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PostPosted: April 25th, 2013, 5:28 pm 
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Gerald...if you don't mind, please forward bill Maloney's email address to me. i'd like to respond to his message. thanks.

smarkhinckley@hotmail.com


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PostPosted: April 26th, 2013, 7:29 am 
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Sorry but I do not have that information. Hope Bill looks at this thread.
GG

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PostPosted: May 19th, 2013, 4:17 am 
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Hi Bill Maloney. If you are reading this you will know that Gerad Guay posted the email you sent him a while back. You and I were indeed on the same canoe trip back in August of 1967. What's left of the hair I have is still blond, mixed with a fair bit of grey. The trip we took was called the Wetetnegami River/Penache River trip. We left base camp and headed north, over the tough Bourgmont portages, down Bourgmont Creek, and down the Kekek River to the north camp of a fishing outfitter called Kapitachouan Club, then owned by Homer and Frank Sigouin. We resupplied there and continued north, eventually arriving at the Wetetnegami River, which we proceeded to paddle down for a few days. There are a number of good-sized rapids on this stretch of the river, and I remember being particularly disappointed when, upon arriving at one of them, our trip-leader, Derry Allen, decided it was too difficult for the campers to run and, instead, had the counselors run all the canoes down it instead. At the intersection with the Penache River, we then headed east, paddling for 3 days upstream on the Penache. I have since learned from my brother and others that the better way to make this trip is to do it in reverse, paddling down the Penache and up the Wetetnegami. We then made our way back to Sigouin's camp and then on to Lac Pascagama, Lac Bernier, Susie Dam, Ganas Falls, Lac Lacoursier, Hudson's Creek, and, finally, back to Lac Choiseul. Your recollection of Tom Soper riding the cow moose in to shore is exactly as I remember it (although I suspect that Tom would say that he jumped off the moose before it reached shore instead of getting bucked off). I remember a number of campers taking pictures, but I never saw any of them (sadly, digital photography and the internet were not invented yet!). We had a fair bit of rain on the trip, which made for decent water levels but some pretty wet camp sites. Did you paddle in the stern or the bow? I remember your name, but can't put face to it.

As you will know from reading the earlier posts, both camp directors have passed away (Rod Beebe died in 1997 and Carl Williams passed just last year). A number of Williamses and Beebes still go up to the base camp on Lac Choiseul every summer for a couple of weeks for a working vacation, maintaining the existing cabins and enjoying the fishing. With the exception of the Capitachouane River, I don't think very many of the old routes the camp used to frequent are paddled and portaged anymore. Gerald Guay says that much of the area has been logged and that there are a number of roads that now criss-cross the territory. It's certainly not the wilderness that it was 40 years ago. My brother Chris, at the invitation of Peter and Doug Williams, visited the camp last summer. During his stay he paddled up to the northeast corner of Lac Choiseul to Sandy Beach, and he reports that there is no vestige whatsoever of the portage trail that so many CK'ers trudged over departing from and returning to the lake. He also said that the water levels last summer were the lowest he'd ever seen during his 15 years canoeing in the area back in the 70's and 80's. Had the camp been still operating, he doesn't think it would have been possible to run trips with such low water. Hopefully, the snow pack this past winter returned to normal and all those wonderful rivers are flowing freely again this spring.


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PostPosted: May 19th, 2013, 4:55 am 
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That was a wonderful read mhinckley. Thanks for posting.

In August 1985 my wife and I did the trip you described but in reverse of the way you did. We took 3 weeks to do it. Those were great times.

GG

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PostPosted: July 4th, 2013, 8:53 pm 
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I was a camper in 86 and 89 and often think about the beauty of the northern lights and the solitude that I did not appreciate when I was there. I dream of returning and taking the VIA Railroad up there, but I will miss the 1950's truck not picking me up. Is the sigouin fishing camp still around....


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PostPosted: July 4th, 2013, 10:40 pm 
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the sigouins sold the north camp (it is sill operated by the new owners and is called pourvoir quebec. the sigouins are still in business and operate out of the south camp on lac choiseul, on the same peninsula that camp kapitachouane's base camp is located.


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PostPosted: July 5th, 2013, 7:41 pm 
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Wish there could be a week long reunion up at that old camp that spanned the generations organized... That would be a lot of fun...


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PostPosted: July 7th, 2013, 5:13 pm 
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Back in February of this year (2/17/2013), Frederic posted that he was planning a trip down the Capitachouane River in May. Did you make the trip, Frederic? How was the water level? My borther Chris was up there last summer and said that he'd never seen such low water. It appeared to me that the snow pack this past winter was more normal than the winter before, so I assume that the water levels were higher. Was that the case? How was the trip? Were the portage trails still intact? I took a trip down the Cap twice back in the early 1970's...it was a good rip with lots of fun rapids.


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PostPosted: July 8th, 2013, 8:20 am 
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I ran the Capitachouane from May 17th to 26th. The water level was amazing at 75 m3/s.

When I first ran the river in 2003 all portages in the section between the junction with the Esperey and Lac Vimy where overgrown. They have been reopened recently. Some could use a bit of maintenance.

I am planning on spending 2 weeks in September to try clearing a train access to the Chochocouane via the Capitachouane/Esperey.


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PostPosted: July 8th, 2013, 10:46 am 
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sounds like a great trip. I imagine there are no bugs in mid-may! did you start at the bourgmont cnr station? if so, how were the two portages from there into lac Choiseul? (half mile and a shortie, as I recall)? did you find a campsite on either lac choiseul or lac capitachouane?


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PostPosted: July 8th, 2013, 2:25 pm 
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No bugs for the whole trip! This a first at this time of year. I am under the impression that snow melted 2 weeks later this year than usual in the last decade.

We start at Bourmont. The 1st portage is in great shape. The 2nd is a bit on the rough side but still there which in itself is something in this region ;-)

I found 2 potential sites for late arrival around Bourmont. The first one is right at the stop. The house is seldom visited as per VIA employees. Then half way in the 1st portage a large clearing is another option.

I have not tried to find campsites on Choiseul to avoid disturbing Pourvoirie du sud - Lac Choiseul operation. I did saw the buildings of Camp Kapitachuan and the old truck mentioned in earlier posts but since they are mixed with the other buildings of the outfitter I cannot consider this area as potential campsite for the same reason.

I know a couple campsites on Lac Capitachouane. I should provide updates to the Capitachouane map on cartespleinair.org shortly.


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PostPosted: July 8th, 2013, 3:15 pm 
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yes, I imagine many of the old portages have grown over in the area. my brother was there with the Williams family last july, and he went up to the northeast corner of lac choiseul for a picnic at the sandy beach there. there used to be a 1/3 mile portage trail out of Choiseul, into a pond, which then led to another portage (3/4 mile) into Hudson's creek. he said the 1/3 mile portage was non-existent. camp kapitachouane stopped running trips out of the area in about 1990, and there has been little canoe traffic there since. fyi...there are some good trips to take north of the tracks (eagle river, wetetnegami river, panache river, opawica river), but most of them require looping back from whence you came.


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PostPosted: July 9th, 2013, 5:38 am 
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I don't want to Hi-jack this thread but I have a question for Frederic.

Frederic, I'm curious as to where you intend on hitting the Chochocouane from the rail line. The river above Lac Nadeau is pretty rough going.

GG

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*************************************
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PostPosted: July 9th, 2013, 8:21 am 
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This thread is a great inspiration for canoe tripping the area. I plan on doing the Wetetnagami via Kekek/Megiscane/Capousacataca next year.

Gerald, I will try the Esperey/Gordon/Kekec/Chochocouane area. I will open another thread and would be really interested about any info on the Chochocouane outside La Verendrye.


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PostPosted: August 12th, 2013, 11:54 am 
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My name is George Carve and I believe I went on a 21 day canoe trip with Camp Kapitachouane in about 1964-65. Would love to reconnect with the kids who were on my trip, maybe find some pics. All I remember is that my sternman was named Mike Heep who ran away in the middle of the trip (we found him several hours later on a logging road), and we had camper who was so heavy that when he sat in the stern of his canoe, the bow lifted 18" in the air with one of our leaders sitting. We had Some wild adventures, it rained incessantly for most our time out and my parka dissolved into pieces on the 3rd day out. we also blew the bottom out of a green canoe going down an 'uncharted' rapid which took our German leader 2-3 days to make a patch. I seem to remember the Waswanapi & Chibougamau rivers as places I canoed, but i dont see any mention of them in these posts Perhaps i was at another camp?
You can post here or contact me directly.
George Carver
Gcarver2@pacbell.net


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