By Joe O'Blenis
October 1st - October 19th, 2004
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Cross Canada Expedition Index
It was late in the afternoon on Friday Oct. 1st when I entered the Ottawa River, leaving the Mattawa behind me. I was paddling under a clear blue sky, the sun sparkling down upon the swiftly running waters of the great river as entered what was essentially the last leg of this year’s expedition. The mighty Ottawa River would take me downriver to this year’s endpoint in Montreal.
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Deschain portage
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No sooner had I started along the Ottawa River, enjoying the much faster currents of this huge river than I spotted a canoe pulled ashore across the river along the riverbank on the Quebec side. Curious, I angled across the river, pulling into a small eddy next to the other canoe where I met Don, an older paddler from Mattawa at the confluence of the Mattawa and Ottawa Rivers. Don has an old camp here, located just metres from the banks and he comes here on a regular basis to relax, sit in the sun and write in his journal. Don told of a trip he did one time a few years back, paddling a 500 MILE section of the Ottawa River, from well above Mattawa all the way down to the city of Ottawa itself!
Don had a pot of tea on the fire and I had a drink with me as we talked of canoe adventures over the years and of conditions I could expect to find further down this river. Don also told me of a friend of his, who was undertaking a multi-year canoe crossing of Canada, somebody that no doubt I would enjoy meeting someday. Soon I had to get back on the water. It was getting late in the afternoon now and darkness was coming earlier everyday with summer now gone and the fall season taking over.
I took Don’s advice and headed down-river for another 10 kilometres or so to a great little campsite on the Quebec side of the river beside a small sandy beach. It was just past sunset now as I hauled the canoe up on the sandy beach and quickly began unloading my camping gear for the night. Once the tent was up, the sleeping bag stretched out, it was time to turn my attention to supper. I ate my meal in darkness tonight as the stars came out in force, a beautiful fall night sky, full of a multitude of stars and the odd meteor blazing through the sky.
With the late start this morning back on the Mattawa, and the lengthy breaks along the way, I managed a respectable 35-40 kilometres for the day, too bad all in all.
Sometime overnight a low-pressure system rolled in and when I arose the next morning the sky was a dark, cloudy mass and I knew it was just a matter of time before the rains would come. I barely had broken camp and gulped down a quick bowl of oatmeal before I felt the first drops of rain. Sliding the canoe into the water, dressed in rain gear for the day, I was off.
Finally, around 2:00 PM the rain eased off and then stopped all together. Pulling ashore on the Ontario side this time, some two hours later, tired and hungry, I quickly dug out my stove, anxious for a steaming hot cup of coffee. Well it took another hour to get that stove going today! Yeah, it had been acting a little funny last night and again this morning but not too bad. Now it was simply useless. I took it apart, cleaned it, tried again. Nothing! I went through this a couple more times, finally removing the tiny filter on the end of the fuel intake tube that goes into the fuel bottle. That worked! That first coffee must have been one of the best cups of coffee I’ve ever had I’ll tell you!
Soon I had the tent up and a good campfire going and once again life was pretty good. After a rather large supper of noodles and a couple cups of hot chocolate, it was again time to call it a night. The sky had cleared by now and I was again treated to a beautiful star-filled night sky as I headed off to my tent, tired but happy. Today knocked off another 47 kilometres or so, every kilometre now bringing the end of the journey that much closer.
The first portage of the Ottawa River awaited me the following day, a beautiful sunny fall day. After several hours of pleasant paddling, enjoying the spectacular fall colours, I finally arrived at the Des Joachins Dam and a fairly lengthy portage. Taking out on river right, next to the dam, I unloaded my gear and scrambled up the bank and over a small concrete barrier to the dams access road for the portage. The entire portage can be done using a portage cart along gravel and dirt roads. I lost a bit of time by scouting for a shortcut back down to the river. Obviously that never worked out! The portage itself was, I think about 3 or 3 ½ kilometres but I never did actually measure the distance. Back on the water, well downstream of the dam, I paddled another hour or so, taking out at another sandy little beach and setting up my home for the night before relaxing around a small campfire, stuffing my face and sipping hot chocolate.
The next couple of days took me past Deep River Ontario, CFB Petawawa (A Canadian Military Base) and along a very beautiful Quebec shoreline along the river. The Ontario side was either built up with many, many homes and cottages or was taken up by the military base. The Quebec side was beautiful with some great looking beaches as well as impressive cliffs. Very nice! High winds on Monday with following waves of around four feet added a bit of excitement. On Tuesday, after leaving Pembroke, Ontario after a lengthy break for emails, lunch and phone calls, I headed out again and had some rapids to contend with. I ended up taking the middle channel (river right channel was dry) and lined the boat through the shallows along the riverbank, paddling the last section down through the rapids and wave train. Camp was on the point of a scenic little island not far below the rapids.
Hennessy Rapids! This is the set of rapids I was to encounter next, a rapid that I had heard would be considerably larger than what I experienced just outside of Pembroke. Yesterday I’d considered extending my day with a paddle well into the night but I did not want to have to contend with these rapids in the dark. As it turned out I could have run this "rapid" backwards. There was a bit of quick water and some exposed rocks but nothing to worry about.
On the other side of the quick water, it was a flatwater paddle for the rest of the next couple days. "Camp" tonight wound up being inside a comfy lodge in Quebec at the town of Fort Coulounge. I had went ashore here at a dock with several canoes tied up, including a couple of big Voyageur canoes. I thought I saw what appeared to be a store nearby and had been hoping to buy a few small items. Instead, what I found was a very helpful gentleman who ran the community centre/ sports complex for the town and this was all part of the operation. Omar Frappier was the man I was talking to - sort of. I speak barely a word of French and he speaks barely a word of English, somehow though we managed to communicate and understand each other. Briefly we had an interpreter present who made things easier for sure!
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View of Ottawa from the river
NEW pics in Joe's
photogallery. Click on pic. |
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Soon, Omar offered to run me in to town and the grocery store for any supplies I needed. He next offered me the use of their fully furnished and stocked lodge for the evening. I had the place to myself and was able to enjoy a very relaxing, hot shower and a much-needed shave. The rest of the evening was spent listening to CBC radio and updating my journals. It was a welcome break and came on a day when I was feeling particularly tired. Many, many thanks to Omar!
Heading out the following morning with a beautiful fog hanging over the river, I headed off down the river for a prearranged rendezvous with my friend Louise from Quyon Quebec later today where I’d be taking the next four or five days off entirely before heading in to Ottawa. One of the hydro dams between Fort Coulonge and Quyon, Quebec, the Chat’s Falls Dam, was apparently not a good place for a cross country paddler! The area immediately around the dam had apparently been all fenced off with barbed wire and there was no access for portaging paddlers. I’d been informed of this earlier this year while paddling in Alberta. A pair of cross Canada canoeists there, on year two of their voyage, had told me of this. They said the only way around was a 37-kilometre portage along the highway! Well, this was not overly appealing in my opinion so I decided to "bend my rules" a bit. My friend Louise, in Quyon, was just downriver of the dam, in fact you could pretty much see it from the riverbank near her house. The plan was she would pick me with her car at the dam upriver of Chat’s Falls and we would then drive to Quyon. A few days later when leaving, I’d walk the canoe down to the river, a five minute walk or so from her place, and continue from there.
On our way into Quyon, Louise had arranged an interview with the folks at the local newspaper so we stopped by and did the interview right on the spot. Once in Quyon, my gear unloaded, it was time to take a few days off and put my feet up and relax! On Friday, a reporter and a photographer from the Ottawa Citizen (The main newspaper of the nation’s capital) headed in to Quyon for another interview. Apparently Louise had been busy with the local media!
The interview/ photo shoot went well and there was supposed to be something in tomorrow’s paper about it. I thought it would likely be a small mention and maybe one little photo in a back page or something. When I saw the paper the next day though, it was almost a full-page article complete with a map of my entire route. Much more than I had expected.
The rest of my stay in Quyon went by quickly and in no time at all I was hauling my gear back down to the river, packing up the boat and getting ready to launch. I managed to catch a rather bad cold over the last few days and now, as I paddled off, I felt pretty miserable! Feeling like I did, I ended up doing just a fairly short paddle today, setting up camp early on a sandy island. Tomorrow I will arrive in Ottawa and I will be spending the next few days there.
Upon arriving in Ottawa, I paddled into the protected harbour of the Britannia Yacht Club where I was to meet Jim Johnstone at whose home I would be staying for the next two nights. The next day Jim drove me around Ottawa, giving me a quick tour of the city and my route along the river in particular. There would be a couple of portages around the rapids and it was good to be able to scout these out prior to running this section of the river. In the afternoon, Jim and I, along with my friend Kailey, went out sailing on Jim’s sailboat, this was something I enjoyed very much, it was an unexpected bonus for sure!
I was back at the yacht club the next morning, the canoe was still right where I’d left it thankfully, and it was now time to load the canoe again for a paddle down through the city towards the far end of town near where Kailey’s family lived. The plan now was to arrive at a boat launch at a certain time where Kailey and her Dad, Jim McLaughlin would pick me up and bring me to their home for the night. Well, what followed was one of the best meals I’ve had all year! They put on a huge feast complete with steak, shrimp, a variety of vegetables, salads, breads etc. Red wine as well as white and a couple different kinds of beer - including Guinness! Yeah, nice!
Kailey is a friend of mine living in British Columbia. She is from Ottawa and was home visiting family as I passed through the area so it was great to be able to get together with her and to meet her family. For those of you familiar with the late Bill Mason, pretty much the best known canoeist ever from Canada, he had two kids who went on to become very well known in canoeing circles as well, Paul and Becky Mason. Kailey happens to be Becky Mason’s niece. It was fun talking to Kailey and her family, showing them photos of some places I camped this year that also happened to be some of Bill Mason’s favourites, place written about in his books and the subjects of several of his incredible paintings.
It seems that lately I’ve been doing more socialising than actual paddling! The next morning it was back to business as usual. Kailey and Jim dropped me off back down at the river, the same place where they picked me up yesterday. We said our goodbyes, I thanked them for their hospitality and I was again on my way. Next stop, Montreal, Quebec!
It was now the middle of October and the nights were certainly starting to become cold. The number of daylight hours available was dropping quickly as well. I’d not yet made up my mind entirely but I was pretty sure now that Montreal would mark the end of the trip for this year. I could still push on for Nova Scotia but I’d certainly be pressed for time, not to mention money if I did so. I would check my bank balance in Montreal and would make up my mind then. It was starting to feel like the end of the journey was drawing near for the year though. I was still sick with a bad cold, the weather was becoming less than favourable and the nights were getting longer.
Campsites became scarcer over the next few days as the riverbanks on both sides became more and more developed all along the Ottawa River Valley. The temperatures remained very cool during the rest of the trip to Montreal and at times, heavy periods of rain only made things worse. Still though, I was very upbeat as I pushed on, savouring what could well be the last few days of the expedition for this year. I was passing homes worth millions of dollars, a far cry from the wild lands of the northwest I’d travelled thorough early on in the trip or the wild, pristine coastline of much of Lake Superior.
In the days of the Fur Trade, many years ago, the Ottawa River was a much wilder river, fast flowing and devoid of the many dams lining its length today. Its banks were in a more natural state, the water itself cleaner, the forests were of old growth trees. It must have been a place of tremendous beauty back in its earlier form. It is still a very pretty river, a joy to paddle upon, but I am sure that its present incarnation is nothing near as grand as what it once was. I’ll have to return to the Ottawa another year and explore her upper reaches, beyond the dams, up where the river remains closer to its natural state.
Leaving the Ottawa River and entering onto Lake of Two Mountains, the end was near as the Isle of Montreal was now practically around the corner! On my last day on the water, heading towards St. Anne, on the outskirts of Montreal, I was paddling through high winds early in the morning, going through three-four foot waves as the canoe crashed through wave after wave. The temperatures now were down near freezing and I was pretty happy when I got across this section of the lake and into somewhat more wind protected waters. Here I went through one last set of rapids, paddling easily through the brief section of swift water. There is a canal constructed here for the passage of larger boats, unable to run through the shallow waters. On the other side of the rapids, I pulled up a dock and made my way to a telephone, phoning local kayaker Nicolas Bertrand and arranging a rendezvous for that afternoon. Nicolas was putting me in Montreal and had my next box of provisions there waiting for me.
That evening, my gear laid out in Nicolas’ basement, my canoe suspended on a pair of sawhorses, I contemplated my long journey, debating whether or not to push on down the St. Lawrence River. To continue on to Nova Scotia, I was looking at a minimum of six weeks I figured. Six weeks that is if I took the "shortcut," portaging from Riviere du Loup to the waters of the St. John River in northern New Brunswick. Taking this option I would then canoe down the St. John River to the Bay of Fundy and then, finally, up the Bay to the end, just outside my hometown of Amherst, Nova Scotia.
I debated the idea for a couple more days before finally making a decision. The trip, for 2004, would end in Montreal. My reasons for this were many. For one, my preferred route would be to paddle all the way down the St. Lawrence River and around the Gaspe Peninsula into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, down the New Brunswick coast, along the Northumberland Strait to the New Brunswick/ Nova Scotia border. This route would take considerably longer and time was running late now, leaving only my second choice, the St. John River option. I really liked the idea of paddling the St. Lawrence and the Gaspe. The section down the New Brunswick coast I had already done, back in 2001 when I paddled the full length of the NB coast and I would enjoy paddling it again.
Also, as mentioned earlier, the weather was getting worse, not better, the daylight hours were becoming shorted everyday and I still had a very bad cold. Topping it off though was my bank balance. All in all, it made sense to postpone the rest of my route and to undertake this trip another year, when I could take my time and savour the Quebec portion of the route, the Gaspe in particular.
So that brings me to the end of my online journal for my little canoe trip. From the Pacific Ocean to Montreal Quebec. It had been one hell of an exciting trip, one I will never forget! Already however, my mind was straying ahead to next year and the various trip options that were in my mind. I can hardly wait now to get "home" so I can start making plans for next year!
Cheers…Joe O’Blenis
Editor's Note: Do you have a question you want to ask? Go to Joe's Ask the Pro page on WetDawg.com.
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