September Missinaibi River, Day 3

Got the gear down the steep rock incline from the camp site. The day’s weather was misty and threatening. Swamp and Deadwood Rapids easy, just boat scout and run.


You get a choice when you reach Allen Island, to go right or left. We took the left channel and had lunch at top of the portage on high ground (20 to 30 feet above river). Carried most of gear on the long route twice, bypassing all the rapids. Then, on the third trip, eliminated 300 meters of portage. Doug took canoe and one duffle solo down the bottom half of the rapid, meeting Trish at river right at the end. The bottom half of Allen is an easy II any level. But at the low levels we experienced it needed to be run with a near-empty boat.

Wavy Rapids is Cucumber Lite, if you have paddled the Yough in Pennsylvania. It’s a river-wide trough, though it’s no keeper. Taking on some water is inevitable and it rates an easy III , but the nice pool below it makes it a safe run. Got about six inches of water in the boat, but, it was the last rapid before Greenhill.

Camped at the top of the portage at Greenhill. Entry to the site was very mucky. It rained but we cooked with wood fire none the less.

Total miles paddled 16.

September Missinaibi River, Day 2

Long, Sun, and Barrel Rapids mostly class I except for Sun, which an honest class II. Had lunch at the beginning trail of the Barrel portage and could see 90% of an easy rapid from there. Remainder was runable without scouting. Basically an easy day. Smattering of rain presented no problem.

The takeout for Peterbell is before bridge on left and it did not look very inviting.

After 15 miles of rote paddling, the day was feeling long and we were ready for camp, but none was to be easily found. We were certain of our location on the map but uncertain of the location of “the good site” on a bedrock shelf, two miles past Peterbell. We scanned the right bank for any possibility of a campsite. None. Luckily, we were also scanning the higher ground on our right. We saw a patch of granite in the distance among the trees. It had to be the site we thought. But how to get there? It appeared unobtainable. Grasses separated. A few more minutes, past, the site, revealed a narrow channel to our second night’s campsite.

The picture shows the camp site. The water you see is not the Missinaibi but a lagoon. The river is beyond the grasses in the distance.

Totaled miles paddled 15.

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September Missinaibi River, Day 1

After an evening camping at Racine Lake, our shuttle driver, James, took us to Missinaibi Provincial Park. Anyone driving on their own should get directions from the park service because the gravel roads are unnamed and there are numerous signs saying kayak or canoe launch that are deceptive. The place you want to end up with is at Lake Missinaibi Provincial Park. So call first for directions.


If you are staying overnight in the nearest town, Chapleau, there are only a few motels. They are priced appropriate for their features. For example, in the middle, you will find a 10-unit motel where an amenity was considered a Mr. Coffee coffee maker. (Take note, however, a bad motel for a canoeist is something that smells worse than your car.)

Put in was at 10:30. Right at the get go we had six miles of lake paddling. For most of it we had a tailwind, which was nice because a headwind on that lake would have been a tough start to a long trip. The narrows were unexpectedly narrow (due to lots of lake grass) and really shallow but we got through it without losing any vinyl.

The entrance of the river from the lake was deceptively reedy and narrow.

When we finally started down the river, we knew that within a mile we would have some more exciting water (Quittagene and Cedar Rapids).

At Quittagene we saw a campsite on the left that was a lot better than the documented campsite at the bottom of the portage on river right.

We camped the first night a mile past Hay River on the right. We were hoping to catch glimpse of a moose or two but did not

Total miles paddled 13.