WHITEWATER
Kattawagami / Lawagamau River
Information for planning a canoe trip down the Kattawagami River in Northern Ontario.
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In the summer of 2014, Jacob, Tim and two others took on the Kattawagami River and found incredible rapids, adventure and a touch of the best kind of suffering—mosquitos & black flies, cold northern water, giant hail, the remains of a massive forrest fire, paddling against the tide, unforgiving rain, some terrible jokes, and plenty of new scrapes on the canoes. The river was demanding but delivered an unforgettable good time. As I've heard it said (and I have no idea if this is a common saying or not) "Kattawagami takes no prisoners."
There are no campsites and no luxuries like a thunderbox. You camp wherever you can find a spot to put your tent when the time comes. Sometimes it's amazing, and other times it's very much not. This is real Canadian wilderness and rescue helicopters have on several occasions visited this river. It's really not a good idea to go alone or with only one boat on this river, but most of all, make sure you have some sort of rescue beacon with you.
Yeah, and for whatever reason, this river has two names.
Planning information
Paddling distance: 203 km (or longer if you paddle all the way to Moosonee)
Nights: This depends on how hard you want to haul, and whether you're paddling to Moosonee or not. Generally, we'd say it's maybe an 11-night trip. We did it in 9 nights with the shuttle to Moosonee, but there were some super-long days.
Shuttle distance: 151 km to the put-in. Then a five-hour train ride from Moosonee to Cochrane on your way home. A freighter canoe shuttle can be arranged from the Harricana to Moosonee. (Though this was quite an adventure. See our blog about our boat shuttle). Brian Porter (705-272-8268) may shuttle your car(s) for you—assuming he still does this sort of thing.
Put in: Hwy 652 on the way to Detour Gold Mine. (49.90608885914633, -80.12308850384338)
Take out: Moosonee public docks
River data: As far as we know, there is no available data about water levels. We ran it in July and the water was great. We wouldn't have wanted it to be any higher.
More information:
SPLIT ROCK BLOG POST
"We're sinking!" Our story of crossing the Bay
The story of Jacob, Tim and two other paddlers taking a motor boat shuttle across James Bay at the end of a Kattawagami river trip. It didn't go as expected.
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Photos 2014
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