Our whitewater canoe cornucopia

By David Sachs

Whitewater canoeists know the problem: arguing with trip partners about the route. Around Ottawa-Gatineau, this doesn’t happen only while scouting the next mazelike rapid, but in the safety of dining rooms and bars, where trips are planned. There are just so many wild rivers around Ottawa, and they can create kid-in-a-candy-shop paralysis.

Even beginner-friendly rapids offer an adrenaline rush, and the excitement grows in tandem with paddling skill. Riding rapids is like a roller coaster where you’re the boss – with the fun of water splashing your face. Try a river, and you may find yourself planning summers around the sport. (Be safe and wear a helmet. You never know

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when your partner will clunk you on the head with a paddle for picking the wrong line.)

Wild rivers bring you to beautiful, magical places, and few are aware of the near-limitless adventure at hand in Ottawa, up the Gatineau and in West Quebec.

Here’s a look at some whitewater favourites.

These rapids are graded from Class I (too easy) to Class IV (too hard). Check online for current water levels in cubic metres per second.

If you have a few hours, I’d recommend three sites.

Remic Rapids on the Ottawa River off Bate Island (reached from the Champlain Bridge) gets more popular each year – in spring you have line up with kayaks and SUP boards. Off the Quebec shore, the water is more interesting, allowing play from eddy to eddy. Park on Lucerne, just east of the bridge (look for the path by the bus stop). Try crossing to Bate Island as high in the rapid as you can.

The Wakefield covered bridge over the Gatineau River is a fun, big wave Class II in high spring. After that it becomes a more technical play spot to practise moving across the features. By July it flattens out. The real challenge is when the water is too strong to return to the put-in at the public stairs.

On the Lower Mad’s Rifle Chute Rapids.

Hauling your boat up the steep shore below the rapids is a second work-out. Now you deserve a beer at Kaffé 1870.

An easy-to-reach alternative is the Rideau River below Hog’s Back Falls, beside the Carleton University campus.

If you have a whole day, try the Picanoc River below Gracefield off Quebec Highway 105. It offers seclusion, sweet fishing, long sets of Class II-IIIs, and one short portage, paddler’s left, around a beautiful waterfall (a great lunch or overnight site). The river sometimes dries out by mid-July, so check the on-line gauge and avoid anything below 10 cubic metres per second.

After the waterfall is a Class III/IV ledge (carry-over on right). It’s a steep, fast chute, with a big souse hole near the top, and a massive rooster-tail wave at the bottom. My first two runs here, the wave threw me and my partner into the drink.

To get there, take Chemin Harrison in Danford Lake and follow the signs for WT Outfitters/ Pourvoirie 2000. The take out is by the bridge at Chemin Ruisseau des Cerises in Kazabazua.

Daylong alternatives are Ontario’s Highway 7 rivers – Moira, Skootamatta, Black, Clyde and Salmon.

For a weekend or longer, best bet is the Lower Madawaska, the classic Ontario learning river. Portages are clear and easy, with plentiful long CIIs to develop skills, and occasional CIIIs to push your limits. Campsites offer spectacular views from cliff ledges, and many will have you sleeping with the roar of the rapids in your ear. Check the level: don’t run the Mad below 20 cubic metres per second.

My favourite rapid is Split Rock (right channel, a CII/III. A roller coaster of big waves, with a poorly placed boulder at the bottom to make it interesting. To get there,

A post-portage swim on the Picanoc.

check out Mad River Rentals or Greater Madawaska Canoe Rentals.

Other longer time adventures are the Coulonge and Noire Rivers. These are two of the Three Sisters (we’ll get to #3 in a moment).

I just. Love. These. Rivers.

There’s nothing like running a hairraising class III and finding a perfect beach campsite at the bottom. Tumbling from the high elevation of the West Quebec Canadian Shield to the Ottawa River, the rivers have abundant rapids of all levels. They offer beach and rock-outcropping campsites, first-rate fishing, and multiple waterfalls. The Noire also has one miserable up-hilland-down-cliff portage. They hold their water year round: When the Mad is low, head here.

My favourite stretch happens at the bottom of Rapides Guinette (CII/III) on the Coulonge. A set of three ledges, offering routes from technical to ride-’em-cowboy.

For shuttle info, it’s Ron Henry Guide Service, Esprit Rafting, or the Black River Inn.

The Third Sister is the Dumoine, similar to the Noire and Coulonge, but with even more elevation drop. It’s farther afield (forming the boundary between Pontiac and Témiscamingue counties, so it really demands an extra day.

For shuttle info check Ron Henry Guide Service or Esprit Rafting. ~ David Sachs is author of the thriller called, The Flood. His articles, fiction and blog are at www.davidsachs.com 

Wakefield's covered bridge (bottom); The Rite of Spring: trip-planning the season ahead (right).

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