Whitewater

The Mountain River is a Class 1-3 (maybe some class 4 canyon stuff which we will try hard to minimize and avoid), remote river in the Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada. It begins in the Mackenzie Mountains and flows for about 370 kilometres before eventually joining the Mackenzie River.

The river travels through a very rugged landscape. Along its route, there are steep mountains, valleys, cliffs, six canyons, and many Class1-2 rapids. The area around the river is mostly untouched wilderness.

The Mountain River is home to many kinds of wildlife. Animals in the region include grizzly bears, black bears, caribou, moose, wolves, Dall sheep, and many types of birds. The river itself also provides habitat for fish.

Sunday morning at the Fall Gathering we'll be leading a trip down the Lower Madawaska.

The gang will rendez-vous at Paddler Coop at 9am Sunday to organize canoes and rides before shuttling to the put-in at 0930. We will aim to be paddling away from the put-in by about 1030.

Water temperature is still warm and the flow is low, but not "low low" (yet).

Helmet, PFD are mandatory. Closed toe shoes are recommended. Neoprene or drysuits could be good for people who run cold, or if the weather on the day is breezy.

Ideally people will sign up before the event so we can do a bit of pre-planning.

End of summer fun on the Lower Mad & Palmer Rapids.  Camping at Paddler Co-Op

We will be doing a relaxed lower Dumoine trip leaving from Lac Benoit Sept 14 (meeting at Driftwood PP Sept 13) and coming out either Sept 18/19. There will be a mix of solo and tandem boats, so individuals without boats can be accommodated. The goal is to take our time and enjoy the river with a group of great paddlers! 

We will have a shuttle to Lac Benoit, and PP/ZEC camping fees. 

Using this trip as a warm-up for our Dumoine trip early in July. Hoping to try some of our planned paddle partnerships but the trip is open to anyone, tandems and solos.

This very popular trip seems to be a great draw for all levels of paddlers to enjoy perfect weather (most of the time), portage free paddling, and a barbeque that follows our outing.  This is a wonderful day to enjoy an easy moving water river and to socialize with other WCA'ers.  The trip will start in south Cambridge where we will put in and then paddle to Paris.  We will pass through scenic farm country, stop at the ruins of a supposedly haunted mill, negotiate some easy grade one water, and stop for lunch along the way.  Those interested are welcome to join us back at our house in Cambridge for some food, beverage and social time.

CONTACT THE ORGANIZER DIRECTLY TO SIGN UP: Doug Ashton - doug.ashton@rogers.com - 416-453-4653

I'm planning to do a long day trip of around 30 km starting on the Head River northeast of Sebright and continuing downstream on the Black River into the town of Washago. The first 16 km until Highway 169 a mostly flatwater section interspersed with short whitewater drops - I have not been on this section before. The next 3 km after Highway 169 is the usual whitewater play area on the Black River where the river loops around through many Class I-II rapids, ending with an optional more challenging technical chute. The final 9 km is almost all flatwater, save for a canyon with turbulent boils and standing waves, and we will end the day by paddling against the current up the Green River, where the water suddenly transitions from dark and tannin-stained to green and crystal clear.

If you want a shorter day, it's possible to take out after the whitewater play section and cut out the final 9 km of paddling. We will arrange the shuttle to accommodate everyone's preference for where they want to end the trip.

This is an exploratory trip on the Upper Eels Creek that is open to advanced paddlers only since I am not familiar with the river, so we will be scouting and learning the river together and keeping one another safe. As a classic day trip in the WCA's history, I have gotten a fair bit of information about the run. It is short in km but intense. It’s very winding and it’s easy to get suckered-in to rapids that start easy but get increasingly difficult as well as blind turns again starting easy but you won’t like what you find when you continue around the corner. Suitably forewarned, we will scout each rapid cautiously.

Online info: https://paddlingmaps.com/trip/Ontario/674-apsley-to-haultain. In May, the river should be at a lower level which makes it a lot more friendly than what is described there.

This is a classic whitewater day trip in the history of the WCA that I'm looking forward to exploring for the first time. It's a very nice pool & drop river where all the rapids are obvious and there are portage trails along them. The rapids range in difficulty and there are some very challenging rapids and chutes, so you can make the trip as easy or hard as you want by choosing which rapids to run vs portage. It's 16 km but a long day as a result of all the scouting and portaging, so expect to spend around 6 hours on the river.

Update 04/28: there is no online gauge for the Mississagua but recent water management updates suggest that the flows will remain high. There will be some unrunnable rapids with many frequent portages, so try to pack efficiently to transition quickly from paddling to portaging, and be prepared to tackle a few longer portages as well.

Post-trip notes: we found the river at a fun medium level - not too pushy or too boney - which allowed the more adventurous members to run most of the rapids except for the ones that are actually waterfalls. Some rapids were definitely a high Class III, maybe even Class IV in difficulty. The Parks Canada site shows that the upstream water level in Mississagua Lake is dropping fast, so I think we were lucky to catch the last of the spring runoff just before they're going close the dam for the summer. An earlier timing, in mid-late April, would be better for having reliable water levels on this river. We ended up spending about 8 hours on the river, taking our time to scout and run rapids and enjoying a luxurious lunch break in the canyon to soak up the beautiful scenery. Still it didn't feel like nearly enough time to do this river justice - I'll probably run it as an overnight trip next time, with many options for beautiful campsites along the way.