WESTERN SHORE, LAKE WINNIPEG: Beachy keen

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/08/2009 (5941 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IF you’re looking for sandy beaches or want to learn about some of the prov­ince’s unique Icelandic history, the west shore of Lake Winnipeg is where you’ll find  it. 

About an hour north of Winnipeg, in a roughly 50-kilometre stretch of lakefront, from Dunnottar in the south to Hnausa in the north, you can relax on a crowded beach with full services or stretch out alone on your own patch of sand at the end of any of a number of gravel roads.

I find the best beaches for services in this area of the Interlake are found in Winnipeg Beach and Gimli, but there are others in Spruce Sands and Silver Harbour.

And, because we have a child who uses a wheelchair, you can’t beat the accessibility of getting to the sand at Winnipeg Beach — it has a wooden boardwalk in front of a few hundred metres of beach and plans are calling for the nearby provincial park to have a fully accessible camping area.

The local population swells in summer with the annual migration of cottagers. From Dunnottar to the north, almost every kilometre of lakefront has a cottage community until you get past Arnes. There are still cottages north of here, but there are more open areas of farmland and forest.

Gimli, the largest community in the area, services both cottagers and permanent residents. With a good-sized hospital and growing number of condominium projects going up, it is also marketing itself as the ideal place to retire.

It was founded in 1875 by Icelanders looking for a better life.

Today, that era is remembered at both the New Iceland Heritage Museum and during the annual Icelandic Festival of Manitoba each summer.

The museum, housed in the Waterfront Centre, not only interprets the history and development of New Iceland, but also shows the natural history of Lake Winnipeg and the lake’s fishing industry. It has been designated as one of Manitoba’s seven signature museums.

The festival, called Islendingadagurinn, is holding its 120th edition from July 31 to Aug. 3, and features Icelandic food, carnival rides and other activities.

Gimli is always hopping with the influx of the summer crowd, but it’s nothing compared to this weekend. Icelandic relatives from across the continent use the festival as the occasion to converge on Gimli for their own private Islendingadagurinns in backyards. You’ll see trailers and tents taking up many peoples’ lawns.

A relatively new event, the Gimli Film Festival, gives moviegoers the chance for a week in July to see Canadian and foreign films on the beach. A special screen is constructed offshore for free shows in the evening with spectators laid out on blankets on the sand or in low-lying chairs. Other films are screened in other venues including the Gimli Theatre and the A-Spire Theatre.

A few kilometres south, Winnipeg Beach has played host to Winnipeggers for more than 100 years.

Sir William Whyte, of CP Rail, bought the 330 acres that became Winnipeg Beach for $3,000 in 1901, and two years later the first train passengers arrived in the new resort. A decade after the first passengers came, as many as 40,000 people took the trek every weekend.

The dance hall and roller-coaster are long gone, but the community has built a wooden boardwalk along the shore.

And, if you were a fan of the locally produced television show Falcon Beach, you can see where some of the scenes were shot.

With one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world in front of you, fishing is one of the major attractions of the area.

Fishing can be done by boat or on one of several docks stretching out into the lake.

If, like me, waiting for a nibble isn’t your style, there are several restaurants in the area that specialize in cooking pickerel, the lake’s major fish.

We especially love the way Gimli’s Beach Boy restaurant uses Greek spices on its pickerel dinners. One recent summer, we actually feasted on a pickerel burger there daily for about two weeks — they’re that good.

Or look for the signs to purchase fish from the people who fished them from the lake. We usually pick up a pound or two of pickerel fillets and cheeks (yes, they really are the cheeks of the fish — boneless, tasty little chunks of heaven) this way during the fishing season.

If you like camping, there are a few places to pitch a tent or park a trailer in this area.

Hnausa, at the north end of the main cottage country on the west side of the lake, probably has one of the most underused provincial campgrounds in the province.

The campground is right smack on the lake and features 45 basic sites and four electrical sites. There is a sand beach and children’s playground on site.

The campground is also only two kilometres away from a boat launch at the municipal dock in Hnausa. Recently renovated, it’s probably the nicest looking dock in the province.

Whatever you’re looking for, this area of the Interlake probably has it.

And on just about any weekend during summer, look for me in line for a pickerel burger.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca