Aaron Asmussen, left, and James Meyers, right, celebrate after rowing from Edmonton to Prince Albert on the North Saskatchewan River. (Ian Gustafson/paNOW Staff)

By Ian Gustafson

Into The Wild

‘Conquer your dreams’: brothers-in-law row from Edmonton to P.A. in canoe

Aug 8, 2020 | 4:31 PM

Two brothers-in-law went on the journey of a lifetime down the North Saskatchewan River.

Beginning on July 27 in Edmonton, Aaron Asmussen and James Meyers loaded up their canoe with supplies and paddled all the way down the river to Prince Albert on a 12-day journey.

The duo arrived in P.A. Friday afternoon to the cheers of friends and family awaiting them at the boat launch on River Street.

Asmussen and Meyers who now both live in Edmonton used to live in P.A. and said it’s something they’ve always wanted to do.

“Just always kind of looked at the river growing up as a kid and I always thought it would be pretty cool to do the battle from Edmonton,” Meyers said.

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At the end of every day they’d stop wherever it was dry and camped in their tent for the night.

“Anywhere it was dry and flat because the water was so high this year we figured if we went any sooner, we’d be out of luck when it came to campsites,” Meyers explained.

The two admitted it was a very physically demanding trip. They explained they pushed themselves to do 10-hour paddling days. Most days they were up and paddling by 6:30 a.m.

“It was super-hot for the first bit in Alberta we’d go for a couple swims each day to cool down,” Meyers said.

Asmussen explained the water slowed down once they made their way into Saskatchewan.

“We noticed about our fifth day in [the water] dropped about a foot and a half. We woke up and ever since then it just got slower and slower,” Asmussen explained.

Aaron Asmussen, left, and James Meyers, right, row into the boat launch in Prince Albert after rowing on the North Saskatchewan River for 12 days. (Ian Gustafson/paNOW Staff)

They explained about 100 kilometres outside of Battleford they experienced some powerful head winds and for about two or three days they weren’t moving very far.

“One night we went in at 9 p.m. and paddled until three in the morning,” Meyers said. “It was right around the full moon night, so it was bright enough to go because it was the only time there wasn’t white caps it was too hard.”

They’d travel on average around 60 to 90 km’s per day and during the head wind they only moved 30 km’s in 10 hours.

The two mentioned their biggest challenged were getting past sandbars, which is when sand sits above the water, and getting used to the mosquitos.

They packed enough food in there cooler for about five or six days and then ate dry food the rest of the way. They even packed a stove.

Meyers said when Asmussen asked him back in December if he wanted to go on this trip during the summer, he thought Asmussen was making fun of him because this was always a dream for him to accomplish this trip.

“I’ve tried to do this trip lots,” Asmussen said. “And people are like ‘oh yeah I’ll come with you’ and ‘oh I don’t know if I can handle it I don’t know if I can make the time off’ and I found a guy who would pull through.”

The two said this is by far their longest trip and are planning their next trip to go from the Rocky Mountains to Edmonton.

“It was a long twelve days that’s for sure, but it went by so quickly,” Meyers said.

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ian.gustafson@jpbg.ca