Regina to B-Say Tah (Echo Valley Provincial Park). DAY: 89.50km. ODO: 2,548km. AVS: 20.3km/h. MXS: 54.5km/h. ATM: 4:23:30.

I left Regina at 10:00, but wasted a whole hour trying to find a store that sells white gas, to no avail, so I didn’t actually leave the city limits until 11:00. I headed north-east, headed toward Yorkton. My plan is to enter Manitoba at the town of Roblin (no doubt named after Duff Roblin, I think the first Manitoba premier) via provincial trunk highway 5, which goes between Duck Mountain and Riding Mountain provincial parks.

I stopped at Echo Valley Provincial Park, which is next to the town of B-Say Tah, adjacent to a Dakota (Sioux) reservation, about 8km from the town of Fort Q’uapelle. This is the second time I have passed through the Q’uapelle Valley. The campground is no thrill – the usual patchwork of non-private sites, each with a picnic table, a government-approved firepit, and a lot of discarded beer bottle caps. I can just imagine what this place is like on a long weekend. Happily, I am one of only two camping parties here, and I have not seen or heard the other. (As I was writing this, a couple more showed up, and I am now listening to the bass thump of a car stereo).

All in all, a pretty uneventful day. I spotted what I took to be a Common Snipe, but otherwise all the usual birds. I saw a Black Tern standing over what looked like a brown chicken egg on some fallen reeds, and it seemed reluctant to leave, so perhaps it was nesting there. Seemed like a pretty big egg for the size of the bird, though.