C-Forum

Hey everyone,
Figured since we have a good number of Canadian folks, I'd ask on here . . .

Does anyone know of any english guidebooks for Quebec rivers?

Or are there any Quebec paddlers who could drop me an email? I have some river questions.

thanks
Alden
abird@middlebury.edu

Hi Alden,

I can't give you all that you need but I hope this helps some. I've been up to Quebec over Memorial Day a few times, we usually run the Donnaconna and Tewkesbury sections of the Jacque Cartier, and the Tourilli if it's up. There are a huge number of other rivers up there, Montmarancy, St. Anne, Sautorooski (sp?), Bailey to name only a few.

The only Quebec whitewater river guide I know of is long out of print and was available only in French. I would be very surprised if there is ever an English version of any new guidbook.

There are some online resources that you can use. This site http://www.canot-kayak.qc.ca/ can give you river levels. Click on "produits et services" and then "info-debit". Note that the levels are in cubic meters/sec, so you need to multiply by 35.3147 to get the reading in CFS.

You can get French descriptions and photos of rivers here http://www.chez.com/rivieresqc/ I have used Babelfish and Google translate for some of the sections. Unfortunately, automatic translations of boater talk give some really surreal results. I have a few .doc files of these translations I can send you if interested, here is one short example on the Donnaconna section of the J-C:

"On this level, the waves and rollers are much more imposing and how much pleasant to surfer. Only the limit is always our containing hydrocarbon (our toast with the butter of marrowy extra peanut with jam and banana. What to eat of other?) because one would play all the day there. Attention still here with the grater. Made not the same error that I already made there. Not to aim not purposely, the roller of the grater right to see what that made pass in full inside (some turns and some gimlets with a back double salto). To pass on the left. The remainder of the section is the same one except that all but nothing very dangerous is larger. TAKE OUT out of " C " is very recommended bus of many rollers is formed between the station of pumping (in " " B) and the point " C ".

Another site that might be able to provide you w/ answers (although this is more of a tripping site... still may help..) http://myccr.com (Canadian Canoe Routes)..

Thank you very much guys. I really appreciate the info. Quebec looks like quite the playground. I am very eager to go paddling there. I wish I spoke French though. We are actually going up tomorrow to Quebec for the first time tomorrow to explore and go boating.
thanks again
Alden

Hi I'm a French Canadian and I have a few guide books for the Rivers up here in Quebec. Don Williams gave you two of the best websites that we use. One other site we like is http://www.cartespleinair.org/ the link ''canot cartes'' has many topo maps of Quebec rivers and a few others in Canada and the US. E-mail me and I could give you a few more sites.

If you need any information about any rivers feel free to e-mail me I would more than happy to translate the information either on a web site or in my guide books.

I can also let you know about the WW festival coming up.

Cheers
Pascal

canayen@hotmail.com

Martin Duncan,

I have sent you an e-mail but I think your service provider is down, because I received the e-mail back twice. Just wanted to let you know that I hadn't forgotten to answer your questions on Qc rivers.