Ashuapmushuan

Last week we finished an excellent 175 km trip paddling down the Ashuapmushuan River that flows into Lac St. Jean in Quebec. Three canoes for nine days with lots of long rapids -- some were simple and over a kilometer long, some were more complex and required careful scouting before we ran them and some required portage or lining.

The river was running at about 200 cubic meters per second which is low for the Ash; Michel Lessard, the guy who lead the trip, has paddled it at 400 and 800. We were told that the river has been low for three summers now and at 200 we only had a couple spots where we were forced to get out and haul the canoes through short shallow sections.

With the river pushing us along quickly we made camp by noon several days and that gave us some time to play without a fully loaded canoe. Here is a video clip showing Jean and I attempting, unsuccessfully, to surf a little wave and another as we thread our way through some ledges.