I have the last two weeks in June open, and three of us want to do a
canoe trip. We'll be departing from central Maine, and we figure on 4
or 5 nights onriver. Including travel days, we have about 7 days
available. Two of us are advanced paddlers, the other is a novice, so
we'll do one tandem and one solo boat. We don't really want to
encounter other trips on-river, and we want to find something with some
runnable class II, with some occasional class IIIs thrown in for the
challenge. But it also has to be run enough that the shuttle route is
well marked, and so that are good camps on river.

So far, we are considering some Gaspe rivers; I've done the Bonaventure
several times, but the Cascapedia or others in that region seem
potential. We also considered some North Shore rivers; I've done the
Chimachuane and Godbout, but we're considering the Mistassini or
others.

Its been about 15 years since I've been to either Gaspe or the North
Shore, so my knowledge and memory are dated. Rivers might have changed
their popularity, roads developed or closed, and a host of other things
changed. So I could use some insights of what a good run might
be....currently we're leaning towards the Bonadventure or the
Cascapedia.

--riverman

riverman wrote:
We don't really want to
encounter other trips on-river,

Forget the Bonaventure then. In the past 20 years it has become
popular. Quoting from a dissatisfied on-line source: "There are dozens
of groups going in every day, driven up to the lake by the outfitters.
Solitude is out of the question, and the campsite races begin in
earnest every day around 3 in the p.m."

Scratch that one.

Check your e-mail; I'm sending you something that may be helpful.

Yeah, I read about that. The last time I ran it, there had been a
severe blowdown in that same stretch; wiped out the entire mountainside
river right....probably the old downed trees contributed to the fire.
Getting through the shallows between the two lakes was a real bushwack,
and the abundant beaver dams were a real challenge to negotiate. We
brought axes and saws on the first trip of the season for the
strainers, but replaced them with chainsaws on the next trip. You can
really rip open a path with a Stihl.

OK, despite the fact that my old friend and colleage Gilles Brideau is
running Cine outfitters on the Bonaventure, and would probably give me
a free shuttle and unlimited access to his campsites all up and down
the river, we'll most likely skip the circus and find a different
river.

--riverman