Day 1

Content to Trenville Park (29 km)

Today’s paddle is through central parklands from the Content Bridge Park and finishes at Trenville Park. Along the way Backbone Riffle (Class I) will be encountered.

SAFETY TIP! WATER
Potable water can be a problem for random campers on this trip. For most trips rafters and canoeists should count on carrying 4-6 liters of water per person per day for drinking and cooking. River water can be used for clean-up and washing once boiled for more than 2 minutes. Kayak paddlers and others may consider carrying a water filter that filters to at least the 0.2 micron size. Campsites along this run should not be counted on for potable water.

Content Bridge Park on the upstream side of the Content Bridge, and the north side of the river, and just off Highway 21, provides a convenient launch site, and an excellent campground for those that choose to journey to the river the day before beginning your trip. It is a straight forward paddle from Content Bridge to Backbone Riffle some 16 kms downstream

While still at the Content Bridge Park, take some time and look around. This site is the location of the former communities of Tail Creek and Content. Tail Creek was a buffalo hunting settlement in the latter days of the great buffalo hunts. Métis hunters from Lac Saint Anne and the Edmonton area, and from as far east as Manitoba, gathered here for the last of the buffalo hunts. Tail Creek existed from the late 1860’s through to its demise by prairie fire in 1894. In 1875 Sergeant-Major Sam Steele of the NorthWest Mounted Police established a post here to thwart the whisky traders who preyed on the Aboriginal hunters. At times upwards of one thousand people were involved in the hunt and meat processing. Dried meat and pemmican (a mixture of dried and pounded meat, berries and rendered buffalo fat) were sent from here to all across the north west of Canada to support the fur trade. All that remains of Tail Creek today is the cemetery which is located approximately 1 km north of the Content Bridge on Highway 21, 1.6 km east on Highway 11 and 2.4 km south on Range Road 223.

In the early 1900’s A.A. Content opened a stopping house at the old river crossing for Tail Creek, and in time he added a general store, creamery, and post office. Another of Content’s business activities was to float lumber in large rafts down from the Red Deer mills for sale to the settlers of this region. The post office operated from 1904 through to 1913. Like many early towns, the demise of Content was the locating of the railway to the west and north. Eventually portions of the town were moved, and the town’s folk moved to Alix to the north, or Delbourne to the south-west.

INFO TIP
Alberta Environment provides hourly river flow reports on-line at: www.3.gov.ab.ca/env/water/basins/Bas inForm.cfm

Backbone presents greater challenges at flows below 75 cubic metres per second (cms) when far more boulders are exposed or just below the surface waiting for the unwary paddler. The worst of the riffle can be avoided by taking the channel on the left of the island. At most flows on the main channel, keep your craft straight, in line with the current and you should have little difficulty. At higher flows this riffle washes out, and may go by completely unnoticed.

From Anthony Henday’s Journal 1754 October 11, Friday

Travelled 7 Miles S.W.bW [south west by west] then came to Waskesew River, and crossed it on a Fall about two feet high, and much the same depth, & 20 poles wide. On both sides there are stones of different sizes & weight: quite round, and of an iron color: and a little distance from the River, are veins of iron ore running along the surface of the ground. No woods to be seen. Indians killed several Beaver and 2 Moose.

Backbone Riffle is thought to be the site of Anthony Henday’s 1754 crossing of the Red Deer River ( then known as theWaskesew River). Anthony Henday is believed to be the first European to travel within present day Alberta.

From Backbone you still have some 13 km to paddle or float if Trenville Park is your destination for the evening. If looking for an on-river campsite for the evening, Back bonemarks a good place to start the search.

If you are car-camping at Trenville Park, the park is best found by taking Range Road 223 north off of Highway 590. From this direction the park is well signed and your travel on gravel roads is minimized.