We are planning on spending 5 weeks in Eastern Canada summer 2014. We are a family from the UK who love the outdoors and have already spent a summer in Western Canada paddling a few years ago.
We hope to fly into Quebec but after that what we want to find are a few self guided multi day trips which:
Cater for a family of 4 the youngest being 11. Looking for rivers which will not become an epic with the kids but still over some lower class rapids. Happy to paddle on lakes or coast. Wild camping. Very few portages if any!!!
We would hope to find a mix between driving in and arranging shuttles etc with an outfitters who can also supply the canoes. We will have all of our own camping gear.
Any advice on routes would be greatly appreciated as there seem to be so many to choose it is difficult to know where to start! Happy to look at all areas as we do have 5 weeks in Eastern Canada. Many Thanks, Simon and family!

Quebec city or Montreal?
Lots of choices can't help with outfitters, there will be a variety in many places
And How much driving? to a site to paddle? (you can add a lot of K's here.
Do you want a true Wilderness experience?
What time of Summer? Bugs can be a real issue in eastern Canada and if you never been exposed to black flies, you may encounter a reaction to their bites.
Just too much stuff to through out a few suggestions. If you had a wish list like say a Group of seven location or Say a Location that Grey Owl paddled at then it might be a start.
https://www.historica-dominion.ca/conte ... s/grey-owl
or even a specific Historic fur trade route.
It will be a tough choice.
Jeff

oops edit add on...Pictogragh sites...
yeah lots to chew on!

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Choosing to save a river is more often an act of passion than of careful calculation. You make the choice because the river has touched your life in an intimate and irreversible way, because you are unwilling to accept its loss. — (David Bolling, Ho

I can't think of any canoe routes that offer wild camping without the need for some portaging, except for extremely large lakes like the north shore of Lake Superior which can be dangerous and not the most family-friendly. Northern Georgian Bay and the Thirty Thousand islands offers somewhat safer family paddling but the water can still get rough and there will be greater numbers of visitors with less wilderness character.

Closest quality wilderness canoe area may be La Verendrye in Quebec and Temagami in Ontario and there coukl be canoe routes to choose from there. Further west is Quetico with some of North America's finest canoe country. Algonquin can get crowded with lots of ports but there may be something suitable at the north side at the Brent and Kiosk access points.

Searching through the canoe routes folders may help narrow things down as well as writing to outfitters in each area for their recommendations after your needs are described... good luck!

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Canoe camping usually involves portaging. You may be thinking rivers with the assumption there could be none, but frankly Canadian rivers almost always have significant rapids that should be portaged by a family with kids.

La Verendrye has nice canoe routes within half a day or a day of Montreal/QC..depending on where you are landing. They do have lightweight canoes at Le Domaine and also heavy beasts. I recommend spending more for less weight.

The French River in Ontario is a wonderful canoe route but again some of the rapids do need to be regarded as needing to be portaged. Its foolhardy for us to say that its OK for you to run them sight unseen.

You are too late for the Bonaventure. Its a nice class 2 run but again requires a little skill that your kids may or may not have. Its some 70 miles long..and can have dangerous logjams. Its on the Gaspe.

La Verendrye does fit the bill in terms of simple logistics.

The territory is about the size of Belgium. Last week-end - a busy one - we figured out that no more than 200 canoeists were present. There is also an excellent outfitter on the spot.

http://www.canot-camping.ca/english/index.asp

La grande boucle Chochocouane might be a good route for an extended lenght canoe trip. Portages are short (longest is in the 800m range) and do exist for all challenging hydrolic features.

Please let us know if you discover the mystic Long Canoe Route With Only Fun Rapids And No Portage

Ottawa valley stuff? Dumoine, noire etc? French river has few portages. Spanish river?

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Quetico Provincial Park - Rawn Lake Route

Put in at the Dawson Creek campground and paddle portage free into Rawn lake. Awesome views. Be quiet on the way in and you might see a moose.

This link shows a route from Nym lake to French lake but just use the part on the right.....http://queticooutfitters.com/nym-lake-rawn-lake-french-lake

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