Must Canoe
David Willms
Ok.
I'm planning a trip this spring on the Missinaibi river (northern
Ontario) from about Wawa to Moosonee. Me and about 5 other guys. We're
planning to take about 21 days starting May 22 or so. Does anyone have any
experience with this particular river - completed any sections of it? Am I
going to freeze my butt? I've done some 2 week trips but nothing quite 3
weeks. Any pointers in this area? Thanks.
Dave
It's the middle of winter and I'm getting that canoe urge again. darnit.
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David Willms
Brian Taylor
> I'm planning a trip this spring on the Missinaibi river (northern
>Ontario) from about Wawa to Moosonee. Me and about 5 other guys. We're
>planning to take about 21 days starting May 22 or so. Does anyone have any
>experience with this particular river - completed any sections of it? Am I
>going to freeze my butt? I've done some 2 week trips but nothing quite 3
>weeks. Any pointers in this area? Thanks.
I did this, or part of this route in August of 1992, from Missinabi Lake,
to Mattice. Water levels are solid all year round on this route, even
in late August. It's a fairly wide, deep river for the most part, one
of the bigger ones I've been on. We didn't do the lower half from
Mattice to Moosonee, but I understand that the river gets very wide,
especially where it merges with the Mattagami.
The upper half that we did is pretty mellow for the most part. Alot of
long flat stretches with the occasional cI and II's. Greenhill Rapid is
nasty, we didn't run this one. The water levels were high as I said, and
it was a bit intimidating, but the rest were all runnable. Split Rock
Falls is also in the non-runnable category, but real nice to look at, and
there's a great campsite right overlooking the falls.
The rapid before Greenhill, about 15km before, called Wavy Rapid is really
cool.. A real short run, but this mother of a haystack at the bottom of
it.. we caught so much air on this (and water), that we had to dump all
our stuff on the shore and run it 3 times. The stack was easily 4 feet
high, at the end of this funnel shaped little run..
Thunder Falls is the last sign of any real intense water flow for quite a
few kms. The first falls is obviously unrunnable ( a good 60' drop), but
there's a great campsite at the bottom of it on the opposite shore. From
here the river is very slow, wide, and deep. We got hit with heavy rain
and a nasty headwind on this entire stretch til the Brunswick River.
After the logging bridge, there's a quick set of falls and rapids, Devil
Cap, Shoepack, and Devil Rapids, after which the river gets real rocky,
but inhigh water it's not as noticable. Oh yeah, there's this little rapid
just before the logging bridge before you come to the Missinabi/Brunswick
fork.. you won't see this one til you're right on top of it.. TAKE THE
RIGHT SIDE OR BE WET!! ;) It looks like the most innocent little psuedo CI
until you're right on top of it, then you get to find out it's a nice
little 4' ledge.. there's a nice smooth flow down the right side, but left
and center is rock death..
The only rapid of note after the Devil set is Albany, which is not so much
a real rapid, but a 1km rock garden with lots of little ledges.. very
cool, watch the last ledge which drops about 4'.. we aimed for the island
in the center and lived..
Oh yeah, keep an eye out for the black bear on the long slow stretch after
Thunder Falls. We were told about this one before we set out and sure
enough he was right where they said he'd be.. he sits on a big tree
hanging out over the river. Uhh.. that's about it.. Oh yeah, I saw more
black bears on this trip than I did on any of the other rivers I've done
up here, especially at the top section around Missinabi Lake. We were also
warned not to camp at the portage into Brunswick Lake due to some gnarly
old bear that liked to chase portagers around there, but we camped there
and suffered no lost food or skin.. caveat emptor I suppose..
> It's the middle of winter and I'm getting that canoe urge again. darnit.
Tell me about it.
--
--tay...@gov.on.ca (Brian Taylor)
Fabrice Jaubert
>> I'm planning a trip this spring on the Missinaibi river (northern
>>Ontario) from about Wawa to Moosonee. Me and about 5 other guys. We're
>>planning to take about 21 days starting May 22 or so. Does anyone have any
>>experience with this particular river - completed any sections of it? Am I
>>going to freeze my butt? I've done some 2 week trips but nothing quite 3
>>weeks. Any pointers in this area? Thanks.
A group of us went down the lower Missinaibi last August, from Mattice
to Moosonee.
I think May is too early for this river. That's big (BIG) water
season, and my guess is that the river is pretty technical then (CIs
turning into CIIIs...) Unless you know the route well and are an
experienced whitewater canoeist, I'd wait for the water to go down a
bit. Also, I'm not entirely sure the lower part (around Moosonee) is
completely clear of ice by then.
On the other hand, end of August is probably too late for the lower
section. The river gets very wide when it enters the James Bay
lowlands; wide and shallow. We were lucky last year, Ontario Hydro
released water on the Mattagami (which joins with the Missinaibi to
form the Moose River), and we "rode the crest of the wave". Didn't
have to get out and line too much. Then we saw the river from the
train, a few days later, and the water release was over: the level had
dropped at least 1 foot. Had we been canoeing then, we would have had
to line most of the time, for 80km or so...
The various guide books I saw (MNR publishes a pamphlet) recommend
June and July.
Starting from Mattice, you get about 3 or 4 days (depending on your
speed -- we took our time) in the Canadian Shield. This is where you
will get most of the rapids. In fact, the 2 best (most challenging)
rapids are the first day -- "Rock Island" and "Black Feather". They're
probably CIIs. Then comes Kettle Falls which you must portage (400m,
not difficult). All along here there are CIs and rock gardens, and
just general "moving water".
Then comes Thunderhouse Falls, which of course must be portaged. The
Falls proper are preceded by a CII which can be run if you're very
confident -- you don't want to dump right above the Falls! We portaged
around it, and had to carry slightly over 1km.
At this point, the river flows in a very steep canyon. We camped at
the top of the cliff, just downstream from the Falls. It was the
Hilton of campsites! Slightly windsept (fewer bugs), great
breath-taking view (especially in the morning, with the mist over the
river), and lots of blueberries everywhere. We had a lay-over day
here.
Then came the gruelling day from hell: a 1.6km portage followed by 1
km of paddling and then another 2.2km portage (Stone Rapids followed
by Long Rapids, or is it the other way around?). Very muddy portage,
yuck. On the second portage, as you're hiking back for your second
load (you're not thinking of doing 1-trip portages, eh?), bushwack off
the trail towards the river and try to find Hell's Gate. It is an
impressive waterfall, well worth the trouble.
The good news at this point is that there are no more portages (except
the one in Moosonee, to get your gear to the train station). You're
now in the James Bay lowlands, granit cliffs turn into sand cliffs and
then into low sand banks. The next few days are IMHO somewhat
monotonous. The river runs pretty straight, the banks all look the
same, barely a few rock gardens (hardly enough current to eddy in or
out).
When you meet up with the Mattagami, the river (now called the Moose)
gets wider, and you start seeing islands. The river doesn't seem as
straight anymore, and it gets more interesting.
Next highlight is the railway bridge, at Moose River Crossing (a
village of population 2!) Right after that, on River Right are gypsum
caves. They are worth a short stop.
Shortly after this, we set up a sail (we had a strong South wind), and
kept it up nearly the whole day. We made great time! We only had to
un-raft and paddle around 1 set of rapids, so that gives you an idea
of the slowness of this part of the river.
Then comes the Abitibi River. We camped just at the confluence, on
the lawn (!) of a hunting cabin. There was even a picnic table... The
next day the weather was rather stormy, which made for rough water
(the river is as wide as a lake at this point). From this point to
Moosonee is one long or two short days, with one big rapid. I can't
remember exactly where it is (right after a river whose names starts
with K, on the left), but look out, this is BIG water. We didn't
really suspect a thing, it looked like all the other little ripples we
had gone through... until we were in it, and saw the size of the
waves. Oh, and there's a hole in there somewhere, looks big enough to
swallow a canoe...
We camped one more night, on an island. Next morning, we had to wait
for the ebb of the tide before leaving (no sense fighting it when you
can wait a few hours and ride with it!). In Moosonee, we camped at
the Provincial Park (Tidewater), on Charles Island. You don't
actually get to canoe all the way to James Bay, which is another 20 km
or so. We took a power boat out, so we could say we had seen it...
waste of time, it's just all gray water and gray sky.
Well, I didn't mean to be so long-winded, sorry about that.
...Fabrice
--
Fabrice Jaubert Computer Graphics Lab
fjau...@watcgl.uwaterloo.ca U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Dr Bryan Miller
--
Methinks you have canoe fever!
I've done the Little Current/Albany stretch in June and had to wait
for ice-out on Ogoki or Melchet lake (I don't remember which offhand).
The Attawapiskat in June was also _very_ cold tho no serious ice
problems. Avoid lakes and slow-moving waters is the best I can say.
Bring generous amounts of cold weather gear, blistex and reading
material... The only thing worse than canoe fever is tent fever
which is brought about by too many days of being stuffed in a tent
whilst having nothing to do.
please keep us posted!
best of luck,
bryan
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"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain;
and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality"
Albert Einstein
<<< I don't speak for Ford, nor they for me... >>>
r...@uwovax.uwo.ca
> In <DCWILLMS....@MECHANICAL.watstar.uwaterloo.ca> DCWI...@MECHANICAL.watstar.uwaterloo.ca (David Willms) writes:
>
>> I'm planning a trip this spring on the Missinaibi river (northern
>>Ontario) from about Wawa to Moosonee. Me and about 5 other guys. We're
>>planning to take about 21 days starting May 22 or so. Does anyone have any
>>experience with this particular river - completed any sections of it? Am I
>>going to freeze my butt? I've done some 2 week trips but nothing quite 3
>>weeks. Any pointers in this area? Thanks.
>
> I did this, or part of this route in August of 1992, from Missinabi Lake,
> to Mattice.
Water levels are solid all year round on this route, even
in late August
WHOA!!! Don't bank on it. We did the same stretch a couple of years ago
(Missinabi to Mattice) and many of what were supposed to be rapids were
nothing but miserable rock gardens. The water can get VERY LOW.
We also talked to people familiar with the lower section (to Moosonee) and
they said that even at the best of times some of the lower river (Moose)
can have a myriad of shallow channels that are difficult to negotiate.
I concur with the rest, though. Beautiful trip through the upper section
and worth 10 days of your summer. Watch for defoliant sprayed everywhere
around the "campsite" at the trestle.
Cheers.
Rae