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PostPosted: July 20th, 2021, 9:02 am 
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Location: Appleton, Maine
The area around Lake Mistissini in Quebec looks to be an easy drive north from where I live in Maine now. I would be interested in spending a week/10 days canoe trippig on a mid sized lake or connected lakes, drive in or even fly in if needed.
I don't speak French so I'm wondering if that would be a deal breaker that far north in Quebec. Also, I'm not familiar with who or where to buy needed permits.
I looked at the resources section but really have no idea where to even start.
Thanks for any help offered.


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PostPosted: July 20th, 2021, 10:20 am 
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Cree Lands. Doubt French will be a problem. I have met several folks from Ouje Bougoumou a village nearby and they speak excellent English.

a contact here.

https://www.escapelikeneverbefore.com/e ... utfitters/


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PostPosted: July 20th, 2021, 4:38 pm 
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Location: Appleton, Maine
Thank You LRC, it’s a good start. I’ll give them a call and see what develops.


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PostPosted: July 20th, 2021, 5:58 pm 
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Lake Mistassini is like a land locked ocean. Have a look at Lake Albanel in that same area. People I know who have been there loved it. However, that was 30 years ago. Doing the Albanel River is another possibility, but there may be a few portages. Lake Albanel is at the very end of a highway (gravel) and I'm sure you can find a place to leave your truck in safety. This is Native Canadian land, so do the research first. Here's an older map. Hope this helps.

http://www.cartespleinair.org/Canot/08/ ... iCarte.jpg

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lake+ ... 73.0864664

http://www.aventure-chasse-peche.com/vi ... p-a-vivre/

https://www.escapelikeneverbefore.com/e ... mpgrounds/

G.

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PostPosted: July 21st, 2021, 6:32 am 
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Joined: July 2nd, 2001, 7:00 pm
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Location: Appleton, Maine
Thanks Gerald, lots of good information. An 11 hour drive gets me into some nice lake country, hopefully I can find something and someone canoe friendly.


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PostPosted: July 21st, 2021, 7:41 am 
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Joined: April 16th, 2003, 1:50 pm
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Location: Toronto
Well the name caught my eye, I'll never paddle there in person but there's a number of great documentaries from the 70's and 80's featuring the people of Mistissini and lower James Bay that have found their way to youtube. Fascinating stuff, which I'd never otherwise have seen for myself if it wasn't free on the internet. The doc about the demise of the Rupert river is from a later time, and just as compelling as the earlier ones. As noted above, it's an ESL community which surprised me too at first.


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PostPosted: July 22nd, 2021, 4:07 am 
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Location: Near Ottawa ON
Gerald Guay wrote:
Lake Albanel is at the very end of a highway (gravel) and I'm sure you can find a place to leave your truck in safety. This is Native Canadian land....
There's a large campground on Albanel. I parked there years ago to access the Eastmain River via the north end of Mistissini. Big water.
The Cree took over administration of the Albanel/Mistassini and Assinica Reserves a few years ago.

https://www.nibiischii.com/fr/

sbaillie paddles the area west of Mistissini. It's kinda' addictive. He did a trip off the Route Du Nord last year:

https://www.myccr.com/phpbbforum/viewto ... lit=rupert


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PostPosted: July 22nd, 2021, 12:21 pm 
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Location: Eganville, ON
Here is a simple map for planning in the area. Unfortunately its a little blurry when sized per site rules and I cannot find an original copy online anywhere to link to.

I believe I originally found this in a trip report on the ottertooth site but cant locate it.

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PostPosted: July 22nd, 2021, 2:36 pm 
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Location: Appleton, Maine
Krusty wrote:

https://www.nibiischii.com/fr/

sbaillie paddles the area west of Mistissini. It's kinda' addictive. He did a trip off the Route Du Nord last year:

https://www.myccr.com/phpbbforum/viewto ... lit=rupert


Thanks Krusty, I received a message from sbaillie with some good information. Much appreciated.


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PostPosted: July 31st, 2021, 11:43 pm 
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Just got back from a 220 km loop over 12 days in this very area. Astonishing. Still processing the experience.

Caribou (including one that followed us along the shore!), moose (one that ate a midnight dinner in front of our tent!!), no bugs (????), huge beaches, whitewater, bog laurel, little ponds and channels, massive lakes, small rivers, big rivers. Zero humans. No campsites or marked portages (vague tree blazes and broken shrubs...).

This place was made for canoeing, so much water!

Route on Caltopo here: https://caltopo.com/m/Q12T


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PostPosted: August 1st, 2021, 9:33 am 
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Location: Near Ottawa ON
Excellent. So envious it hurts.
I've done the Rupert part of your trip and paddled the Marte down from the top. It is a beautiful little river, lots of doable rapids. You started where it crosses the route Du Nord and went upstream? Did you plan out that route yourself?
Please do a Trip Report.


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PostPosted: August 1st, 2021, 1:49 pm 
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Hi Krusty,

Yes, we started at Route de Nord where it crosses the Marte River. We ascended the Marte and looped back through the Rupert / Mesgouez system.

I wasn't aware of the paddling potential and ease of access to this area until I stumbled upon this excellent trip report by simonbob on Ottertooth:

http://www.ottertooth.com/discus/messag ... 1568923546

That was the genesis of the trip: start at the Marte and make a big loop somehow, which was easy to do because there is so much water and very few portages. It is even easy to cut corners on a loop to save or make up time because of all the channels. Google Earth was a big help to identify most of the rapids (many of which are not marked on topographic maps), portages between lakes, and beaches to camp on.

A big motivation to go there was to get away from the overly subscribed parks in the south this summer. It certainly delivered on that front. We saw no one for 12 days. It felt like we were on the moon!

Will try to write this up at some point.


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PostPosted: August 1st, 2021, 7:22 pm 
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Location: Appleton, Maine
I plan to do a lake trip in that area for 12 days starting August 23rd. My trip will be on land controlled by the Cree FN if I understand correctly,( https://www.nibiischii.com/fr/ )They require 30 days notice before a trip, so when I heard the border was going to open in early August I got my information in and I'm all set. (if the border does open)

I will start at Lac Robineau and after two short portages enter the large Lac Canotaicane. I have a small solo canvas wall tent with a small wood stove so no worry for this old timer if the temps and weather become an issue into September.

My first time in the area, swampwalkers positive comments have greatly increased my anticipation.


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PostPosted: August 3rd, 2021, 1:24 pm 
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Location: Timmins
We did a 17 day expedition down the Tichegami river from the Otish Mtns this July - WOW, the wilderness was incredible, full report later. The final portion of our trip passed through Albanel/Mistassini reserve. We parked a car at lake Albanel for our self shuttle (free), but permits for the 6 of us to camp on Albanel and Mistassini on our final days were $380.

The staff at Camping Albanel don't speak much English but the Nibiischii folks on the phone/email do. I had submitted a detailed float plan with them back in the winter, but communication via email was quite slow and things didn't get paid and sorted until a week before the trip - perhaps this was owed to COVID? They also wanted exact coordinates of where I planned to camp, but of course there are no established campsites and they had a somewhat hard time understanding how to permit my plans for potential windbound days (we had a 9km and 5km open water crossing to contend with). Nevertheless, we got it sorted and were able to proceed without issue.

If you plan on fishing the cost is even more. You should also take note of the category lands you will be passing through as restrictions vary between Cat I, II, and III.

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PostPosted: August 4th, 2021, 8:17 am 
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Location: Appleton, Maine
"If you plan on fishing the cost is even more. You should also take note of the category lands you will be passing through as restrictions vary between Cat I, II, and III."

I understand the camping is $14 a day, fishing $19 a day. The folks at Nibiischii said it would be ok to buy the non resident Quebec fishing license for 7 days and pay the $19 for the matching 7 days even though I'm planning on camping there for 12 days. I prefer to paddle rather than fish the early part of the trip anyway.

Living in Maine, this area (Nibiischii) is a one day trip 600 miles to the put in. NW Ontario crown land camping is at least another days driving added to the trip each way so the trade off for gas and lodging vs. the price of fishing is in my favor. Plus it's a new area to explore.
I have no idea what the category lands are but I assume I'm good from what I have learned from my conversations with the Nibiischii folks.


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