{"id":1,"date":"2016-06-09T13:32:22","date_gmt":"2016-06-09T17:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.forwhomtheriverrolls.ca\/?p=1"},"modified":"2016-06-27T23:10:30","modified_gmt":"2016-06-28T03:10:30","slug":"french-river-canoe-trip-report-may-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.forwhomtheriverrolls.ca\/index.php\/2016\/06\/09\/french-river-canoe-trip-report-may-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"French River Canoe Trip Report, May 20-23, 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

French River Canoe Trip Report May 20-23, 2016<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Mercer Lake – Hall River – French River Main Channel – Hwy 69<\/strong><\/p>\n

Total Distance 70 km<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"French<\/a>

French River Route 2016<\/p><\/div>\n

Participants*: God of Fire,\u00a0Hemingway, Johann, Mad General, Garry, Master of Blades<\/strong><\/p>\n

*The pictures and monikers below may even bear a resemblance to people you know – your eyes deceive you. These are not the people you know.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We’d like to thank and recommend the BeauseJour Resort Restaurant and Inn<\/a>\u00a0for being an excellent place to stay the night before embarking on a *rigorous* French River canoe and camping trip. Also, our outfitter Claude at the French River Supply Post<\/a> took good care of us – they are very conveniently located on the water at our take out, and short 45 min ride from our put in.<\/p>\n

Day 1: Mercer Lake to Free Flowing Channel – 13 km<\/strong><\/p>\n

After a 40 minute shuttle from the outfitters up highway 69, across highway 64 through Monetville and\u00a0down the Dokis Reserve Road, we put in at a public access point at western edge of Mercer Lake. \u00a0Claude, our driver and owner of the outfitting store, told us this was public land often used by locals as a\u00a0free camping site for trailers with no oversight, so \u201cif we heard banjos, start running.\u201d Taking Claude\u2019s\u00a0advice we loaded our boats quickly and set out under a perfect 20 degree blue sky.<\/p>\n

Mercer Lake is framed by beautiful rock outcroppings of the Canadian Shield. The land lends itself to\u00a0multiple camping sites, with almost every small peninsula offering exposed rock for fire pits and moss\u00a0flats and pine needle beds for shade and tents. After about 5 km the Lake begins to narrow and the\u00a0current picks up signalling the transition into Hall River. We followed the lake to its conclusion, which\u00a0was a small ribbon of white water wedged between the knuckles of the Shield. Our water was high, so 2\u00a0boats chose to line the short rapid (30 meters, maybe), while on river left before entering the chute a\u00a0series of rollers have been established for those who wish to lift \/ carry \/ roll their boats into the small\u00a0inlet river left. In higher water this may be a fun little set with a bit of a drop at the end. In low water it\u00a0would be a bump and grind scrape job on the boats.<\/p>\n

This marked the start of Hall River which was an easy enough paddle down to our destination. The river\u00a0was moving well and widens slowly over 3 km. It is important to stay river left once the Hall opens up in\u00a0order to avoid a small, but nonetheless inconvenient dead end bay that invites you in on river right.<\/p>\n

Past this point a small hydroelectric dam marks the first drop down point to the section of the river that\u00a0leads through the Dokis Reserve and on to the Five Finger Rapids. Do not take this route. Not only is it a\u00a0portage, but this exit will land you on the wrong side of the island that has created this geography and\u00a0you will be forced to paddle at least 10 km out of your way through the westward pushing river before\u00a0doubling back to the Dokis channel. Just beyond the dam the entrance to the Free Flowing Channel is\u00a0marked by a magnificent campsite of bleached Canadian Shield ascending in smooth terraces river right\u00a0just at the entrance to the drop down channel. There are multiple options for fire pits (we chose the\u00a0exposed peninsula near the water\u2019s edge due to low wind and brilliant weather), but other areas on this\u00a0large site offer differing degrees of shade, elevation, etc. There are equally many excellent tenting spots.<\/p>\n

\"image2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We unpacked, made camp, took a short rest before putting on our wetsuits to prepare for some practice\u00a0sessions on the small set of white water 200\u00a0meters south of our campsite. The drop down channel\u00a0opens up slightly before narrowing against a sheer rock wall river right. On river left visible signs of an\u00a0unofficial portage trail can be seen. We parked our canoes there to scout.<\/p>\n

\"Free<\/a>

Free Flowing Channel – Camp Site<\/p><\/div>\n

This set in high water is fairly straightforward. The main tongue drives centre left into a series of large\u00a0standing waves. Centre right leads into a series of strong curling waves that can either flip you or drive\u00a0you into the rock wall.<\/p>\n

\"French<\/a>\"French<\/a><\/p>\n

Mad General\u00a0and Garry learned this the hard way on their second run and T-boned the\u00a0wall before dumping.<\/h4>\n