Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/144909
a day in the parks (opposite, clockwise from top) Take-out point at the National Historic Site of Batoche; named by the Metis, Petite Ville's sand flat of wolf willow and chokecherry makes for the trip's campsite; breaking for lunch. (this page, clockwise from top) The cliff- and coulee-lined bank of the South Saskatchewan; Fish Creek's decaying wooden church; archaeologist Butch Amundsen, a real-life Indiana Jones. sandbar of willow and cottonwood takes the inside bend; a high cutbank rises opposite. These cliffs of mud and till rise nearly vertical to the prairie rim 60 metres above, their faces pocked with swallows' nests. We take a lunch of egg salad sandwiches and stretch our legs on a mud foreshore thick with dewy grass, then continue downstream. Rounded boulders breach the surface. It's easy enough to avoid them by canoe, but I marvel that the old riverboats could navigate these shoal and shifting waters. We come ashore again, at a flat that looks familiar, and I realize we have reached Fish Creek. Metis country! Fish Creek is a national historic site where a thousand red-coated Canadian government militia took a famous drubbing from Dumont and 150 of his Metis brothers – just one chapter of the so-called North-West Rebellion. Our resident expert Butch Amundson leads us on a climb up the coulee to the prairie, where a stone cairn commemorates the battle of March 1885. Amundson is chief archaeologist for a Saskatoon environmental consulting firm and logs thousands of grid-road miles a year protecting Saskatchewan's 23,000-odd archaeological sites from construction digging. Fit, deeply tanned, wearing khaki shorts and a red cambric shirt, he's a real-life adventure-archaeologist – except it's a light canvas floppy instead of a dark fedora, and a GPS instead of a bullwhip. While Petite Ville lies on private land and is best experienced by canoe with a guide, Fish Creek and Batoche are Parks Canada National Historic Sites accessible by car. Visitors often underestimate the size of these two vast properties, which will easily fill a day. From Saskatoon, reach Batoche via Highways 11, 312 and 255. This was the bustling centre for the St. Laurent Metis; visit on a busy summer day to catch the flavour of old. Listen for Fransaskois locals speaking their prairie French. The fine parish church commands the view, and down the short boardwalk is the rectory. Here, the blue Metis flag, resembling an infinity sign, symbolizes the joining of two peoples. It is a surprisingly long hike down to the river landing — so take time to enjoy it. After, recharge with food and sit for a film in the modern interpretive centre. Departing Batoche, follow the Parks Canada signs south to Tourond's Coulee/Fish Creek. On the way you cannot miss the grandly gaunt Fish Creek church, falling woefully into disrepair. Don't try to visit because it stands on private property. In dry weather, look instead for the small Ukrainian graveyard hiding across the grid road to the east. The Tourond's Coulee/Fish Creek area is not just a battleground but a lovely pocket wilderness. Explore the extensive wooded valley and follow the trail down to the Saskatchewan River landing from the stone cairn. For a fun route back to Hwy. 11, follow the grid roads south to either Hague or Clarkboro ferries and float your car over the river. It's free. —A.C. WESTWORLD p22-27_MetisCountry.indd 25 >> S U M M E R 2 0 1 2 25 4/13/12 12:01:02 PM