So there we were ... in the middle of creeking paradise QUEBEC, with a long list of amazing rivers to do and park n’ hucks everywhere. And yet we had to make a very hard decision. With only a few days left on our trip, were we going to give up “the for sure thing” a bunch of classic rivers we knew were at sweet levels, for the unknown of an exploratory trip, a possible skunk . Our decision was made much easier with the help and knowledge of “The Man”. When in the Chicoutimi area Patrick Levesque is the Man. Owner and operator of the local boating shop “Centre Torrent” and probably the only dedicated class 5 paddler in town, Patrick has spent many hours pouring over google earth maps searching out possible rivers to be run. After a quick glance at his Google Earth stash I knew what needed to be done .... into the unknown! With a list of possible rivers to explore, we packed up and headed into the large ZEC Chauvin (Managed Forrest Area) north of the Saguenay River. We had the timing (Start of June) perfect for this type of exploration, most of the snow had cleared from the road ways (unfortunately the forest was still balls deep) and the bugs had yet to fly. Black flies in this area can kill a lesser man. All said and done we paddled 4 (potentially - using local beta) First Descents in 3 days, including the riviere Olaf, Sainte-Marguerite Nord Est, Ulric, Pilote. There are still sooooo many rivers to explore over there, so if your into exploring beautiful rivers in a rugged rough place ... Quebec is waiting. Unfortunately we didn’t get as many sweet shots as usual. Something about being on a remote river you know little about, especially if you will make it off the river before dark, hinders your creative urges. But on the upside boost your survival mode. Check out the pics we managed to get from these rivers. There is also a write up on each river at the bottom. If you are looking for more info on these runs please feel free to contact me: tyler_fox@hotmail.com Tyler Fox Photos: Tyler Fox, Josh Neilson, Louise Urwin, Patrick Levesque mailto:tyler_fox@hotmail.comshapeimage_1_link_0
 
Typical sights ... Rocks and Trees. Defines Rugged !
The crew pouring over  maps, definitely not lost.
Taxiing for take off. Top of the Riviere Pilote
Tyler on the Top drop of Mile High gorge, Pilote
Pat claiming a sweet find, Pilote
Josh in a very amazing place, Pilote
The Boys enjoying more whitewater on the Pilote
Last drop before Mile High Falls, don’t miss the eddy.
Standing on the Edge, Mile High Falls, Pilote
Pondering what it would be like to join the Mile High Club
Its a long way down.
Bam ! Mile High Falls on the Riviere Pilote
A sweet view from the bottom.
Josh Balls deep on the protage around the big guy.
Riviere Pilote Gauge. Water level visual at the takeout bridge, river right.
Next stop ... Olaf
Josh in a small one early on, Riviere Olaf
Scouting the sweet first slide unfortunately into death, Olaf
First big drop, Beaver Damn Falls, Sainte-Marguerite NE
A bigg’in on the Sainte-Marguerite
The last Mega slide / portage, Sainte-Marguerite
We’ll be back, till then .. Peace
a visual of take out bridge Sainte-Marguerite NE
Yeah car camping ...
at sunset.
Scouting a section of the last rapids, Riviere Ulric
a Kiwi frolics in the snow.
Sweet camp site at take to Ulric
Foods up!
Visual on water level at put-in to Riviere Ulric
Putting in at Lac Ulric
Lou loving the continuous 3-4 ...
but fired up on this classic double drop, Ulric
Lou claiming a First D for the Ladies !!
Josh stoked to find a jem, Ulric
Big ass rapid, landing on rocks!
another big ass drop landing on rocks!!
even this drop landed on rocks!!!
A sweet wave down town Chicutimi
 
To get to the general area of all these rivers head east from Chicoutimi on hwy 172. You will be heading north in the ZEC Chauvin on the Ch. forestiere Boisaco. (if you don’t have a Forestry Roads map for Nord du Saguenay you are pretty much doomed to get really lost ... go buy one.) This road is also marked by a blue ski-doo marked with a 7. It may be the only sign you see for ages, could be your best friend. Once in the Zec, the road conditions are pretty good on the main roads, follow the signs, trust in map and compass. Riviere Pilote Take-out: Following the main road you cross the Riviere Sainte-Marguerite Nord-Est. Take the first rd / track on the right, a minute down the road you will come to a bridge over the Riviere Pilote. this is your take out and gauge. There is a picture above showing what the level was when we were there. I would say it could go a bunch higher (make sure you have an eddy to get out before the big guy) and it could go with a bit less water. Put-in: Back out on the main rd keep driving up stream. The put-in is a little vague as we just kind of guessed as to where to get in, (it worked out nicely). We put-in when the river seemed to be closest to the road on a small beaver lake which was very close to the road (5 min bush bash down a slope to the water) there was also a bit of a gravel pull over to park in. We paddled across the pond into the river. Sorry if you get lost! ha ha this is pretty suspect instructions. The River: After some flat moving water it picked up with a quality 500 m’s of easily boat scoutable 3-3+, might get tougher with more water. After this is was cruizy for a while until you get to a horizon line. This is the entrance to the mini gorge that ends with a 150 ish fall. The first drop is a dope 15 fall, followed by a couple slide style rapids. The final low angle slide rapid ends in a descent sized eddy / slow moving current, make sure to get out here (river left is easiest portage). Enjoy the View! walk around on left. The bottom section is just boogie boating. Riviere Olaf Put-in: From main ZEC road turn left after crossing the Riviere Ulric. Follow signs to Lac Olaf, go past this to Cascade Olaf and put in there. The 4X4 option would be to keep driving up the road till you get to a washed out bridge over the river Olaf. This avoids a 3-4 km flat water paddle. The River: From the Cascade paddle 3-4 kms across lakes to the mouth of the river. There is a couple easy rapids down to a monster horizon line. The top is a big slide that goes, however the pool below flows pretty quickly into a “death” gorge and getting out on the left would be very hard. Best option is to portage on the left. It took us a very hard 1.5 hours. Half way through the portage you have to cross a land slide / slip which is a little scary, as it is slick smooth wet rock. I suggest staying high here. A little further down you will need to start heading back down towards river level and make scouting trips to the edge of the canyon rim to find the place to put in. We put in about 75 feet from the base of the last un-runnable waterfall of the gorge. There was a relatively easy (as in not verticle) slope down to the water level. The last 200m of the gorge, we scouted from the gorge rim before getting in. Everything goes! Looked fairly straight forward but you couldn’t judge the gradient from so high up. It ended up being very pushy with lots of large size holes to boof over and some big reactionaries to cross. It was a consistent steep gradient (the best boating of the day – personally). Once out of the gorge the drops keep coming but the rivers characteristic turns more to granite slides with cl-2 boogie water in between. A fast ramp style rapid was one of the best of the day. This continues to the confluence with the Sainte-Marguerite Nord Est. Sainte-Marguerite Nord Est (second half of the top section) From the confluence with the Olaf there is lots of flat moving water with a couple smaller drops. The first major drop (Beaver Damn Falls) is good to go, with multiple lines down the left and right. We ran the right line: Head towards the “Beaver Damn” Island get up on the big buffer wave and then slide down the left side of the chute and off the end. There were a few smaller drops and flat water in between the last two monster drops. Portaging was much easier on this river. We portaged on river left for both drops. These drops may become runnable with less water. Take-out: at the bridge over the Sainte-Marguerite Nord Est where it meets the Bras Pilote. The water at the bridge was just touching the bottom of the center wood embuttment wall in the river right channel. a picture of the level can be seen above. It was a High but good flow for both the Olaf and Sainte-Marg NE and could be done lower and higher (Higher would make the bottom gorge of the Olaf very pushy. – Lower would make some of the slide sections slower, but might open up possibilities on the 2 un-run drops of the Sainte-Marg NE). In total it took us 6 hours to do the run, including 3 portages. I would recommend this as a class 4-5 run. If your not comfortable on Cl-5 you may end up walking a bit more, as the gradient keeps coming. Ulric Creek Put-in: From the main ZEC road turn left after crossing Riviere Ulric. About 10 km up you will turn left following signs to Lac Ulric. Put in at the culvert from Lac Ulric and the mouth of the creek. Take-out: At the look out river right where the Riviere Ulric crosses the Main ZEC road. This is a sweet camping / cooking spot. The River: At first it feels very bump and grindy with a couple smaller drops. Then you hit the first big horizon line. This drop looked rather manky so we portaged on river left. It might be runnable with more or less water. You will be stoked to know after this drop, everything below goes and is clean (wood situations may change – but we sough very little wood anywhere – except the first 10m’s of the run) Pretty much everything on the river apart from a couple bigger ones were boat scout-able with good eddy use. The river was pretty much continuous whitewater fun the entire way down, so I will only mention the parts that stuck out, there is much, much more between these that I couldn’t keep track of it all. Just know it all goes. Next you will get to a series of drops in a walled in canyon. 5 or so drops in total. They are ledge / slidy in nature and very clean. Another mini gorge will get you wondering if the river is dropping out but the gradient stays even and manageable. The crowning gem on the run is a 4’ boof into a perfect sloping 20’er. Followed up by another twisting 8’ drop. Below this is a couple more technical rapids. At one point the river gets very narrow, with sheer walls on both sides, which is a bit intimidating, but it is mostly flat… don’t panic. The most dangerous rapid is close to the end. An 8 foot boof on a tight river right slot. Boofing left almost up on to the smooth rock wall on the left is the best option as the entire right hand side flows into an undercut on river right. The rapids keep coming all the way down to the last mega horizon line. The 4-5 tiered drop just upstream from the bridge / take-out. From here we walked on river right to the look out platform and our waiting car. It took us 4.5 hours to do the run. It could be done with quite a bit more water and a little bit lower. There was approx a foot of water going through the culverts at the put-in. Basically if it looks like you can float down stream its good, and if it looks like its ripping through the top section … hold on to your hats it could be a wicked day or really fast and scary. There is a good chance the section from the bridge down to the Saint-Marg NE will have more good white water. This Creek is an instant classic in my mind, it was pretty much 4.5 hours of non-stop fun whitewater. I would recommend it as a 3+ - 4 run with enough good whitewater to keep any class 5 boater happy. A must do!