Canoeing French River, Ontario—The Route of the Voyageurs

August-September 2005

Charles and Nancy Bagley, Seattle, Washington

The French River is in central Ontario, flowing about 100 kilometers westward through gorgeous rocky shores to end up amidst a maze of tiny islands on the north shore of Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay.  This beautiful river system is steeped in history.  As elsewhere in Canada, the route was first traversed by Indians, but from the early 1600’s onward it was the principal route of French explorers, and later, the voyageurs, who were French Canadian fur traders, in their travels between Montreal and Lake Superior.  The first white person to travel it was Etienne Brulé in 1610.  He was followed by Champlain, later by Du Luth, Nicollet, Radisson,  LaVerendrie, and others.  And until the construction of the Trans-Canada railroad in the late 1800’s, it remained the only route connecting eastern and western Canada!  Being natives of northern Minnesota, we could feel a little thrill as we passed every turn on the river and recalled that these same beautiful rocks had been seen by these French explorers almost 400 years before. 

Now this stretch of shoreline from Lake Nipissing to Lake Huron, including the islands at its mouth, is almost entirely incorporated into French River Provincial Park.  However, this is not a wilderness river.  After centuries of use as a waterway, there are many private in-holdings with cabins scattered along the distance, and a few very small towns on its shore.  Almost all of the river system is accessible by powerboats, which we saw regularly, usually fishermen.  Camping is restricted to marked campsites, most of which have a small sign visible from the water, and are marked on the map.  However, we found several campsites along the river shore which were not on the map.

            The river system is not really a flowing river, but rather a series of three, very long, thin lakes that stretch in the east-west direction with a few sections of rapids in between.  We started our trip in the latter part of August during a very low water year.  We consequently found that some of the rapids were too low to run,  Others were quite easily run, but earlier in the year, or with normal water, might be much more difficult than we found them.  All rapids were very short.  We scouted every rapid before running it. (There is a second channel of French River, known as the “North Channel,” which parallels the main channel for about 25 km but is not within the park.)  At the end of the third lake, the river flow divides among three major channels, which then further subdivide among myriad islands before reaching Georgian Bay. Predominant winds are from the west or southwest, exactly opposite to the direction of our route.            Especially in the latter part of the trip, west of Recollet Falls, we found numerous cabins, often on very small islands.  For example, Eagle Nest Island appears to have 50% or more of its surface covered by cabins and boathouses.  How do these cabins handle sewage?  We saw some information to suggest that some cabins might have holding tanks that are pumped out by commercial boats, but this is not necessarily the case for all of them.  Consequently, unlike on most of our trips in Canada, we decided to use iodine pills for all drinking water.  

            August 30, we left our van at the Hartley Bay House (a fishing resort), which is located on the third French River lake.  Our shuttle driver then drove us eastward to the  Wolseley Bay extension of the first French River lake.   This long and irregular lake comprises about 30% of the “French River” distance and is the first river stretch downstream from Lake Nipissing; between this lake and Nipissing there is a dam.  In about an hour-and-a-half of paddling we reached the first whitewater, Little Pine Rapids, which was almost entirely dry except for a narrow slot on the east side, too narrow for our canoe.  We portaged.  Next we ran  Big Pine Rapids,  class I  with a lot of scraping.  Next, Double Rapids, which is just a turbulent riffle, then the Blue Chute Rapid, which was a high Class I with lots of turbulence.  Then, we went by the site of “Big Parisian Rapids” where we really couldn’t identify any rapid at all.  Then we ran Devil Chute, which is the river-left choice to go past a group of small islands.  This was a little more interesting, a hundred-meter-long narrows, maybe 10 meters wide,  at the end of which there is a moderate drop with a vertical knife blade of rock right in the middle of the current at the end of the rapids.  At this water flow it was maybe Class 2 minus.             

            That was the end of the runnable rapids.  We now found ourselves in the second lake, 30 kilometers long with no detectable current.  The day had been hot, temps in the high 80’s, and we were overcome by somnolence.  We picked the first good campsite available for an early afternoon stop and nap on this beautiful shore of glacier-smoothed rocks.  Two beavers swam through the bay below us at sunset. 

            August 31 was our long flat-water day.  There was a moderate wind from the north from which we were protected by the high shores of the lake.  We paddled relentlessly westward, passing the small town of French River, just a collection of resorts and summer homes, and underneath Trans-Canada Hwy 69 to reach Recollet Falls, a drop of 2 meters. The Falls looked to be about Class 4 even at this low water level.  At higher levels it might be Class 3 and runnable, but in any case we portaged on river left.  Being accustomed  to Canadian portages farther north, usually consisting of bare or broken rock, narrow paths in the woods, downed trees, and pits of mud, we were surprised to find here a constructed boardwalk leading around the Falls!  Lots of poison ivy!  We camped a few kilometers beyond, now on the third lake, having gone 30 kilometers. 

            The next day, September 1, brought a strong wind from the west, the worst possible direction.  A bold fox with a beautiful coat repeatedly strolled through our campsite as we packed up, looking for handouts?  No luck with us!  We slogged on westward in this irregular lake and through its central section where there were a large number of cabins on the in-holdings.  We fought the west wind the whole way and finally gave up the struggle and camped at a rather battered site on the northwest end of King’s Island, having made only 20 km. 

            September 2, rain for an hour, the only rain of the trip.  Our route led to the southwest, and the wind came from the southwest, as expected.  We struggled onwards several kilometers to the point where this part of French River breaks up into five or six different sub-channels.  We picked the channel leading to Liley Chutes.  After a narrow kilometer, the water makes its last drop, just a  meter here, but with severe turbulence and a large, central souse hole.  We didn’t feel like taking a chance on dumping the canoe, so we made the short portage. 

            We were now in a most delightful area of glacially smoothed schist rocks forming innumerable islands with domes and points, an absolutely fabulous place.  We paddled a bit further and found a superb campsite where we stayed two nights.  In fact, it was not stretch to say that it was the most beautiful campsite we had ever found in Canada—what a place!

            September 3, a layover day, but we made a circuit route clockwise out to the open waters of Georgian Bay, back in through Fort Channel, past the terminus of the “Old Voyageur Channel” and back to our campsite, with one portage.  The Old Voyageur Channel, west of Liley Chutes, was the route favored by the voyageurs in their travels east and west.  We had decided not to take it with our loaded canoe the day before because it looked on the map to be exceedingly narrow, and we thought it was going to be dry.  Wrong!  Starting up from the south end of the channel, the walls closed in tighter and tighter until they were as close as six feet apart, yet it kept going, twisting back and forth until it finally widened again.  It was a beautiful route.  Occasionally there were large piles of stones on the shore at wider points, possibly having been lifted there by the voyageurs 300 years ago to deepen the channel.  It was a magic place.  And imagine the impression made on a first-time voyageur heading westward to be passing through this very narrow channel, their huge canoes probably scraping on each side at times, and yet within an hour being out on the waters of Lake Huron, one of the world’s biggest lakes!

            September 4, we were due to meet my brother in his sailboat.  He had just retired from his several decades of practice in surgery in Vermont, and he and his wife were finally getting to enjoy their longtime dream, a summer of sailing on Lake Huron.  His 38-foot boat, the Catamount, was anchored right around the corner where he said he would be.  We had a great day with them and their incredibly obedient dog Macs, exploring other narrow channels and islands in the vicinity, then a wonderful dinner of “boat-made” lasagne and gingerbread, and a pleasant night sleeping on their gently rocking sailboat. 

            September 5, time for my brother and his wife to head back to their over-winter moorage at the south end of Lake Huron.  We set off in our canoe with them motoring behind us out to the open waters of the Bay, and we waved good-bye.  They subsequently sailed back to the south end of the Lake without too much trouble from headwinds, the end of a wonderful and relaxing summer. 

            Meanwhile, we turned east in the open lake across the only stretch where we could be  exposed to serious wind and waves.  As anticipated on this early morning, however, the winds were modest and we reached the central exit of the French River without difficulty, camping on one of the few marked sites in the vicinity, but unfortunately one that lay alongside the principal small boat channel through the area.  The consequence was that we had powerboats passing about every 20 minutes.  A mink hunted frogs at the waters edge in front of our tent.

            September 6, we took another layover day circling through the beautiful islands in the vicinity.  Rounding one point, we saw a fuzzy head in the water...a mother bear, shortly followed by two cubs, was nearing the end of a 1 kilometer swim across the channel!  We came up pretty close alongside the cubs.  Mother bear, already on shore just 10 meters away, sized up the situation and decided to run for the woods.  The cubs, bawling with anxiety, scrambled up the slippery rocks and were gone after mama.

            September 7, time to head back home.  Our route lay far to the northeast.  We came to the last portage of the trip, another long boardwalk, and reached our prospective campsite for the night by about 10:00 a.m., but it was fairly grubby looking.  Mindful of the gradually worsening mosquito population that had plagued us every evening, we decided that the increasing southwest wind was telling us that it was time to leave French River.  With the strong wind at our backs we continued northeast  to Hartley Bay and our van. 

Practicalities:  The best map of the area is “French River” 1/50,000, which shows the lakes, landmarks, roads and landownership as well as buildings.  The map I received was dated 1999 and did not show all of the current campsites.  The map cost about $5 and can be obtained by calling the near by Killarney Provincial Park, 705-287-2900.  ( The French River Park apparently is much more lightly staffed.  I made over a dozen phone calls attempting to reach the Park Superintendent, Mr. Ed Cheverette to try to find out more about campsites, but could never reach him.)

 Hartley Bay House (705-857-2038) arranged our truck shuttle, carrying all of our gear and canoe in the driver’s vehicle, to Wolseley Bay for $120.  [all prices Canadian dollars]  We left our van there for $6 per day.  It took about one hour of driving time to shuttle from Hartley Bay to Wolseley Bay.  The House rents cabins but with a minimum of three nights stay.  It is located on a very good gravel road about 15 minutes east of Trans-Canada Hwy 69. 

There are surprisingly few motels in this area.  The place we liked best was Countryside Motor Inn (705-898-2053), $50 per night, which is on the Wolseley Bay Rd just off Hwy 64 (which is east off of 69), and is located just a few km south of Noelville.  The Inn also serves dinner, which was quite good.  Noelville, just north of the Park, is a real town with a supermarket, hardware store, laundromat (requires Canadian quarters, $2/load), and restaurant.  There is also the French River Trading Post motel (705-857-2115), which is located on the Trans-Canada 69, just south of the Hartley Bay Rd, $63 a night.  No laundromat available. 

            Currently there is no reservation or quota system for canoeing and camping in the Park.  Non-residents of Ontario, whether camping in the Park or anywhere else on public land in Ontario, are required to purchase a Crown Lands Camping Permit, $7.50 per person per night.  We were able to purchase this at the Hartley Bay House, and charge it to VISA.  However, elsewhere in Ontario we have had to pay cash for these permits. 

            Guidebooks:  A good book on French River, and many other river routes in Ontario is A Paddler’s Guide to Ontario, Keith Callen, Boston Mills Press, Erin Ontario, 2003.  A very good guidebook for those who want to just paddle the incredibly beautiful shores of Georgian Bay is Kayaking Georgian Bay, Jonathan Reynolds and Heather Smith, Boston Mills Press, 1999. 

            The nearest major city is Sudbury, about a half-hour drive to the north.  It is principally known for its huge nickel and other mineral deposits, the result of a meteorite impact many millions of years ago.  It has extensive accommodations, although pricey, an airport, car rental, and a very attractive public park along the shore of Ramsey Lake.