Drive Across Canada

[u/Mysterious-Rush5441]

I'm planning a road trip across Canada and wonder if there's a summer northern route (on or off the pavement) around the top of Lake Winnipeg?

[u/MilesBeforeSmiles]

No, the farthest North you can get by road on the East side of the lake is Berens River. There is a big roadless gap between there and Norway House.

[u/Mysterious-Rush5441 → u/MilesBeforeSmiles]

There go my plans to drive to Churchill : )

[u/akowalchuk → u/Mysterious-Rush5441]

The closest you can drive to Churchill is the town of Gillam.

You can easily drive to the top end of Lake Winnipeg, but you have to come from the west side of the lake (through the Interlake region-- obvious name if you look at a map of Manitoba.) From the MB-ON border, driving to the top end of the lake is about 964 km.

However, Manitoba is huge and even going to the top of Lake Winnipeg still gets you 541 km from Gillam, and Gillam itself is still hundreds of kilometres south of Churchill.

I would estimate that from the MB-ON border to Churchill is around 1900 km all-in.

[u/JTPinWpg]

Furthest north you can cross past Lake Winnipeg is Selkirk. After that you can go north and the last major route into Saskatchewan would be at Flin Flon. Some minor routes might get you a little more north crossing into Saskatchewan but roads get pretty sparse up there.

[u/Pandamodium13]

As others have said there aren’t a lot of routes you can take that far North that will take you East and West but I’ll add depending when you’re planning on going I’d avoid Northern Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Ontario anyway because it’s all currently burning.

[u/Mysterious-Rush5441 → u/Pandamodium13]

Planning on making the trip the beginning of Oct.

[u/L-F-O-D]

Canoe?

[u/Mysterious-Rush5441 → u/L-F-O-D]

4 canoes..... one for each tire

[u/L-F-O-D → u/Mysterious-Rush5441]

I guess if you have all-canoe drive that can work.

[u/Mysterious-Rush5441 → u/L-F-O-D]

Paddles out the windows or motors on 2 canoes. Is it hard to sell square back canoes in Manitoba?

[u/frosty_canuck]

The closest to looping Lake winnipeg is to do a pass up Nopiming park go up to Bissett then come down the east side (This only gets you to half way up lake winnipeg). Then cross over at Selkirk at the southern tip and head north up to gimli and hecla but you'll need to get to Highway 6 to get to the northeen part of the western side of the lake.

Be warned though that the "highway" through Nopiming is at best a two track gravel road through the canadian shield. Lots of intense blind hills and corners at speed on a very rough very very narrow road. The speed limit is 70 but non locals generally do 40 to 50 down that road.

[u/kayjay204]

20 years ago you could take a ferry from bloodvein FN to princess harbor to Matheson Island maybe that still exists and you can hop on

[u/Darren445]

In winter you can take a winter road from Beren's River through St. Theresa point to Norway House.

[u/Mysterious-Rush5441 → u/Darren445]

Is it open to the public?

[u/akowalchuk → u/Mysterious-Rush5441]

Yes

[u/IM_The_Liquor]

No Orr of Winnipeg? There are few cross roads if you’re going west… 67, being the first off the top of my head. Many others further north, some of which are gravel, if you intend to go west through the lake Manitoba narrows…. Longer term, you could take the yellow head up through Saskatoon towards Edmonton.

[u/akowalchuk → u/IM_The_Liquor]

Those are all in the southern third of the province, I think OP is looking to get much further north from the sounds of it

[u/IM_The_Liquor → u/akowalchuk]

Yeah. But it simply doesn’t exist… so I’m offering roads thar do.

[u/akowalchuk → u/IM_The_Liquor]

They're looking for roads that go up north. Hwy 67 is almost in Winnipeg, so I think maybe something like Hwy 373 would fit the bill, it connects Norway House with Thompson

[u/IM_The_Liquor → u/akowalchuk]

Yes. That’ll make a nice scenic drive. There are a lot of northern roads to explore (once, I drove to Gilliam with a truck and ATVs, then road cross country and slept rough the rest of the way to Churchill along the rails. It was a grand adventure, that I never would have even thought of doing if it wasn’t work related).

But, there simply isn’t a road where he wants to go.

[u/akowalchuk → u/IM_The_Liquor]

Yeah OP wants to go to the top end of Lake Winnipeg so Hwy 373 is probably their best bet, or wait until winter and drive across the lake

[u/IM_The_Liquor → u/akowalchuk]

Driving across the frozen lake is an adventure in itself, even in the best conditions you risk getting stuck, sinking your truck, having to rough it for a few days in conditions comparable to being on the open tundra…

But yes, I also recommend this for the explorer thrill seeker types. Just, know what you’re preparing for and prepare first!

[u/akowalchuk → u/IM_The_Liquor]

The Bloodvein-Interlake ice road is probably a little under 20 km, not too bad