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A family trip to Hecla Island in Winter

Recently my family stayed at the Lakeview Hecla resort. My husband Trevor spent many summers at Hecla Provincial Park during the summer months.   He tells me many stories of him taking in rounds of golf with his dad and exploring the picturesque village of Hecla Island. Although he has visited the island numerous times, it was quite a different experience for him, and our family, to visit Hecla Provincial Park in the dead of winter.

roasting-marshmallows-snow (MommyMoment.ca)

Our first activity was taking a snow shoe hike through the beautiful snowcapped boreal forest.

child-snowshoeing Manitoba (MommyMoment.ca)

Our group hike was lead by the talented Heather Hinam.  She taught us about the wonders of the nature around us and filled us with very cool knowledge about the many kinds of snow and how ecosystems need them to live throughout the winter.

snowshoeing (MommyMoment.ca)

While on the island village of Hecla, we met an old islander name Ivan who has been fishing Lake Winnipeg since, by looking at his monstrous leathery hands, the beginning of time.  Well that might be a slight exaggeration, but this is a man that knows the lake and told us stories about fishing adventures past.  We all went for a ride on his old school Bombardier onto the lake to check out his sweet fishing spots.  Once back on dry cold land we checked out the way he drags his nets under the ice with a “jig”.

Bombardier-ice-fishing (MommyMoment.ca)

The next day we were to take part in some of the bounty of the lake has to offer.  Ice fishing is a Canadian winter favorite, however this activity was not to happen this day.  Lake Winnipeg has  reputations, great fishing and fast moving crazy weather.  This day the weather decided to have a hissy fit and the wind and snow was moving at 100+ km/hr.  After having a fishing shelter blow away after being anchored down, we took this as a sign from mother nature that fishing was not going to happen that day.  Simply seeing the radical beauty that the lake had to show us was somewhat magical.

ice-fishing (MommyMoment.ca)

Hecla is known as a summer hotspot in Manitoba.  However after this trip we discovered that Winter in Hecla is a great time…and we look forward to doing this again.

ice-fishing-hecla (MommyMoment.ca)

angela m

Wednesday 26th of March 2014

Looks like a great time, We tried snow shoeing for the first time this year and we loved it. Great pictures

Gord Brown

Monday 17th of March 2014

Sounds like a great outing. Love the photos!

Laurie Mapp

Monday 17th of March 2014

That looks like a great winter weekend trip! Wish I lived closer, but maybe one of these days I can get that way. My boys love winter activities (although I'm partial to summer, lol) and would especially like the snowshoe hike!

Amy Brown

Friday 14th of March 2014

looks like a great adventure!

Florence C

Sunday 9th of March 2014

This is what winter is all about. Take the beautiful days and enjoy them. Lots of fun. You can always dress for the cold.