Trip summary

"Going down the Coulonge from the highway in La Verendrye to the Ottawa river is a long but easy trip. It took me about 50 hours of forward motion to do it. There are big lakes, rapids, chutes, swifts, long pine bluffs, beaches, springs and winding intestinal sections.

The spring at Les Rapides Enrages belted out clear and deep and was so cold it nearly ripped my head clean off.  An added bonus was a fresh multi-kilometer Tornado blowdown.

Despite the low water of August there was fine flow, allowing me to shoot nearly all the CI and some CII in a kevlar canoe with packs. Even in 250 foot gravel washes there was always a channel.

The river becomes huge near the end when La Coulonge Est adds in. With the near absence of portaging and general current it would be all to easy to travel too fast and not appreciate the river.

Quebec is another world next door to Ontario, and while the Ministry of Natural Resources is solidly behind La Chasse et La Peche, there are not enough enough frenchmen to do the wilderness serious harm. I still saw un petit l'ours une matin and hung with two curious otters.

There are rough unmarked roads and the occasional hunt cabin but tourists will never easily figure out the roads. As long as I made an attempt at French and pronounced place names properly, I always got a friendly response. Michel Pouliot comes down from his Noire River outpost to within Ottawa river cell phone coverage every evening to get his messages and book shuttles - 613-639-2276."