Magpie river in Canada
This summer I was invited on a multi day, self support kayak expedition to the Magpie
river in eastern Quebec. How could I say no! I always wanted to do a multi day -self support expedition. And with the recent
expose' in American white water that I read about bringing awareness to the plight of the Magpies demise (it was scheduled
to have a dam built on it destroying some of the rapids). I was set to go. I've gone canoe camping and took all our camping
gear with us in the canoe and i been down the Grand canyon, but that had raft support, now I got to combine camping
and kayaking all in one for 3 days an 3 nights on one of the best wilderness, whitewater runs in north America.
The entire trip lasted 7 days from the time I left my house in Schnecksville till I
returned home. The first day consisted of gathering of friends an there gear an traveling to Watertown NY where we spent the
first night. We spent the entire next day driving toward the airport in Sept lles, eastern Quebec, including a one half hour
ferry crossing at Todoussac over the Saguenay river (which by the way is a very popular sea-kayaking area and also has
whale watching), Late that night we camped along the roadside. The next day we drove to the airport in Sept lles
(which is on a lake) where we met the other half of our group. We loaded our gear into our boats for the last time before
we left civilization. Check an double check, get rid of all unnecessary weight. Everything must fit in the back of the boat,
and there are some very arduous portages, and there are 55K of savage wilderness river ahead. I must make sure I
have everything, but THE bare essentials ONLY! Weight is a big factor to consider....
I manage to fit all my gear into the back of my creek boat: sleeping bag, pad,
bivy sac on one side an clothing an other gear on the other. and so we load the first plane to prepare for takeoff. I
been in small planes before, but never in a seaplane. This was cool.
We left Sept lles an headed inland from the St. Lawrence seaway to Magpie lake
where the start of the the next leg of our multi craft -mutli day adventure began.
We were met later by the other half of our group on another flight. They of course
had to set up a shuttle. which was 160 miles round trip!!!!! (if you were to keep going past our takeout, the road would
end in about 60 miles). You can't go to much further east except by foot, boat or plane. So when I tell you this is a remote
wilderness, well......lets just say its pretty far-out there.
When we landed on Magpie lake, a 45 minuet flight. We were deposited by a empty
open cabin. Lucky for us, as it rained cats an dawgs all night long! Some slept out an looked like drown rats in the morning.
But I used the little common sense I possess an passed out cold in the cabin on a comfy dry mattress. In the morning we woke
to see 2 moose across the lake, and there where bear tracks on the shoreline as well. So I knew we weren't in Kansas
anymore.
Unfortunately the river was at a 100 yr low. but it still had a big water feel to it
. This first day on the water was mostly class 2-3 whitewater. But soon we arrived at some pretty challenging class 4, 4+
loaded down creek boat drops that were great! We ended our first day at a big class 5 drop that we scouted an portaged for
safe measure and camped below it (the hole looked awful!).
None of our party had been down this river before, so for all of us it was a personal
first decent. Four of the personnel were in a raft. They carried the food for our group. we had a total of 9 boaters,
4 in the raft, 5 in the kayaks. pretty much the first day it rained lightly and that night it poured like I've never
seen before.......have you ever tried to sleep in a bivy sac in the rain? Ha! guess what I found? A pin hole leak in
my bivy sac that night.
The next morning gave way to clearing skies an a beautiful day, We dried out from the
night before an were on the water by noon. During the night it rained so hard the river rose about a foot or more. When it
stopped I got up to see peoples boats starting to float away and some sleeping on the raft and to close to the water
almost got washed off....
The second day was a long one with some really good rapids and a whole lot of flat
water. By the end of the day we were beat....... Now we were at the "swamp portage". We had a 3-4 K portage yet through
a leech infested swamp with knee deep primordial ooze and up over a pretty big hill and down the other side to a lake/
river where we set up camp in the rain.
While some used every trick in the book to get a fire going, I joined the others
in the task of carrying the deflated 250lb raft back over the same track we had just tortured ourselves with carrying the
kayaks over. Some fun!
We woke to rain and the last day on the river, after breakfast and a lazy start we were
back at it paddling across what seemed like a lake to the brink of the 80 foot magpie falls ! the whole river cascaded down
a giant jumble of rock.... the sight was fantastic! Here we had to portage all our gear again. Line the raft in and out of
the river, over rocks an through the trees. This trip you must all chip in to help each other with the task at hand.....which
is forward progression.
The last day also had the biggest drops and rapids and a 25 foot runnable water fall,
called Eternal falls ,in hoping to insure that they don't get flooded over by hydro power dams. Soon we were at the takeout
and tasting the cold salt water of the north Atlantic. Something else I also wanted to do, go from source to sea.
All in all a great trip, no one was hurt an we had one heck of a story to tell.
Now all we had left to do was drive a measly 26 hrs straight, negotiate the border
an go home! What did you do on your summer vacation?
