For about a month beforehand, Jason and I had been planning a canoe trip of the Restigouche River for the August long weekend. The trip was to be 90 km long and take us from Friday around supper until Sunday at lunch to complete.
The week before our trip, we were keeping a close eye on the weather forecast. It was not looking good. All that week it rained every day, and the outlook for the weekend was no different. In fact, it was worse: severe rainfall warnings on the horizon. But since this was the only weekend we were free, the trip was going to happen rain or shine.
We put in at Montgomery Bridge around 6 p.m. The water was clear and fast. We could see fish swimming against the current. Shortly after starting out, the rain picked up. We put on our rain gear and paddled for almost three hours before we reached our destination for the night - Hafford's Campground. There were about 20 other canoes pulled up on the shore and tied to tree roots.
Before long we had our camp set up, burgers cooked, and beers flowing. Most of our fellow campers spoke French (one side of the river is NB, the other Quebec), and we were invited by Martin (who goes by "Marvin") and his friend to join them at their "huge bonfire with 300 beers, fruits, and dogs". We thanked them for the invitation. We didn't join them, and were glad to have kept our distance when saw someone dancing around the fire in his underwear.
We were the first to depart Hafford's on Saturday morning. It was a quarter to 8 and raining. And it didn't let up all day. We had rain gear and even wore garbage bags over them. We made good time with the extra water in the river and at times reached speeds of 18 km/h. The sections of rapids were the most fun, and we didn't take in too much water.
The scenery along the river was breathtaking, despite the rain. Many towering trees on the mountainsides, some rock faces, rocky and sandy beaches, and many classic 1920s cedar and pine fishing lodges lined the river. We passed numerous fly fishermen and their guides with their 26-foot cedar canoes anchored in the river. We floated by on the opposite side, sometimes unnoticed due to the noisy rain on the water.
Finally after a long, wet day we arrived at Gilmore's Island. We were the first canoe to arrive, so we got the best site. To cool down and wash off the dirt and sweat after setting up camp we put on bathing suits and jumped in the river. I floated down a short patch of rapids wearing a lifejacket. We spent the rest of the evening drying our soaked clothes by the fire, and enjoying spider dogs, hamburgers, chips, beer, and maybe the odd cigar.
We spotted a group of three canoes coming toward us, and saw one flip in the rapids. Once the group sorted itself out, they too camped on Gilmore's. We also saw a group of 8 in three canoes float by us and set up camp on the shoreline just past our island. With all the rain that fell on Saturday and the rising water, they actually lost 2 of their canoes during the night; Jay and I saw the canoes at various points downriver on Sunday. We were glad not to be in their predicament. We had kept our canoe right beside our tent during the night.
On Sunday the river felt twice as wide, and was murky brown with all the silt washed into it by the rain. We shared the river with innumerable logs and uprooted trees. The silt made an odd scratching noise as it passed beneath the canoe. It sounded like sand coming down a pipe. At one point Jay saw something bobbing and splashing in the water several hundred meters ahead. "It's a moose!" he yelled from the front of the canoe. "I thought moose could swim better than that", I said. "Maybe it's a duck, fishing", Jay said. As we got closer, we realized it was just a log, trapped by something underwater, moving erratically in the current and making splashes. We had a good laugh about it as we went by.
We did see some real wildlife, though, namely two river otters, 5 or 6 bald eagles hovering and gliding above us, and some salmon breaking the water.
By the time we pulled our canoe out of the river at the Rafting Grounds, we were ready to go home, but the damp weather certainly did not dampen the amazing adventure we had on the Restigouche.
