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.
Winter camping is one of those things that people seem to view from a very binary perspective. There are those who think winter should involve minimizing snow exposure and those who think sleeping outside in freezing weather sounds like fun. In March I spent a couple nights camped on Big Deer Lake north of my place on the Mag. The pulk sled I used in Killarney in 2010 is great for lake and open country travel, but I was expecting lots of bushwacking on this excursion so I used a backpack for all the gear. For the same reason, I used snowshoes rather than skis. Unfortunately the weather was a little too warm and the snow became soft, wet and sticky. On my return, every step plunged deep into the snow and heavy wet snow would fall onto the deck of the snowshoe. It was exhausting, but I really enjoy the winter -- it is the season when you get to see animal tracks and when you can reach places like the little river below that would be very difficult to reach in the other seasons. 
