dead. That would be it. It'dbe game over," he said.

Carrieresaid part of his motivation for paddling out during the unrelenting deep freeze was his ancestral roots. With his family tracing their lineage to the land on which he now lives and traps,he says canoeing is in his blood.