Don’t let a fear of raging currents keep you from showing your young’uns how to go with the flow. These four trips offer all the joys of river paddling—helpful currents, intimate scenery, abundant wildlife, great campsites, gentle winds— but come without the higher stakes of intimidating whitewater.
Croche River, Quebec
by Conor Mihell
At first mention, the Croche (French for tremble) sounds like your average roaring Quebec whitewater river. But unless you have a phobia of sand and smooth flowing water, there’s nothing on this section of la Rivière Croche to tremble over.
The Croche cuts a meandering path through the highlands of central Quebec’s haute-Mauricie before feeding into the St. Maurice river north
of la Tuque. The best calm-water section of the Croche runs 48 kilometres from a logging road put-in to the town of la Croche. This is family float tripping at it’s best: there’s only one 250- metre portage, numerous swifts and a steady current make paddling optional, and nearly every bend in the river’s serpentine course features a sandy campsite. Paddlers with more moving water experience can add another 30 kilometres and three portages by putting in further upstream, at a bridge on the same logging road.
Hints
While the Croche is runnable throughout the paddling season, sandcastle construction is best in low water when the most material and real estate is available, so plan a late-summer trip and bring a beach shovel. From la Tuque, follow the blacktop north to the town of la Croche, where you can drop a vehicle at the municipal campground take-out. Access the put-in from the same road, which becomes gravel north of la Croche. The Cartes Plein Air website provides all the details.
While You’re There
If you think you might have some energy left at the end of your trip, remember your bent shaft paddle: you could continue downstream—albeit at a slightly faster pace—as part of the 193-kilometre La Classique Marathon Canoe Race. The event takes place over labour Day weekend and follows the St. Maurice River from La Tuque to Shawinigan.
Saugeen River, Ontario
by Kevin Callan
Threading through the farms of Bruce County and protected by the Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority, the Saugeen River is an oasis for wildlife and paddlers alike. It’s the perfect destination for families looking for a quick weekend getaway in a setting that’s not remotely intimidating, or paddlers wanting to navigate their first bit of moving water.
The 105-kilometre, three-portage section between Hanover and Southampton can be paddled in three or four days. But the strictest float trippers will stick to the two-to three-day, 83-kilometre jaunt from Walkerton to Southampton. It’s portage free and has almost continuous gravel swifts and a few class I rapids. With numerous intermediate access points, it’s possible to devise different day trips.
Hints
Walkerton is a 2.5-hour drive from Toronto on Highway 9. Drop a car downstream at Denny’s Dam, just east of Southampton, or arrange a shuttle with a local outfitter, load your canoe in Hanover and push off. Several islands downstream from Paisley offer Crown land camping among the faux-western charm of wispy willows and thick clumps of dogwood. Paisley’s Rotary Camp, Hidden Valley Camp or the Saugeen Bluffs Conservation Area are alternative options.
Lore
In the early 1800s, the Saugeen River was the pioneer’s gateway to the Queen’s Bush, a fertile area that is still among Ontario’s most agriculturally productive. Prospective settlers gathered at Buck’s Crossing—today’s Hanover—to build scows and rafts for the trip downriver. After floating the Saugeen they dismantled their watercrafts to build the first shanties and farms in this section of south- western Ontario’s undeveloped hinterland.
Restigouche River
by Andy Smith
New Brunswick’s Restigouche was a favourite river long before it achieved Canadian Heritage River status in 1998. It was once heavily travelled by the Mi’kmaq, and remains one of Atlantic Canada’s healthiest salmon rivers. For canoeists with solid flatwater skills and a splash of moving water experience, the Restigouche’s steady current, sweeping meanders and steep, forested banks make for exceptional multi-day tripping.
There are no portages to disrupt the three- to five-kilometre-per-hour current of the Restigouche. Swifts and riffles, punctuated by a handful of short, easy rapids, keep you alert, and numerous gravel bars provide a nearly unlimited supply of stones for your ongoing family rock-skipping championship.
Hints
Access the river via Highway 17 and the village of Kedgwick. Local outfitters will provide detailed driving instructions and a shuttle to the put-in, which is about 50 kilometres north of Kedgwick. A great four-day trip splits your time on the Kedgwick and Restigouche rivers. Start at Camp 28 on the South Branch of the Kedgwick and make camps at Rapids Depot, the Kedgwick- Restigouche confluence and Cross Point Island before finishing up at the Rafting Grounds above Campbellton. To avoid crowds, skip long weekends, summer weekends, and school holidays.
Lore
Million Dollar Pool is one of many famous salmon holes on the Restigouche. In the mid-1800s the governors of Quebec and New Brunswick, both avid fishermen, met at the pool at the junction of the Patapedia and Restigouche rivers to resolve a boundary dispute (though some historians have suggested they just wanted to fish). As the story goes, they were approached by Phyneas Wyers, a local, who persuaded the governors to give him $100 and title to the adjacent land for the privilege of fishing “his” pool. A century later the deed for the privately owned pool sold for $75,000.
North Saskatchewan River, Alberta
by Darin Zandee
The North Saskatchewan rises in the melting Columbia Icefields and flows for 1,287 kilometres before draining into Lake Winnipeg. On its course, it falls in icy cascades through the Rockies, cruises smoothly through the boreal foothills to Edmonton and winds sedately across the Prairies. The best stretch for the float tripping family is the 160-kilometre section between Drayton Valley and Edmonton where the river loses its Rocky Mountain vigour but still maintains a steady clip. If the kids need a break from paddling, just point your canoe downstream and let the current carry you along. You can cover 40 kilometres in a day and spend your nights on expansive gravel bars that have been camped on for more than 5,000 years.
Hints
Check Alberta Environment’s online water level gauge before heading out. For a more relaxing experience, look for a level of less than 225 cubic metres per second (cms)—the norm for July and August. Leave a vehicle at Fort Edmonton Park. From there, follow Highway 39 westward for 1.5 hours to the put-in at Willey West Campground, just east of Drayton Valley. Further downstream there are access points at Berrymore Bridge, Genesee Bridge and Devon Bridge—all of which make shorter trips an option. Plan on a four-day float from Drayton to Fort Edmonton.
Lore
The North Saskatchewan was one of the rivers David Thompson, the Hudson Bay Company explorer, paddled while surveying for his 1814 map of the west. The 3.9 million square kilometres of wilderness he mapped informed the travels of more than a century’s worth of explorers, fur trad- ers and homesteaders.
This article first appeared in the Spring 2006 issue of Canoeroots Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Canoeroots’ print and digital editions here.
