Since I now live in Maine, Quebec is closer than Ontario, so, for those of you who've canoed both provinces, how is eastern Quebec different than western Ontario?

Dunno. Next summer we will drive through Eastern Quebec and Labrador. A week long trip on Lac Manicougan is planned. I have seen plenty of presentations on paddling trips there. It seems more treeless and colder, compared to Western Ontario. Also every slide show has presented hordes of bugs that obscure the picture.

Western Quebec/Abitibi/ La Verendrye is usually cooler than Woodland Caribou/

Been canoeing in Newfoundland. There are blackflies in August. Its pretty much wide open in many areas. Caribou. Of course there are mountains and trees too.

Now as for the tundra coming to you.. the Chic Chocs are so close.

Please do share the details of your trip to Lac Manicougan when you return. I love that lake! I wonder why there are more bugs, but I googled biting insects in Quebec and you're right, as the black flies can linger into September.

You would think we would not get lost on Lac Manicougan. Yet I read that so many paddlers get disoriented!

just one canoe trip in quebec on the defunct caniapiscau. i've canoed big rivers in ontario, the albany and severn. quebec made those look like a jaunt on the st. croix. scary rapids, long canyons, huge waves. there's a guy on this site from montreal, he's a couple thread down. i'll bet he has a much better idea of quebec canoeing than me.

northern quebec is beautiful country, the hills are almost mountains, in many places the hills are topped with tundra while the river has forest. the weather is tough. it snowed and rained every day for 45 some days.

quote yellowcanoe: "You would think we would not get lost on Lac Manicougan. Yet I read that so many paddlers get disoriented!"

I can believe it: it's monstrous, plus it has those spines.

quote jwartman59: "just one canoe trip in quebec on the defunct caniapiscau. i've canoed big rivers in ontario, the albany and severn. quebec made those look like a jaunt on the st. croix. scary rapids, long canyons, huge waves. there's a guy on this site from montreal, he's a couple thread down. i'll bet he has a much better idea of quebec canoeing than me.


northern quebec is beautiful country, the hills are almost mountains, in many places the hills are topped with tundra while the river has forest. the weather is tough. it snowed and rained every day for 45 some days."

45 days of snow and rain and ginormous waves? Wow, I bow to thee.

snow in august.

i should have mentioned that the fishing was unbelievable. much better than alaska. that trip spoiled me forever, we would catch our fill of Ouananiche (landlocked salmon) and lake trout each night, usually in less than fifteen minutes. many of these fish were so large that we would put them back in the river, they were too much work too clean.

quote jwartman59: "snow in august.

i should have mentioned that the fishing was unbelievable. much better than alaska. that trip spoiled me forever, we would catch our fill of Ouananiche (landlocked salmon) and lake trout each night, usually in less than fifteen minutes. many of these fish were so large that we would put them back in the river, they were too much work too clean.
"

So, you were in Heaven, albeit a snowy Heaven?

actually it was more like a level of hell. we were almost never out of the sound of rapids or waterfalls, drowning running these huge rapids was always on our minds. portages were caribou trails that led all over the place. one set of rapids required a five mile portage. stuff like that. we ended at the Inuit village of kuujjuaq, quebec. the pastor at the anglican church locked us in his church for our saftey during the night we spent there waiting for a plane. it was the one night of the month that the inuit were allowed to have alcohol.

quote jwartman59: "actually it was more like a level of hell. we were almost never out of the sound of rapids or waterfalls, drowning running these huge rapids was always on our minds. portages were caribou trails that led all over the place. one set of rapids required a five mile portage. stuff like that. we ended at the Inuit village of kuujjuaq, quebec. the pastor at the anglican church locked us in his church for our saftey during the night we spent there waiting for a plane. it was the one night of the month that the inuit were allowed to have alcohol.
"

Wowzers Jwartman! You need to post a trip report about that adventure. Talk about surviving in the wilderness.

quote jwartman59: "actually it was more like a level of hell. we were almost never out of the sound of rapids or waterfalls, drowning running these huge rapids was always on our minds. portages were caribou trails that led all over the place. one set of rapids required a five mile portage. stuff like that. we ended at the Inuit village of kuujjuaq, quebec. the pastor at the anglican church locked us in his church for our saftey during the night we spent there waiting for a plane. it was the one night of the month that the inuit were allowed to have alcohol.
"

Holy scheisse! More, please.

the river is gone now, diverted to hudson's bay for hydro power. kind of hard to sum up a trip like this. the mounties weren't going to let us go because three people had already drown on the river that summer, two from one group, the water levels were very high making what was considered a very dangerous river even more so. i came very close to drowning, twice, i consider myself a very competent white water canoeist, but in water this big strange things would happen to the currents without warning. northern quebec still has huge areas of unspoiled wilderness, it is much more rugged country than ontario and manitoba. labrador is the same. these are rivers for experienced white water canoeists. some of the rapids had to be run because the surrounding landscape would be impassable without climbing gear. stuff like that.

Here is a helpful link on canoeing in Quebec:

Maps

Quebec is a huge territory. I will gladly provide detailed info for specific locations.

quote Frederic: "Here is a helpful link on canoeing in Quebec:

Maps

Quebec is a huge territory. I will gladly provide detailed info for specific locations."

cripes, it looks like i won't be getting anything done for a long while. what an amazing collection of maps. merci.

I was looking at Quebec last night and it's amazing how much water is there. The land of 10,000 lakes looks like a desert in comparison. Dreamy alright. It "looks" like you could go hundreds of miles without getting out of the canoe.

As a joke we often say that we live on a sponge...

Quebec is a canoeing paradise and you can live outstanding experiences. But just a word of caution. One has to be realistic about what he plans on doing. Civilization slowly fades into remote wilderness a few hundreds kilometers from the US border and things can get serious.

One of our local equivalent to the BWCA is 30X times bigger and can have about 200 canoeists on a busy long week-end... Meeting another party is a happy highlight on a trip. This is a good place to hone your wilderness canoeing skills before trying the not organized style.

La Verandrye

There is also a lot of outdoors guides available. They can suggest routes or help with one you choose.

La V isn't as wet as farther north and east. Normally I seldom see other canoeists but still I'd avoid St Jean Baptiste weekend and whenever the Construction Holiday is.. think its the last two weeks of July.

quote yellowcanoe: "La V isn't as wet as farther north and east. Normally I seldom see other canoeists but still I'd avoid St Jean Baptiste weekend and whenever the Construction Holiday is.. think its the last two weeks of July."

Oh sure, but it is still a great training ground for canoeing Quebec wilderness.

I would say that the busy periods should be avoided for the routes that branch off Le Domain mostly.