Leaving for the still "frozen" North, Riviere Megiscane

[recped]

Two week trip on the Megiscane in the "near north" of Quebec, we (it's a group of 3 solo's) may have to dodge some icebergs as it's been a very late Spring this year.

It's a mix of river and lake travel, a scattering of rapids. We will access the put-in via the train from Senneterre and they paddle back to our vehicles. Nothing to dramatic on this trip, presuming the water levels will be very high (there is still a lot of ice on the lake sections) so we may need to do a couple of portages around the handful of Class III/IV, the rest should be easy Class I/II stuff. Next week the forecast is for cold weather (Monday is nice), down close to freezing overnight.

You can track my progress here: share.garmin.com/Grumpy

I will try to post some details at Mapshare but probably not every day.

 

[memaquay]

I hope they've had somewhat warmer temperatures than us, the lakes here are still ice covered, probably two weeks away from opening.

 

[Robin]

Looking forward to following your trip, safe travels.

 

[Erica]

Looking forward to hearing about it. As recped already knows, I've paddled the first part of that river twice some 30 years ago and am really interested to see what it looks like now (ie. more roads and logging apparent in google earth.)

Have a great trip!

 

[Cheeseandbeans]

Have a great trip!

Bob

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Hope you have a wonderful time, recped, and I'm sure many of us will look forward to tracking your progress.

 

[Gamma1214]

Helluva train ride to start the trip.

 

[Erica]

Helluva train ride to start the trip.

I’ve taken that train ride twice and don’t remember it being particularly onerous.

 

[Gamma1214]

Looks like an layover in Senneterre but, other than that, just a lot of hours. I suppose, like taking Amtrak here, it stops at every house along the tracks but it's always nice to not have to drive and one can just stare of the windows (like everything in life: trade-offs).

I'm wondering if he's run into problems (more ice than expected?)... It looks like they spent yesterday at the end of the access portage. Hopefully nothing that's going to effect the trip; that would really stink after having to cancel his Manicouagan Reservoir trip last year.

 

[Erica]

I remember now. The first trip we drove to Press and got on the train there. The next time we took the train from one of the outfitters near Lac Faillon. I’ve looked for my pictures of the trip but cannot find them.

There is one difficult portage around a major falls.

It is fun to watch someone travel where I have been.

 

[Tryin']

I'm wondering if he's run into problems (more ice than expected?)... It looks like they spent yesterday at the end of the access portage. Hopefully nothing that's going to effect the trip; that would really stink after having to cancel his Manicouagan Reservoir trip last year.

Oh man, this is from 04/27/2025. I hope they had a FAST thaw. Looks like they did an out and back today. The note says "paddle", so I'm hopeful.

 

[Gamma1214]

yep. Seems to have run into a snag.

 

[Tryin']

Looking at the sat images from 04/27, the closest open water I could find was over 130km south. Man, I feel for him.

 

[memaquay]

Yup, I am roughly on the same latitude, we are probably still a week or more away from the lakes opening up.