This is what you can expect on this trail: The caches are approximately placed 2 to 4 miles apart and are usually no more than 500 feet from the highway. Cache containers are micros and larger. There will be a mix of container types and some will be winter friendly and some won't. For this reason there won't be a winter attribute at all because of snow levels on the sides of the roads in the winter will vary. Some of the caches will require you to walk thru ditches so depending on time of year and water levels rubber boots might be a good idea.
Fishing is a big part of Manitoba so we will be naming the caches on this leg of the trail after fish species that can be found here.
Rainbow smelt:
The rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax) is a species of fish of the family Osmeridae. Its distribution is circumpolar,[1] and it has been introduced to the Great Lakes, and from there has made its way to various other places.Walleye, trout, and other larger fish prey on these smelt. The rainbow smelt prefer juvenile ciscoes, zooplankton such as calanoid copepods (Leptodiaptomus ashlandi, Leptodiaptomus minutus, Leptodiaptomus sicilis), and other small organisms, but are aggressive and will eat almost any fish they find. They are anadromous spring spawners and prefer clean streams with light flow and light siltation. The rainbow smelt face several barriers. They are weak swimmers and cannot overcome most fish ladders. This prevents them from making it past the dams to the headwater streams where they spawn. The rise in erosion and dams help to decimate the smelt population in the 1980s. There are currently plans to try to reduce damming and to help control erosion. With current efforts to reduce the human impact on this and many other affected species the population is back on the rise.
