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Help me choose my last Canadian river trip

Glenn MacGrady

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I'd like to plan one Canadian trip for this late stage in my life. It will be my last in Canada. And first. It's been a dream of mine for a while.

Here are my criteria:

-- A river. Don't want to paddle lakes. Wind waves are the worst part of canoeing.
-- All downstream. No upstream work.
-- About 200 miles. I'd like a 10 day trip and 20 miles a day should be doable. I much prefer paddling time to camp time.
-- As few portages as possible. No long ones.
-- Frequent rapids okay but not more than 2+.
-- Hard or sandy banks. In other words, not mud.
-- Scenic.
-- It doesn't have to be all remote wilderness. Some houses and towns would be okay.
-- Not a wide or high volume river with pushy current like the Yukon. I prefer small and medium size rivers.
-- Accessible by car at put-in and take-out. No flying.
-- Preferably in the eastern half of Canada.

There's a lot of experience here and I hope to get a few good suggestions. Thanks.
 
The Missinaibi from Mattice to Moose River Crossing and get the train back to Cochrane. You can have an outfitter shuttle your car to the train station in Cochrane.
However Thunderhouse falls MUST be portaged and its about 1500 m. Hells Gate too. Must make portages total about 5000 meters.
 
Most of the canadian shield rivers are pool and drop so that involves frequent but short portages. There are areas where the lakes are mostly just wide spots in the river.

Is this a solo or will you have others with you. For me having someone else makes many things more possible. If I were contemplating a last hurrah trip, Woodland Caribou Park would be on my list. You may want to look at La Verendre also, or somewhere in New Brunswick.

Seriously though, if you can work with some small lakes then WCPP is a great option.
 
Starting on the east side of WCPP using the Onnie Lake access and then travel the Gammon River to the Bloodvein and out to Lake Winnipeg would be an epic trip. Probably too many portages and too many days involved to fit your criteria. A lot of info out there on the route. Alan Gage went out and back a few years ago for the ultimate in DIY. If any one tries it just do not take the channel leaving Aiken's Lake in Manitoba used by Hap Wilson. It is the old channel and can have serious water level problems. I feel the Gammon in Manitoba is much more scenic than the over used Bloodvein River to the north. Accessing the Bloodvein from WCPP involves three long portages after putting in at Lund Lake. There will be a few outpost cabins early on and then more on Donald and Carroll Lakes in WCPP along the Gammon. Only a few once you get into Manitoba. Not sure how you plan on getting back to your car. Flying from Bissett,Manitoba does not fit your list either but for others a flight from there into Telescope Lake on the Gammon River and having BLuewater Aviation deliver your car to the Bloodvein Village at the end of your trip is a new option.
 
Isn't the Border closed ? For How long ?

Fun to dream and plan though !

Jim
 
French River. Doesn't meet your 3rd requirement of 200 miles at 68, but meets all others I think. Have watched Tumblehome and Shawn James do this trip several times and it is on my bucket list.
 
Up here most rivers involve no portages, really scenic, ferry little mud if at all, lots of choices fro that length. Some require fly in, some require fly in and out but lots are drive in drive out!
 
Ar Glenn's pace he would be done with the Bonaventure in 3 days at most!
 
It's a fast river and you have to pace yourself or as recped said you can do it it in a short time. I believe it's only 80 something miles. I enjoyed the heck out of it when ran it a few years back!
 
All the Canadian rivers I'm familiar with don't meet your criteria due to pool and drop nature with sluggish current, lake expansions, and many (mostly short) portages.

A couple US rivers that come to mind, that do meet your criteria, other than being a little short, would be the Big Fork and Little Fork rivers in Northern Minnesota. The Big Fork I've personally done. The Little Fork I haven't but would like to.

The Big Fork only had one real portage but it was pretty easy since it's on a road. There was also a short one that wasn't much more than a drag over. When I was on it there were no technical rapids that were runnable, just easy CI. I don't know if that's a positive or negative for you.

The Big Fork runs through two small towns (less than 500 people) and it was kind of nice to walk into town at lunch and get a burger. On the river it seems remote but you cross a "highway" a few times and there are some houses along the river when you get close to the little towns. Both rivers end at the Canadian border where they meet the Rainy River. There are small county parks every 10-15 miles where you can set up camp on the Bigfork. They have a pit toilet and at least one had running water via spigot. These are very small parks that just provide river access and one or two picnic tables. Most are gravel road access. A couple are river access only. I only saw people at one of the parks on my trip but I did an early spring trip (mid-April) after a warm winter and early spring. I'm sure summer would be a littler busier.

Bigfork info from MNDNR: https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/watertrails/bigforkriver/index.html

Bigfork map: https://files.dnr.state.mn.us/maps/canoe_routes/bigfork.pdf

Same info for the Littlefork:

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/watertrails/littleforkriver/index.html

https://files.dnr.state.mn.us/maps/canoe_routes/littlefork.pdf

Alan
 
Eastern Canada and 200 miles with few portages pretty much limits you to the St Lawrence, lol. Everything up my neck of the woods is pretty portage heavy, although the Albany River could fulfill your requirements.
 
The Albany would fit the bill in many ways depending where you putin and took out. We put in outside of Ignace and paddled all the way to the James Bay, did about 100 miles of that and then up to Moosenee. Long time ago so I wouldn't be sure of where a good takeout would be that had access by car? I think we had 2 or 3 short portages as I recall but would have to find my journal and check it.
 
The first lengthy river that comes to mind is the St Lawrence. It would be a challenge.
http://www.zollitschcanoeadventures....theseaACK.html
Dipping into my archives Northern Ontario Canoe Routes I find several possibilities albeit I can only provide an overview, this publication though an absolute treasure to read is many years old. It provides basic descriptions of canoe routes in 10 major drainage basins if Ontario. Given the nature of the topography and man's mark on it there'll be some portages. And compromises.
Starting with the historic Ottawa river, a favourite section has long been from Pembroke to Lake Temiskaming, about 100 miles. However it is possible to paddle the length of the Ottawa and there are trip reports of such trips or sections thereof.
https://albinger.me/2016/09/20/canoe...-and-planning/
https://www.ottawavalleycanoeandkayak.com/#Routes
http://www.bytown.net/canoeingottawavalley.htm

Including a gem of a river the Mattawa can't be a bad idea. It is 40 miles in length and does include some portages. Combining the two rivers would allow you to follow in the footsteps and paddle strokes of the French explorer Samuel de Champlain.
https://www.myccr.com/canoeroutes/ma...t-lake-mattawa

A family member who has since passed on told me of a canoe trip he and his wife made one summer. They carried from their front door across the road straight to their put-in on the Ottawa in the town of Mattawa. They tripped all the way to Montreal. Evidently they'd wanted to go see Expo '67. What better way to see the country than by canoe he said. Never a truer word spoken.
Glen, hold onto that dream. I'll post further river trip ideas over the coming days and try to scatter some links hereabouts.
 
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I think that was a typo, should have read 20 miles instead of 200 miles. I do it all the time.
 
In the Lake Huron drainage basin there are some possibilities for some extended tripping. The aptly named "Voyageur's Highway" the French River is both historic and beautiful, draining westerly from Lake Nipissing along a geologic fault to Georgian Bay. Though only 65 miles in length there are multiple channels such as the Pickerel and Key rivers, as well as an archipelago at the river's mouth offering the potential for planning loops.
https://www.ontarioparks.com/park/frenchriver/maps
https://www.myccr.com/content/french-river-region

The Spanish is approximately 120 miles and can be paddled from either Biscotasing (Bisco) or Duke depending on which branch is chosen east or west, and then followed south as far as "the Elbow" or further to Agnew Lake.
https://collections.ola.org/mon/4000/10302194.pdf
https://www.northernontario.travel/p...-spanish-river

This NOCR brochure also lists a Thor Lake/Vermillion River Route, starting on Thor Lake 50 miles north of Sudbury and continuing downstream to Capreol. This route sounds very challenging.
https://myccr.com/canoeroutes/vermilion-river

The Mississagi River route travels 70 mi downstream from Bisco to Rocky Island Lake, then continues around 80 mi to Aubrey Falls. It is possible to reach Lake Huron. I've long been interested in this one.
https://www.myccr.com/canoeroutes/mi...g-aubrey-falls
https://www.myccr.com/canoeroutes/mississagi-river-aubrey-falls-lake-huron
 
Next up in the NOCR is the Moose River Drainage Basin, wherein we find the Mattagami River route from Gogama to Moosonee. Starting just off highway 144 in Gogama the downstream travel takes you 70 miles to the city of Timmins, from which you continue on the Mattagami to can take-out on hwy 11 in Smooth Rock Falls. The river continues 200 miles to where it joins the Missinaibe R to form the Moose River. Follow the Moose river downstream to Moosonee. There are rapids and portages on each of these routes as well as dam controls affecting the lower Mattagami.
http://www.interlog.com/~erhard/mattagam.htm

The recurring theme I find throughout the internet surfing I'm doing for these canoe routes is the funding failure of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry ( the old MNR) to better document and protect canoe routes. It's frustrating to find the Ministry more diligent at protecting their licences of previously published materials than what the content pertains to, historic canoe routes of Ontario. http://dmcope.freeshell.org/mnrroutes.htm
End of rant.
 
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OOH I don't know Brad. I remember running the Missinaibi from Mattice to Moose River X ing in 2001 or so. It was low water and we spent the better part of 250 km zigzagging to find water. Hubby figured the trip was 300 km long with all that waterfinding. You really don't want to hear what he called that river. We camped on an island at the outflow of the Mattagami on the Moose.
Looking upstream all I could think of was broken ankles. Not a drop came out of the Mattagami.

MNR has fallen flat on a lot of canoe route maintenance too. Not to mention documentation and protection of routes.
 
A belated thank you to all who responded with suggestions. Given the current media and politician panic, I doubt I'll be tripping this summer, so I sort of forgot about this thread. I don't want to buy a whole bunch of Canada paddling books, but I am internet researching many of the suggestions here, aiming for a trip in 2021.

I will consider some of the shorter trips, perhaps driving to several different places with shorter shuttles. The Bonaventure looks like a river that would appeal to me in terms of size, gradient and topography. I've always wanted to make one more trip to the magnificent Georgian Bay, so the French River holds some allure. Nix to the St. Lawrence. I'm even semi-seriously thinking about Bowron Lakes, although that would be a very long driving trip that would require many stops, which could be good for visiting many paddling places in between. A last driving-stopping-paddling marathon hurrah.
 
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