About ten years ago Peter Clark and his friend, Marshall Leswick, went out on a snowmobile trek. They were hoping to find a cabin that was owned by a friend of theirs, Jim Russell, who was letting them use it for a night.
To this day Clark still has trouble finding it.
Starting 220 kilometres north of La Ronge in a community known as South End, the pair started on their journey, which involved covering territory that was new to them.
“Marshall had a GPS, but even then the area was still a relative unknown for us,” Clark said.
The day started out well for the two riders as they snowmobiled 35 miles across Reindeer Lake. The lake then connected to Wapusis River which had a fair bit of unfrozen water.
“There were some larger patches (of water),” said Clark. “I don’t think me and Marshall felt good about that.”
The river eventually opened up to Wapus Lake, which was close to where their cabin destination should've been. The end of the trip was near, as long as they could find that cabin. Well, they couldn’t find it, and Clark assures us they didn’t go around in circles looking for it.
“We would go check out one spot, and when we didn’t find it we would go check another spot and drive over there,” he said “Basically it got to the point where we just ran out of daylight and couldn’t find it.”
Setting up camp
Having given up on trying to find the cabin, and not wanting to risk driving back home in the dark, the two set up camp right in the middle of the bush.
Thankfully they came prepared for the worst case scenario and had a tent for a situation just like this. They slept the night and in the morning headed home. But, in case anyone came looking for them, they left a pole erected in the snow with a note on it, telling those who found it what had happened.
On the way home Leswick’s sled broke down and Clark had to tow him the rest of the way.
A few weeks later Jim Russell was at his cabin, and while glancing out his window saw a pole that normally isn’t there. Clark laughed when he heard about that.
“It shows that we were right there but we just couldn’t find it,” he said.
The following year Clark and Leswick tried the same thing but their trip was cut short as ice conditions were not ideal for sledding. The third attempt wasn't successful either, as it was too slushy to ride safely. It wasn’t until the fourth year of trying to make it to the cabin that they finally got there.
“It was like that cabin just didn’t want to be found,” said Clark.
Four years ago, with a much larger group, they managed to find the cabin—but he did admit they still had a lot of difficulty.
It seems that the cabin has provided Clark with some of his most interesting sledding moments, starting with that memorable day and night ten years before. But he isn’t done with that cabin and next winter he hopes to make it there with a large group. Instead of starting from South End he will be starting from La Ronge. He figures the round trip will take about a week.
