This trip had been a long time in the planning. Some time towards the end of 2010, Simon Knox somehow persuaded Martyn Read, Doug Johnson and myself that we wanted to travel to Quebec to paddle the Magpie river. Despite Simon mentioning the 26 miles we would have to paddle down a lake, it still sounded like a good idea and during the following months, the remaining spaces on the trip were filled by Nick Smailes and Richard Morley. This second post is a write-up of my diary for our trip down the West Magpie, Lac Magpie and then the Magpie River. Click here to read my diary for the first part of the trip.
Today was the day. We were to fly in to Lac Vital to start our descent of the West Mapgie and later the Magpie. We had a couple of hours to have yet another go at packing our drybags and working our just how much food to take with us – we were expecting to complete the trip in six days, but do we take enough food for a full seven days? Or six days plus a little extra? Lots of decisions to make! We also popped to the map shop just down the road from the hotel in order to get some detailed maps of the rivers. If you ever happen to find yourself in Sept Iles you have to pay a visit to this map shop. The man in the shop managed to keep us entertained for the best part of an hour as he talked about bears before teaching us how to fold maps ‘the army way’! We later sent Martyn in to get a mosquito head-net. He came out with a can of bear spray and proceeded to sleep with his paddles in close proximity for the entirity of our Magpie trip for fear of bears!In what seemed like no time at all, 11am arrived and it was time to head to the float plane base. With only one car, six people and lots of kit it took a couple of runs to get everything to the base and it suddenly became very real that we were actually doing this. The float planes we were going to be flying in were moored up on the pontoon, we paid and then the fun of squeezing our boats into the planes began. Although each of these planes could take three passengers and three kayaks, only two kayaks could fit inside each plane. That meant that one boat had to be tied to the outside of each plane! As my Villain and Simon’s Everest were deemed to be the two longest boats, we were ones lucky enough to test the knot-tying ability of the pilots.

Our shuttle vehicle
A 45 minute flight took us to our destination – Lac Vital – and all we saw during the flight were trees and lakes. We had a soft landing onto the lake, unloaded the planes and then stood back and watched the planes take off. As we were stood there watching the planes disappear into the distance it suddenly hit me that we were doing this. Miles from anywere. Miles from anyone. Just the six of us for company for up to a week.

Our only escape route departing
With our boats having to be empty for the flight our first task was to pack our boats for the first time, before setting off across the lake towards the outflow which was, after a couple of miles, to lead us into the West Magpie River. Arriving into the West Magpie, a big flat section combined with the wind lead to a few minutes of confusion before we worked out which way was downstream! This flat section lasted for about five miles and took us to our first whitewater of the river – a little gorge with three rapids in. This was to be our first experience of paddling whitewater with loaded boats and I screwed up at the first attempt! Luckily the line I ended up taking went ok. Below these rapids was a nice looking beach where we decided to stop for the night – just over two hours after setting off from Lac Vital. With a fire going and our bivis pitched (and Martyn’s paddles next to his) it was time to find out whether the Wal-mart Sidekick pasta dishes were any good – not that we had any choice as these are what we all had for dinner every night! Any spare energy was spent trying to outsmart the very persistent black-fly that seemed intent on eating us all alive despite a combination of Deet and headnets and by 2130 we were all in bed.
Sunday 21st August 2011
Overnight rain cleared in time for us to get up, cook our porridge and pack away our camp but started again just as we were setting off downstream shortly after 0900 although the rain didn’t last long. During the morning we were treated to some fantastic rapids, requiring a combination of boat and bank scouting. Today everyone got to grips with paddling their loaded boats (which paddle very differently to empty ones). Following a cereal bar for elevenses, a nutritious lunch of a pepperoni, some cheese and trail mix set me up to continue for the afternoon – well, until it was tme for my mid-afternoon Clif (energy) bar.

One of the many fantastic rapids
We failed to find a nice beach to camp on so, just before 1700, ended up stopping and scrambling up the bank where we set camp in a clearing. The ground was covered with a thick, white moss. It was about six inches deep and made for a very comfortable base to sleep on. After pitching camp, we sat around the fire cooking our dinner (more Sidekicks) and checked the GPS and map to find out where we were and roughly how far we had paddled during the day – it turned out that we hadn’t paddled as far as we thought we had.

Camp 2
Monday 22nd August 2011
We had heavy rain and a thunderstorm during the night. Fortunately the rain stopped for us to get up, cook porridge for breakfast and pack up camp before starting again just as we got in our boats and set off downstream. From looking at the map last night, we expected to spend the morning paddling flat water before reaching plenty of rapids during the afternoon. As well as the rain, we were also treated to a headwind which made paddling flat water for hours hard work. However, after a lunch of more pepperoni, cheese and trail mix we were rewarded with some fantastic rapids almost all afternoon.
Martyn hoping he gets through the hole
I didn’t have that great an afternoon. On one of the earlier rapids I came down slightly further towards river left than everyone else, managed to pin nicely against a rock and ended up upside down under the rock. Not wanting to join Simon on the swim tally I was determined to stay in my boat. Luckily I was able to reach up and haul myself back upright – much to my relief! Not content with scaring myself the once, I went for a similar trick on one of the last rapids of the day. The line was something like “ride the tongue down but avoid the rock at the bottom”. Guess what? Yep, I hit the rock. Hard. And got myself into a broach pin. Looking downstream, I was positive that I didn’t want to swim. In fact, I wanted to avoid getting off the rock upside down if at all possible. After a few minutes of wriggling I managed to get the nose of my boat free, allowing me to paddle into the eddy just below. Having seen my amazing attempt at the line, for some reason everyone else decided to portage the rapid. It was still raining as we decided to make camp on another moss-covered clearing, as it had been all day. Despite this, Ray Mears would have been proud of Nick as he managed to get a fire going – for which we were all very greatful, having something to cook our dinner (yes, more Sidekicks) and huddle around to keep warm.
Tuesday 23rd August 2011

Having breakfast on day 4
The rain has finally stopped! After our now traditional porridge, we packed up and set off downstream along the flat water. After a couple of rapids, we arrived at what looked like almost any other rapid on the river. However, we had been warned about what to expect today – a gorge that is not marked on the map that requires a portage with a lead in that looks like every other rapid on the river. It didn’t take long for us to realise that we had reached the unmarked gorge and the portaging began.
Inspecting the gorge
Doug had already started to portage along the left bank whilst we inspected the gorge so he continued while the rest of us decided that portaging down the river right bank would be better. How wrong we were! Our route involved ferry-gliding across the river above the gorge, bush-whacking through so very dense trees along a steeply sloped bank before lugging our boats up and down over rocks. We got off to a bad start amongst the trees when Simon managed to disturb a wasps nest by dragging his boat over it! By the time we emerged from the trees, only 1/3 of the way along our portage, we could already see Doug at the end having already completed his portage. Reaching the rocks, Rich and I shouldered our boats (which was no mean feat considering how heavy they were) and proceeded to clamber over the rocks. Once we were happy that we had passed the rapids we wanted to portage we sought to get back onto the river. Unfortunately there was a small matter of a cliff in the between where we were standing and the river approximately 5 metres below. After lowering our boats down using our throwlines, climbing down after them and then getting back into our boats at the bottom, we paddled the next part of the rapid to join Doug. As we were portaging next part of the rapid just downstream and starting to falter due to the exertion of portaging in this heat we were quickly brought to our senses by shouts of “swimmer!”. Looking upstream we could see Simon’s boat soloing its way towards, and then past, us. We completed our portage as quickly as we could, jumped in our boats and set off after the boat and paddles. Once these were retrieved, we regrouped and saw Simon walking downstream towards us, quite obviously in considerable pain. It emerged that Simon, Nick and Martyn had re-entered the river higher up than Rich and I had. Both Nick and Martyn had successfully managed to make their desired line down the first part of the rapid after they got back in but Simon wasn’t so lucky. He had meetings with a hole, a wall and an undercut and was sucked out of his boat. Somewhere amongst all of that he took a big impact to his lower back which was causing him a lot of pain. His boat was also looking slightly worse for wear, having had the nose remodelled on a rock during its solo mission.
Simon’s remodelled boat after his swim
We took a little break before setting off downstream in search of the lake. After another hour or so (including a lunch stop) the river widened and flattened – we had reached the lake. We had completed the 45 miles of the West Magpie in approximately 24 hours of paddling and we now had 26 mile flat water paddle down the lake to look forward to. I had never even attempted a flat water paddle of a quarter of that distance so I was not looking forward to this. We paddled all afternoon until we stopped at a beach to make camp at 1800.
The lake – we had to paddle to the horizon and beyond!
We were fortunate, in some ways, in that we had a slight tail wind for the four hours we paddled down the lake. Although this is what we wanted, we seemed to expend a considerable amount of effort attempting to keep our creek boats pointing the direction we wanted to go! The evening was spent cooking our dinner (another Sidekick!) over the campfire as we were treated to a beautiful sunset. We also saw our first sign, since our pilots had flown off and left us on Saturday, of other human life as a float plane flew past us having picked up a fishing group further down the lake.
Wednesday 24th September 2011
Waking to clear blue skies and the lake as flat as a pancake we were all hopeful of a good paddle down the lake. Our start was delayed as we took advantage of the lovely weather to dry out our kit on the rocks next to the beach, but we eventually set off at 10am. We made good progress for the the first hour whilst the lake was as flat as a mill pond. Our luck then changed and our progress slowed considerably. It started off as a very gentle breeze at first, but the wind continued to pick up and we spent the rest of the day paddling into a full-on headwind. Every time we stopped paddling forward the wind blew us backwards. The next 6 hours were spent with our heads down, occasionally looking up to make sure we were still on track heading towards the hills in the haze in the distance. We would paddle to the horizon and discover there was still a considerable distance to paddle. Lunch was eaten on the go as we all just wanted to keep going and reach the outflow into the Magpie river. I cannot explain the relief that I felt when I noticed the water beneath my boat flowing towards the outflow! Despite the tiredness, we paddled about an hour down the river, taking in the first few rapids before stopping for the night. We stopped at a beach that wasn’t ideally suited for camping – it was covered in shrubs and not at all flat – we had to remove some of the shrubs in order to create a big enough gap to put our bivis in, and all of our bivis were on a slope.

Enjoying what we hoped would be our final breakfast on the river
On the plus side it did have a nice rock for us to sit on while we were enjoying our dinner -yes, another Sidekick! As we were sat around the fire the discussion turned to tomorrow. We knew that it was less that 35 miles to the get-out and knew that it had been done in one day before – the group was split into a Thursday club and a Friday club, based on when they expected us to reach the get out.

We were treated to an amazing sunset after a hard days graft on the lake
Thursday 25th August 2011
Despite the mixed expectations over whether we would finish today the whole group were up and ready early, managing to set off downstream by 0820. We were into the whitewater immediately, albeit with some easy-ish rapids to start with. It didn’t take long for the whitewater to subside and, before we knew it, we were back paddling flat water into a headwind! Simon demonstrated the dangers of portaging as he managed to pin himself as he got back into the river! Maximising our chances of completing the Magpie in one day, we even lunched on the fly as we portaged another large rapid. There were a number of fantastic rapids ranging up to grade 5, although they were interspersed with a considerable amount of flat water. At 1600 we arrived at a rapid leading into a gorge. The entry rapid looked nasty, and the rapids downstream didn’t look any better. I set off along the rocks on the left bank. After I had made it about 50 metres downstream, Martyn shouted from upstream to say that they had located a portage path on the other bank and they were all going to use that. If I wasn’t so stubborn, I would have carried my boat back to the top of the gorge, paddled across and then made use of the portage path. However, I am stubborn. Very stubborn! Instead of taking the logical option, I decided that it would be easier to paddle across the river in the pool I was next to and carry my boat up the other bank to the path. Sounded simple enough and definitely like a plan! My grand plan came crashing down when I had paddled across the pool and realised that the bank on this side was considerably steeper than I had realised. The next half an hour was spent scrambling up the cliff to a ledge, hauling my (very heavy) boat up to the ledge on a throwrope, and repeating. I then had to drag my boat through the trees and down a bank, where Martyn was standing having taken his boat along the path and then coming back to look for me! Having seen the portage path I would highly recommend its use in the future – it is considerably easier than hauling a loaded boat up a cliff! Reaching the enf of the portage path, we got back in and headed across the flat water towards the get-out. Paddling across the lake we were quite surprised to see a cloud of spray coming up from the flat water ahead of us – certainly not what we were expecting. As we got closer, we realised that this was Magpie Falls. This time I decided to follow the others along the portage path! Again, we set off across the flat water towards the get out, all feeling tired and ready for the end. By now it dusk was setting in and we were tired. We should have expected this by now, but the river had one final curve-ball to throw us. Martyn and Rich sat in an eddy above the rapid, looked down and could see an eddy part way down. Martyn went for it, made the eddy and then peeled out again. Disappearing over the lip, the next we saw of him was the nose of his boat coming back over as he was back-looped towards the centre of the hole. Luckily it washed him straight out so, one by one, we followed. A nice grade 5 rapid to end the trip! From here, we paddled around the corner and could see the pylons marking the end of the river. To end the trip, we were treated to the sight of a beaver swimming just in front of us. With the dam now completed, it was a simple walk up the track to the car where our (now warm) beers were waiting! We changed out of our stinky paddling kit, loaded up the car and set off on the 100 mile drive back to Sept Iles. To say the atmosphere in the car was jubilant would be a slight understatement! Unfortunately there aren’t many photos from the day due to the relentless pace we maintained during the day.
Back in Sept Iles, two hours later, we started the search for somewhere to stay. Somewhat surprised, the first motel we tried was fully booked and so we booked into Motel 7 – where they only had 3 double rooms available. Fortunately none of us were fazed by this – we were happy to be somewhere with modern facilities!! After collecting the car and showering, we headed off into town to find the slap-up meal and beers we were all eagerly looking forward to. However, none of us had taken the late time into account and we discovered the only place open for food in Sept at 11pm on a Thursday was Subway…. not quite what we were looking for but we weren’t going to turn it down.
Friday 26th August
Despite not having to pack up camp can get off paddling today, we were still up early. Following on the food trend last night, our slap-up breakfast consisted of another McDonalds before we heading back to the motel. The next couple of hours was spent unpacking and drying our kit out under the clear, blue sky. By late morning our kit was dry and we were packed up, ready to hit the road for the long drive back to towards the airport.
Simon’s write-up can be found at: http://thedrownedfish.co.uk/2011/09/05/quebec/.
More photos are available at:
Http://photos.andywicks.com/Quebec2011
Simon’s photos on Facebook