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Been There, Haven’t Done That


Our guide to the SECRET ROUTES you’ve


Face it, you can’t do the trip of a lifetime every summer. There’s nothing wrong with putting that trip to the Yukon or Labrador off for a year—as long as you still get out this summer and move from one place to another in a canoe. This is where it starts to get difficult. You don’t have weeks to devote to piecing together plans to go somewhere no one has ever heard of, but you aren’t too thrilled by the crowded portages and pre-booked campsites at the easy-to-get-to stan- dard destinations. At Canoeroots we understand your dilemma and we want to help. We have surveyed the land to find the forgotten, undis- covered, remote and unheralded routes in the most accessible,


paddled past well-serviced and familiar places.


Our experts give you their seven picks for canoe trips that won’t take much time to plan, or involve logistical gymnastics to execute, yet will still deliver you to where you want to be: on a lake, with just your friends, and maybe some mosquitoes. Easy-to-get-to remote routes? You can have it both ways. Start packing. Or do it at the last minute. That’s fine too.


ROUTE: Hawkesbury–Des Baies


La Vérendrye, Quebec


The canoeing credentials of Quebec’s La Vérendrye Wildlife Reserve are well known. Though 6,000 canoeists ply the waters of this flat expanse of Canadian Shield each year, only a handful of these make the trip all the way up to La Vérendrye’s northwest corner. The Hawkesbury–Des Baies circuit sees about 15 groups a year, meaning the well-main- tained portages and campsites are largely ignored. Once you get over the 1.5-kilo- metre portage into Lac Cowasachouane, you are off La Vérendrye’s beaten track and on a lake that has somehow retained remnants of the old-growth pine forests that used to spread to the horizon. At the south end of the lake you’ll find the route’s best campsite beside a falls at the start of Lac Hénault. The turquoise waters of Lac Hawkesbury highlight the chain of small lakes between Lac Hénault and Lac Des Bais. Despite the lake-hop- ping, the 13 portages on this 108-kilome- tre route total a mere 4.5 kilometres.


Need to know


The administrative centre of La Vérendrye is Le Domaine, a 3.5-hour drive northwest of Montreal on Highway 117. You can get the permits you need for this route (circuit number 77), rent canoes and pick up a pre-arranged shuttle here.


24 www.canoeroots.ca


If you’re driving yourself, it’s another 100 kilometres to Highway 38 and then 28- gravelled kilometres southeast to the put- in at Camping Barker.


Campfire Story The reserve is named after Pierre La Vérendrye, an 18th century explorer who did most of his exploring far west of the area that bears his name. Though he faced frequent harried encounters with English and native rivals while claiming new ter- ritory for France, he never lost his head. The same can’t be said for a scouting crew of his. Agroup of Sioux attacked the men on an island in Lake of the Woods in 1763, beheading them and wrapping their heads in beaver pelts.—IM


INFO ........................ (summer) Le Domaine, (819) 435- 2331, www.canot-kayak.qc.ca. (winter) Fédération Québecoise du Canot et du Kayak, (514) 252-3001. These are one-stop depots for information on rentals, maps, shuttles and permits.


MAPS........................ Map # 4 from the reserve or topos–31 N/5, N/6, N/11, N/12.


photo by Rob Stimpson


PHOTO BY KEVIN CALLAN


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