Hello fellow paddlers. I've been asked by my NYC based friends to coordinate another canoe trip. This time however, the request was for an eastern based trip (I live in BC). I'm super intrigued by a trip in PQ, but have zero knowledge of whats out there. I'm looking to be on water for 7 days, must be remote as in have few other canoeist, mix of canoeing and portages is best (not into floating down a river - I do like it physically challenging), intermediate level rivers and to occur in August. Super ideal if you could also recommend an outfitter as we will all be flying in with limited equipment. Appreciate your recommendations.

La Verendrye is not very crowded.. Outfitter at Le Domaine.. warning the last I knew their rental boats were crude and heavy. Looks like they may have upgraded the fleet
http://www.canot-camping.ca/choosing-a-craft.html
You can be out for more or less or seven days. Chochocouane ( 63) is remote
http://www.canot-camping.ca/our-circuits.html

Rivers are more plentiful like the Dumoine or the Noire or Coulonge..

How about the Ashuapmushuan in the Lac St.Jean region? Moderately difficult whitewater, not very heavily travelled, easy access, only one major portage.

We took our own stuff in so can't say about outfitters, but they do exist.

My only complaint about the Reserve Faunique is that they issue fishing permits BY DATE which are quite expensive. I didn't know what days I would fish, so I bought a permit for the whole trip. Turned out there were only pike above Grand Chute (about half way) and salmon fishing below was 1. by additional permit won by lottery 2.with a local guide 3. fly rod only. The staff at the park gate hadn't explained this.

I assume that you have excluded the Dumoine and Coulonge as not remote enough, although I don't think you'll see many people at the top of either river. The crowds start about half way down.

To pick up on what littleredcanoe and Peter suggested, the Coulonge would make a nice week-long trip. A possible bonus is that your visitors may be able to spend some time in Montreal and/or Ottawa if interested.

The Coulonge is a nice choice for novice/advanced novice. We paddled down the river from its headwaters last August (15-27) and saw one other canoe tripping party. They were a summer camp group led by two camp staff in their late teens.

Re: outfitters. Esprit Whitewater located in Davidson does whitewater rafting on the Ottawa as well as canoe trip outfitting and shuttles. They would be able to provide the complete package. Here is their url -

http://www.whitewater.ca/canoeing.html

You would have to decide how far upriver to start from so that you could do your seven day trip comfortably. Jim Coffey and Dennis Blaedlow at Esprit have a wealth of experience and can get you sorted out. You could add a day of Ottawa River rafting to your canoe trip. The 12-kilometer run down the Rocher Fendu stretch of the river may be eastern North America's #1 rafting destination!

If you want to get an idea of what the Coulonge involves click on the following links.

Some pix: https://albinger.me/2016/09/04/canoeing ... to-ottawa/

Intro, Planning, Maps, Day by Day reports: https://albinger.me/2016/10/20/canoeing ... ning-maps/

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http://albinger.me/canoe-tripping/

Thanks for the feedback - you've given me some places to research. The only reason I excluded the Dumoine in particular is that there was a full page spread a few months back in the Globe and Mail and I assumed with that kind of notoriety it would be a well traveled place. I will most likely come back to you once I've researched and called around.