Badgers, breweries and prairie skies

Bison, badgers, a beer crawl and even my first ever mooses marked my mini-vacay out in the Saskatchewan sunshine in the last week of July, a memorable trip marked by plenty of new-to-me critters in the great outdoors and even a surprise or two (jackrabbits!) in the prairie metropolis of Regina.

And a brewery crawl, which was definitely not on my bingo card when I filled in a few remaining vacation days with a trip to Regina and Grasslands National Park.

It was a three-and-a-half-hour drive from the airport to Grasslands, hard on the Montana border - where the bison and the prairie dog play - which I cut down a bit with an overnight stay at the Mankota Inn to give me a full day at the park.

(Mankota, if you're interested, is one step removed from being a ghost town but the food and the service at the inn was top notch and was one of my better decisions on the trip.)

The park itself was pretty cool. Plenty of huge hawks on the way in - including my first ever Ferruginous Hawks, the largest hawk in Canada and a bird not found in Ontario - and hundreds of protected prairie dogs and ground squirrels (or gophers, as westerners call them). A single Burrowing Owl - my first - and just one bison, likely a young bull who hadn't perfected his dance moves for the rutting season just yet.

An amorous pair of moose, an animal I have never seen in Ontario despite my best efforts, a magpie or two and a super cool close encounter with a badger rounded out the critter spotting.

Alas, no snakes, or specifically, bucket list prairie rattlesnakes.

The scenery was outstanding - if you're into grasslands and rolling hills, which I am - but eventually I made the long drive in the rental car back to Regina for the rest of the Tuesday-to-Saturday trip.

With my beer consumption in Toronto reduced to the odd social outing back in Oshawa and maybe a beer a week at home, a pub crawl in Regina, Saskatchewan was an unexpected addition to the itinerary, but when my server at Pile O' Bones Brewery told me if I visited all six breweries on the city's 'Hop Circuit' and had a pint at each I would score a beer glass, well, despite the 'self-guided' disclaimer/warning, the challenge is on, innit?

To be entirely truthful, I hadn't planned on hitting up all six - maybe three or four - on this steaming hot Thursday in the prairie city, but when the old legs get moving and the old mind stops making sound decisions, challenges are simply met.

My legs were already barking a bit after a 600-mile walk the night before to Creekside Brewery, which my GPS said was just a few blocks east of my hotel (it lied), for a beef dip au jus and a couple of beers, but hey, I definitely needed the exercise.

It was early afternoon the next day and after I had a burger (you need a base for the day) and a flight, followed by a delicious Cosmic Celebration IPA (which I had the night before as a guest tap at Creekside) at Pile O' Bones, which is noted for its Wheat IPA (entirely appropriate for the wheat capital of Canada) and its proximity to Mosaic Stadium, home of the CFL's Saskatchewan Roughriders.

I was asking for the best way to get to Regina's Warehouse District when my server presented me with the offer I couldn't refuse.

I already own a couple dozen branded beer glasses, mostly packed away in boxes, so one more was incentive enough to motivate my legs, already pushed hard by a 300-mile walk from the Legislature to Pile O' Bones.

So I put one foot in front of the other and made the 150-mile trek to Bushwakker Brewpub, the OG of craft in Saskatchewan (it opened in 1991). Bushwakker was located right in the middle of the torn-up section of downtown - the city was putting down new pipelines and downtown was a bit of a mess - so it was tricky getting there.

Europeans may snicker at calling this brewpub 'historical,' but there's plenty of local brewing history within these walls. Founded by a former chair of the Saskatchewan Health Research Board who pushed the provincial government to finally allow brewpubs - the legislation only passed in 1989 - Bushwakker has a distinctly German feel to the place.

A man of habit, I resisted getting a classic Dortmunder blend and opted for a Chico IPA, which provided some extra malty west coast flavours to jolt me onto my feet again in search of brewery #3.

I took the long way to get to Copperhead Brewing to avoid the worst of the construction - still easily 50 miles away - and enjoyed their New England IPA while pleading with my server to finish her half-eaten sammy before it got cold.

(It's my paternal instincts; I can't help it.)

With my scorecard stamped, it was off to stop #4 at District Brewing, where I still retained enough sense to pace myself with their 5.1 per cent Charm Pale Ale, which was pineapple-citrus delicious.

Rebellion Brewing was next back on ripped-up Dewdney Street, with this place boasting a super cool vibe, great service, tasty tacos (I needed fuel for the last stop) and their Hazy IPA, which was as good as it gets.

The Holy Grail

At this point there was no way I was not completing my quest, so I started the long walk - 200, 250 miles for sure - to Malty National, which was south of the Warehouse District and right in the middle of a residential neighbourhood.

It seemed to fit in beautifully with the character of the area. Perhaps a lesson for city planners that breweries don't HAVE to be plunked down in industrial and factory zones.

I had Sporty, their six per cent NEIPA and then had another half-pint after the cab took too long to take me back to the hotel.

The next day was spent doing more walking - five hundred miles at least, and uphill both ways - touring the downtown and eventually making my way back to Pile 'O Bones for a pint before I walked across the road to take in a Saskatchewan Roughriders football game.

The atmosphere was electric - they take Rider Pride seriously out here - and the good guys won.

All in all, it was a damn good trip.  I already know the beer scene is awesome. Maybe next time there will be snakes, even if have to walk a thousand miles to find them.