Hi guys!
Reporting back on our trip. We had a blast, it was amazing! First day on Jean-Péré was not so easy as there was quite a bit of wind and the waters were rough. We still made our way nicely towards camping spot 10-67, which was a very nice spot but with little to no landing area. You basically have to haul your canoe up on a rock ledge, after emptying it from the ''shore''.
The next day we paddled a bit towards the 3 portages linking Jean-Péré and Poulter through Lac Bamières. The first portage (400m) was definitely the hardest. They did build a new landing on the shore when you arrive at the first portage so it was not so mucky to get off. The portage itself is very hilly with a lot of muddy holes and loads of stumps and roots sticking out. The 2 following portages were a breeze compared to the first one. Poulter was much easier to paddle, even with some wind. We stopped on island spot no. 15-20 for lunch and it was a good spot but finding wood for an overnight stay would probably be difficult as the island is small. We then made our way towards spot 15-52, which was my favorite spot. The firepit area is on a high rocky formation that drops towards the water, offering a nice view over the narrow part of the lake. It rained a lot that evening and night, but we had prepared accordingly and we were able to shelter ourselves from the start while still enjoying a warm campfire. We had previously thought to stay at spot 15-53 on the beach, but the lack of larger trees there would have made it much harder to set up a shelter from the rain.
The third day, we hit the Rivières-des-Rapides. We hadn't been successful until then with fishing, but that river proved to offer great fishing! We caught pikes in the river not far from spot 15-59, and we got 2 good sized walleyes in the little lake right before the rapids (there is a creek, coming from Lac Robin, that flows towards that lake which probably brings in nutrients on which the fish feed there. There was about 10 to 12 feet of water only.
The rapids were the highlight of the day, of course. We went through the R1 and the following R2 without much problem. The R1 was actually the one that was most hazardous with rocks, even though the water speed wasn't so high. Then, we stopped at the R3 and we were hesitating. In the end, we decided to portage our gear at the other end of the R3, and then go back to the canoes and go down the rapids. They are only 80 meters long but it was so much fun. We almost flipped but recovered with about 5 inches of water in the boat. We liked it so much that we picked the canoes up, and went back up the trail to go down the rapids again! If you stayed pretty much in the middle of the rapids, rocks were not a problem. We hit absolutely nothing. Right after the rapids, we were hit by a huge storm that lasted about 20 minutes, but we were already soaked so who cares?
We fished again at the exit of the river when you get back on Jean-Péré, and it was pretty good there too. Walleye, pike, some mullet fish. We did mostly catch and release there as we already had the fish we needed for our night meal. We set up camp on 15-81. The spot itself is really nice, but I have to say that finding wood there is almost impossible, as it is surrounded by a swamp. We actually had to canoe away from there, find firewood elsewhere on the shore, and come back to the spot with it. We had a nice fried fish meal with rice and mushrooms. Wine too, don't forget the wine! We had a wonderful moon rise (full moon!) with a many loons singing for us. It was the perfect day!
The last day, we paddled towards the Baie Kearney and did the portage in Baie Ménard. It's about 320m and its mostly on flat terrain, but watch out for the roots, there are many. Because of the storms from the previous day, there were also some muddy holes but nothing too bad.
We fished a bit in Baie Ménard, trying for trout as it is quite deep (up to 80 feet deep in some places), but we had no luck. We had lunch at spot 10-27 just out of Baie Ménard, and I have to say the view there is wonderful. There is only room for 1 tent though. After lunch, we paddled straight back to Le Domaine and that was the end of our trip!
It was amazing, and even though the weather wasn't perfect (we had a bit of everything), it just added to the experience.
Something worthy of mention: we had little to no cell signal all the time, from 3 different carriers, except around 6 PM every night. The cell signal is magically strong when you are about 4-5 kms away from Le Domaine.
Hopefully our story helps someone else plan a memorable trip!
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