We at Clif love the way The Great Trail promotes outdoor adventures and helps protect the places we play. So, in celebration of Canada’s 150th anniversary in 2017, we funded a 150-kilometre (93.2-mile) stretch of The Great Trail. We’re looking forward to an ongoing relationship, raising awareness of this epic adventure opportunity, helping bring the trail to life, and inspiring people to get out there—whether it’s on a 10-day wilderness trek or a jog on a downtown footpath.
As far as Brian Krumm can see in every direction, a vivid green landscape stretches towards a bright blue horizon, seemingly endless fields of oats shimmying in a prairie breeze. “Almost all of this—our 2,880 acres of organic oats—will end up in Clif bars,” says the fifth-generation farmer.
Organic rolled oats is one of the primary ingredients in Clif bars, and the majority of those crops are grown in Canada on vast patchworks of farmland that make up the heart of the Prairies—farmland like Brian’s. He and his family live on a homestead near Pense (pop: 532), 25 minutes west of Saskatchewan’s provincial capital of Regina.
And just four miles to the north, The Great Trail follows a rural route on the edge of their farm. “It’s along a no-name dirt road through an isolated area where we went as kids in summer to pick Saskatoon berries,” he remembers. “These days it’s sometimes used by local Hutterite farmers, but mostly it’s quiet, flat, and great for cycling and snowshoeing.”
Prairie country roads generally run in straight grids past big old red barns where horses graze in paddocks and tractors send up puffs of dust as they work their fields. Dramatic sunsets paint the phenomenally wide-open skies magenta, maroon, and gold, silhouetting grain elevators and silos, which are the closest things to skyscrapers in these parts.
What doesn’t run straight in this table-top landscape are rivers. Grinding winding paths down into the plains, they have, over eons, created scenic, snaking gorges that loop and meander—ideal terrain for paddling and hiking.
One such stretch on The Great Trail near Krumm Farm is Wascana Valley Trails, a popular park for kayaking with 9.3 miles (15 km) of hiking, mountain biking, and cross-country skiing trails for every skill level.
Just 8.5 miles (14 km) to the north, Wascana Creek flows into the Qu’Appelle River near Lumsden on The Great Trail. There’s a walking tour here that takes visitors through 51 historical sites and buildings in the classic prairie town, including the 1904 Canadian National Railway station.
Lumsden is also the transition point where The Great Trail becomes a waterway, a canoe and kayak launching point into a 97-mile (155.67-km) oxbow-riddled route of the Qu’Appelle River. The spectacular Qu’Appelle Valley Waterway winds in a leisurely current through a chain of four lakes alongside prairie grass-covered slopes or steep clay banks between Lumsden and the historic town of Fort Qu’Appelle.
Paddle through Indian reserves, past small communities set in a gentle landscape of birch groves, where purple crocuses grow wild and you can toss a line into the water and reel in a walleye, northern pike, or whitefish. It’s one of the Prairies’ best kept paddling secrets.
First Nations once travelled this route in search of buffalo who sheltered in the wooded coulees (ravines) during winter. Then in 1864, the Hudson's Bay Company built Fort Qu'Appelle as a bustling fur trading post, a vital trail hub between far-flung forts for hunters, traders, pioneers, and missionaries.
These days, the HBC’s original fort houses the small town's museum, and the valley is lakeside cottage country for Regina residents. In summer, it’s a busy beach destination with local walking and cycling trails. In winter, hardy Saskatchewan residents morph the frozen lake landscape into a snowy playground dotted with mini-villages of ice fishing huts and a cross-country ski and snowshoe haven beneath the trademark Prairie blue skies.
“Designating The Great Trail through remote rural areas like this makes people look more closely at places they might not have thought to visit. It helps them learn more about the country,” says Brian Krumm, “and it helps bind people together.”