Kayaking the Ottawa River

Petawawa Point To Deep River

Green =day 1, Red=day 2, Yellow=day 3

The Ottawa River offers great kayaking for both flat water and white water as well as some magnificent scenery.   The area between Petawawa and Deep River is no exception and in addition has several sites suitable for camping and day use, being maintained by some sort of recreational organization probably from the two main communities, Petawawa and Deep River and likely in conjunction with the municipality of Pontiac (QC) in which the sites are located.   The Ontario side of the river in this region is DND property with no access to the public.   I have kayak camped this area a couple of times always in the fall but a kayak buddy expressed interest in kayaking the area so we planned a three day mid-week visit at the end of June before summer holidays kick in and everything gets rather busy.

The plan being put-in at Petawawa Point and paddle up to Oiseau Point the first day, a distance of 15 kilometers where we will camp overnight; it is a fairly long drive for me so we are looking at 10:30-11:00 as a likely put-in which still allows for a leisurely paddle and time to do something on arrival late afternoon.   We have wonderful weather for the trip, mid to high 20's unlike my last visit here when we had some serious rain and wind.

Sandy cove for lunch stop

After travelling about 4 km we stop in a sheltered sandy cove to have lunch. One of the attractions of the area is the many sandy beaches to be found, so different from the river near Ottawa where shale is far more likely.  A perfect day for paddling, the sun has come out finally after Tuesday's torrential downpours which had even caused flooding in some areas around Ottawa.  Lunch over we're back on the water and passing a string of islands that are offshore from Fort William Quèbec and we have brilliant sunshine with just a few fair weather cumulus. Water levels are much higher than on my previous visits in fall when it was necessary to stay a long way from the Quèbec shore to avoid running aground. Before long we are approaching the big bend in the river where there is a small island with a navigation light very close to the Ontario shore.

Islands off Ft. William

From the light it is only another three kilometers to Oiseau Point where we will camp for the night.  This is a lovely little campsite on a sandy beach on the lee side of Oiseau Point just around the bend from Oiseau Rock which towers almost 150 meters above the river.     The site is furnished with some picnic tables as well as outhouse style toilets and secure garbage depositories.  So no excuses, pick up before you leave!   I am not going to say too much about Oiseau Rock itself as I covered this in a previous blog which you can find elsewhere on these pages.  My fellow paddler is a hiker and was keen to see the view from the top so as we have plenty of time before dinner we head up the trail having ditched our paddle shoes in favour of running shoes, the trail is quite steep in places and in one location a knotted rope is strung to aid in the climb.   Worth the effort as the view from atop is magnificent, see image below.

View from Oiseau Rock

Oiseau Point lies below, our camp being on the left or downstream side of point.  My friend chose to camp on the beach, I found a level pad just under the trees.

Next morning we continue our trip upstream towards Deep River first stopping to view and photograph the rock from the water, an impressive sight for sure.

Oiseau Rock

This to me is the nicest part of the trip, almost no cottages and we are midway between the communities of Petawawa and Deep River so not seeing any traffic so just tranquility, a chance to imagine the river as it would have been like for our indigenous people and the early settlers.  We are very fortunate to have sightings of both Red-tailed hawks and an adult Bald eagle and with the quiet I am able to identify the calls of several songbirds as we paddle along.  We make one more pit stop at yet another sandy cove eschewing lunch until our arrival at Schyan River where we plan to have our last night's camp.  Here we will be almost across from Deep River on Ontario side and within sight of Mt. Martin on the Quèbec side.

Sandy cove pit-stop

Schyan River camp

The Schyan River tumbles out on a shallow sandy delta on the north side of Schyan Point, there has been a couple of picnic tables set up as well as an outhouse so again camping is quite comfortable except for the mosquitoes .  This is likely because the river spawns vernal pools which then become stagnant and provide ideal breeding grounds.  Even mid-day in brilliant and hot sun they were ravenous.  The Schyan is shallow, rocky bottomed and the colour of Coca Cola it probably slows to a trickle later in the year.

Dusk at Schyan River camp

Schyan River estuary

The approach to Schyan River is very shallow and mostly sandy bottomed, and we had left our kayaks on the beach with sterns maybe a few feet from waters edge but by morning they were now about 20-25' from the nearest water forcing us to walk them along the beach to find a spot with enough depth to float them off when they were loaded.  We noticed a similar phenomenon at Oiseau Point although not as drastic when the net bag I had left tethered to a rock to cool my flask was found high and dry in the morning.   The conclusion being they let water out of the hydro dams down river during the night.  There is no shortage of driftwood at this site so we built a nice fire regardless of how hot the night to try to keep the bugs at bay, they won so an early night!

Next morning and the promise of yet another scorcher of a day, blue skies with a few puffy white clouds and no wind to speak of.  A leisurely breakfast before breaking camp and stowing the gear back in our boats.   We will kayak back to Petawawa in one day this time a distance of almost 30 kms with a stop for lunch, probably at the camp on Oiseau Point as it is about the half way mark and has facilities.

It is very hot and still as we paddle downstream, this time staying closer to the west shore, the opposite of our upstream paddle.  We have seen a number of common Mergansers, some with their little brood of bathtub duckies skimming along behind, we even had one of these little guys approach our camp yelling something like; help me I'm lost! We believe that one did eventually find it's siblings.   The scenery here is in such contrast to that which we have in the lower reaches of the river around Ottawa, I think majestic is perhaps the best adjective to describe it.

Looking south towards Chalk River

Oiseau Rock from the north

Today is Friday the start of a long weekend and as we get closer to Petawawa there is a marked increase in boat traffic with its accompanying noise and the solitude bubble pops. And thoughts of Voyageurs and Indians in Birch bark canoes now dissolve only to be replaced by the mundane: Should I stop at McDonald's before driving home?   The beach at Petawawa Pt. is crawling with people enjoying the sun, picnicking swimming and having fun as we come ashore to load up our boats before changing to some clean clothes then heading for home.  Happy to have had this quiet interlude to recharge our batteries!