Shannon River to Upper Medway River
Tristan Glen
We paddled up the Shannon River, with a few sections of current that we had to fight. We portaged around the first dam into McGill Lake. There is no bridge in the narrows into Curl Hole. Another portage over a dam brought us to Big Molly Upsim Lake. Big Molly Upsim would make a great skating trip! We paddled through the narrows to Little Molly Upsim Lake (there is also a marked portage for low water). There is a marked portage trail (ATV trail) to Kelly Lake (750m). There is a marked portage from Kelly to Alma lake as well that follows a forestry road (1400m). Alma lake was spectacular! It is completely enclosed in the Medway Lakes WA. We then began the Medway River! We had fun running the short runs (Class I and II). We made camp on the west side of the river in a beautiful hemlock forest.
The next day we continued on. We ran more Class I and Class II rapids down to Medway Lake (which is sort of two lake separated by a narrow section that used to have a bridge). There was lots of ice on Medway Lake but we were able to break through it. We continued down the river running the runs. Between Alma and McGowan Lake we only portaged 2 times and lined once. Just before Dean Lake we ran under another bridge with some houses and a fun Class I-II rapid around an s-bend. At the bottom of McGowan Lake we portaged around the dam and continued down the river. There is an exciting run through the gorge that we decided to portage around seeing as it was late in the day; but it was quite runnable. From Eel Lake to South Brookfield there is only one rapid of significance with a clean line centre left before many kilometres of swifts.
All in all, a great trip. The run down from Alma lake is especially spectacular.
Tristan