Into the wild Winnipegger chronicles journey to visit every named lake in the Whiteshell By: Eva Wasney Posted: 5:25 PM CDT Monday, Aug. 25, 2025

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/08/2025 (370 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tiptoe to Last Lake is the final step of a project Ken Friesen started four decades ago.

The self-published memoir chronicles the Winnipegger’s 14-year, 2,400-kilometre adventure hiking, biking and canoeing to every named lake in Whiteshell Provincial Park — all 236 of them, plus a few unnamed waterways.

“I wanted to learn how to map and compass-read and find my way through the bush, but it became more about the friendships than it did about getting to the lakes,” Friesen, 67, says of the idea sparked by his cousin.

The format for the lofty endeavour crystallized during his first day trip. After a tough trek to eight different lakes on a snowy November day in 1984, Friesen drove home feeling a mix of accomplishment and self-doubt.

Did he have the skills to finish? Was this just about checking boxes?

“I vowed at that point I wasn’t going to make it into a race, but a journey I could enjoy and reflect on,” says Friesen, who grew up camping in the Whiteshell.

And so, for the next decade-and-a-half, much of his spare time was spent tiptoeing through the buggy marshes and rocky shores of the eastern Manitoba park with friends and family.

Wife Kris, 65, joined often until becoming pregnant with their first child — a milestone that necessarily slowed the pace of the project.

“When he came back he was a better person than when he left, so it was hard to deny him that, but we had to try to find a balance as a family,” Kris says of her husband, who was working a stressful job in the public service at the time.

It didn’t take long, however, to get the kids involved, with daughter Scarlett and son Hudson accompanying their dad on backcountry camping trips as toddlers.

Aside from a close encounter with a black bear, adventures with the kids were generally tamer than those completed with friends.

“We almost died a bunch of times!” Friesen jokes in the book.

A rotating cast of characters followed Friesen into the woods, where he navigated challenging, multi-day hikes with a topographical map and compass.

At its best, a trip included untouched wilderness, crystal clear water, Frisbee competitions, Krazy Karpet rides and evening campfires punctuated by fart-powered fireballs.

At its worst: brutal portages, grown-in lakes, hordes of mosquitoes and hamstring cramps.

“I hate you, Kenny,” grumbled with love, was a frequent refrain.

“We have friendships that I’m sure will go on for the rest of our lives because of what we experienced together and the camaraderie we had in those difficult times. This book is a love letter to the 31 different people that came along on these trips with me,” Friesen says.

He started writing Tiptoe to Last Lake in 2020 at the urging of a friend, but was struck by a familiar feeling of self-doubt.

“Who’s going to be interested in my story? I’ve never written anything in my life,” Friesen says.

“This book is a love letter to the 31 different people that came along on these trips with me.”– Ken Friesen

Again, he decided to take things slow and focus on the process.

“Fascinatingly, I super enjoyed writing about it and something came out of me that I didn’t know existed,” he says.

Tiptoe took four years to complete and is based on journals Friesen kept at the time. The 384-page book, which launches Tuesday, Aug. 26, includes route maps and photographs taken by himself and friends. The outdoor event at Pineridge Hollow, on Heatherdale Road south of Birds Hill Park, includes a book reading, signing and door prizes.

Friesen hopes to inspire readers to explore and appreciate nature — including in the Whiteshell, which was ravaged by wildfires earlier this year.

“I really encourage people to go out and hopefully experience what I did with some good friends,” he says.

Print and digital copies of Tiptoe to Last Lake are available from Friesen Press (no relation) and most major ebook stores.

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com