Darren's Photo Album:Mattawa River
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Here's Matt (left) and Darren (right) on the dock at Armstrong Beach in North Bay, just before we set off. Donny, our kind shuttle driver, took this picture.
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"The Stepping Stones" that mark the end of Trout Lake. These are remnants of glacial activity in the area
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A shot of us approaching "The Stepping Stones"
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A pile of rubble from blasting which cleared the way for motor boat traffic between Trout Lake and Turtle Lake. There used to be a nasty portage here, called "Portage de la Tortue," but obviously no portage is necessary now
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The channel that was cleared by blasting, joining Trout Lake and Turtle Lake
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The narrow spot where I presume most of the blasting was done. Again, notice the piles of rock rubble along both shores
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Me (Darren) reading the map on Turtle Lake
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A shot of Turtle Dam
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A nice shot of Turtle Lake
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Another shot of Turtle Lake
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Here's a picture of Matt at our campsite on Turtle Lake
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Our campsite on Turtle Lake. For some strange reason the tent looks very blue here, even though it's grey. Oh well! This was a pretty good site, but nothing too special
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The view from our campsite on Turtle Lake. Can't complain about that eh!?
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Here's Matt, doing all the work, while I kick back and relax
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OK, so it's not all hard work :) Here, we're relaxing after setting up camp, and slowly making our way to the dam so that Matt can do some fishing. Hmm... are those matching boot laces?!?
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The downstream side of Turtle Dam. This is where Matt had much of his fishing success, catching some nice fish by casting in the turbulent water below the dam
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Yet another shot of Turtle Lake
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Looking straight down into the water from on top of the dam.
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The rapids below Turtle Dam
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Here's me standing in the rapids below Turtle Dam. Matt said jokingly that he wanted me to go stand in the river so that he could get a picture. Of course, I did it just for fun, and he did actually take a picture!
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Here's Matt fishing from the dam. He actually caught one or two from on top of the dam, and the others from shore just below where he's standing here. Notice that he's also swatting bugs, which was a full-time job on this trip!
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One of the nice little smallmouth bass that Matt caught at the dam
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Another fish that Matt caught at the dam
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Here's a pretty good sized one. Of course all of these fish were released - Matt never did catch that Pickeral that was on the menu :(
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This shot is taken facing Turtle Lake from on top of the dam
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A fantastic shot of Turtle Lake taken at sunset from the rock on the west side of our campsite
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Another sunset shot of Turtle Lake. Wow!
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Another sunset shot of Turtle Lake.
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Another sunset shot of Turtle Lake.
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We woke up on Friday to mist rising off the water. Here's what it looked like right outside the tent door!
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Again, a shot of the campsite on Friday morning - I love that mist on the water :)
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More mist - this time taken as we were on the water and just getting underway for the day.
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One last shot of Turtle Lake before we head on downriver.
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The start of "Portage de la Mauvaise Musique," the first portage on our trip. The sign was on the ground, not hanging from it's pole, so I pulled it up for a pic, then set it against the base of the pole
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The sign marking the beginning of "Portage Pin de Musique"
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The view that greets you at the end of "Portage Pin de Musique," at Talon Lake
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Here's the end of "Portage Pin de Musique." After completing the carry, we changed into swimsuits and had a refreshing swim. That's me (obviously) after loading the canoe to get underway.
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Another shot of Talon Lake
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Some of the rocks along the shore of Talon Lake
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We thought this was pretty cool--an almost perfect cube of rock must have fallen out of this spot..
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A shot of Talon Dam
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The cliffs below Talon Chutes. This was the view from our second night's campsite.
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A (small) part of the rapids that make up Talon Chutes. It doesn't look so bad in this picture, but there's a lot of water coming down!
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Another portion of the rapids at Talon Chutes
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Here's some big water in Talon Chutes. This is a powerful section of river, and not to be messed with!
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The portage trail that skirts Talon Dam and Chutes. It looks flat in this picture, but believe me, it's far from flat. However, we found it wasn't as nasty as it looks (although stil not an easy portage.)
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This is our cliff-top campsite, where we spent Friday night. It's about a 20-30 metre sheer drop to the river right infront of where I'm standing.
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These socks are priviledged enough to have spent some time on the "mountain goad clothesline," which hangs over a fairly good drop. I was able to string it up between two trees that were on my level, but the middle of the line was about 5 metres from the ground below.
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Here's a shot looking upstream at "Portage de la Prairie" (aka Little Paresseux Falls). There's more rapids upstream around the corner that you can't see, but this part is the roughest - just ensure that you're on your line before you hit the end here! This is a Class II, and we ran it almost perfectly. We were pumped after this run!
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Here's me standing at "Portage de la Prairie" after our successful run!
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Here's Matt standing at "Portage de la Prairie" after our successful run!
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Here's the rocks/ledge at the end of the run. There's a way through though! Just make sure you thoroughly scout this part!
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The beginning of the worst section of rapids. It's not actually the start of the rapids, but the upstream portion isn't too bad.
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The big rock that's in the middle of the river.
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Some nice standing waves at the end of the run
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Here's our canoe sitting patiently for us while we scope out the rapids we successfully ran!
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The canoe nicely framed by trees, waits in the slow water at the end of the portage [which we didn't use of course :)]
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The sign marking "Portage des Paresseux." Keep your eyes peeled for this sign! If you miss it you're going to have a very unpleasant experience just downstream!
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The very beautiful Paresseux Falls.
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Check out that chute on river left! Wow!
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And here's a close-up picture of that chute on river left
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Nice.. very nice. What is there to say?
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Here's me pumping some water below Paresseux Falls. I'm looking pretty rough there, but the bugs had a feast on my face and neck.
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