Trip Report: Paddling from North Bay to Mattawa in a Day
Steve and Eila's first Mattawa River Canoe Race
Sometime in early 2022, after building our cedar strip canoe, Steve and I were scoping out a few different spots to bring our friends for a canoe trip. We bought a few maps from a company called Chrismar Mapping Services that make excellent waterproof and highly informative paddling maps under the tagline “The Adventure Map”.
One of the maps was of the Mattawa River, and a little blurb on the map stood out.
The section on the map described the Mattawa River Canoe Race, a 64 kilometer paddling marathon from North Bay to Mattawa.
I was instantly intrigued by the thought of participating in this race. First of all, the area is rich both in natural and human history. With rocky cliffs, narrow river passages, and wide lakes dotted with rocky islands, paddling through the area was guaranteed to be worth it for the views alone. From a human history perspective, the route up the Ottawa river and along the Mattawa into Nipissing Lake and beyond was one of the main highways into Canada for early European explorers and voyageurs, and the millennia of First Nations people before them.
It also seemed like a great excuse to use our freshly made cedar strip canoe, and meet other paddling enthusiasts.
Our plans to participate in the race got delayed when the canoe was broken, however this year in March we remembered our dream of entering this race, and upon looking it up realized that we would have enough time to fix our canoe in time for this year’s June 8th race day.
We were working on the canoe up until the last minute, but we made it. On Saturday we were teed up at the start line, the varnish on our canoe still not fully dried. Here’s how our big day went.
Map of the route
The race starts at Olmstead Beach in North Bay, and goes through a series of lakes and riverways that comprise the Mattawa river. The total distance is 64 kilometers, and there are a total of 12 portages along the route, 2.74 kilometers of portage.
Our canoe is 16ft and 1inch long, which put us the “Mixed Rec A” category of boat. The start time for our class was 7:45am, and we had to arrive an hour before the start in order to check-in and sign waivers.
Friday night we drove up and camped at Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park, about a 40 minute drive from the start line. In order to get there on time we were up bright and early at 5:30 am. Much earlier than our usual wake-up time. It was the start of our big day out.
The Start
The day dawned grey with a bit of drizzle, and a fairly strong West to East wind. We were quickly impressed with the many different types of canoe and kayak that we saw at the starting area. There were even people competing on stand up paddle boards!
In our race package we received two t-shirts, a map of the river, and a sticker with our race number, 405, to stick on our canoe. For the day we packed water, granola bars and wraps for lunch, and rain gear. We also had our paddles, life jackets, a bailer, and a throw bag with buoyant rope for safety.
After the first group went out at 7:30am, we put our boat in the water and lined up at the buoys that marked the starting line. At this point we got to chat with a few of our competitors, everyone was really nice and we received a few compliments on our boat.
With a blast of the horn, we were off! We paddled as hard as we could out of the gate, but the field slowly pulled ahead. With us bringing up the rear, we realized that this was going to be quite a long day, and settled into our slow but sustainable paddling pace.
The Middle
The race starts out with about a 20km stretch of paddling across Trout Lake, down the river, and through Turtle Lake to the first portage. During this time, we were passed time and again by the 8:00, then the 8:15 start groups. It was a little concerning. All we could say was thank goodness we had a tailwind.
Next was Pine Lake and the second portage and first race checkpoint. Then another 11km paddle with a tailwind through Talon Lake to checkpoint 2, which we passed at about 1:40pm. We were feeling pretty good about this, as the cut-off time at checkpoint 2 was 3pm.
From checkpoint 2 was a series of back-to-back rapids. In another canoe, I think we would have taken a crack at running the rapids, however we were not willing to risk breaking the canoe again. Steve heroically bore the brunt of the portages, lugging the 65lb canoe down the trail while I carried our backpack and paddles.
It was around this point that we finally overtook another group in the race. It was a pair of teenage boys, and they were struggling with carrying their canoe quickly over the portages, although it seemed they were faster paddlers than us.
After making it through the 5 portages, we finally got to skip portage number 9, which was a tiny swift we felt comfortable running in the canoe.
Portage number 11 was the final checkpoint, which had a cut-off of 6:00pm. We got in just after 4, and met there with Tim and Anne, who were graciously helping us out as our pit crew! They gave us fresh water, a spritz of bug spray, and much appreciated words of encouragement as we headed out on the final stretch of the race.
The Finish
There was a 10.4km stretch from the last checkpoint to the last portage. As we were paddling, it became clear that all the extra water we chugged at the checkpoint was rapidly making its way through our systems. However, there was also a problem - the red canoe with the two teenage boys had appeared again behind us and was rapidly closing the gap. We had to paddle hard to get to the portage with enough time to spare for a bio-break before they arrived, hot on our heels. The pouring rain during this section of the day didn’t help matters either, but we made it!
We exchanged words of encouragement with the boys once they caught up to us at the start of the portage, then promptly left them in our dust and got back into the water to complete the last 3km to the finish line.
It was a great relief to finally make it to the end! The race volunteers even helped us lift our boat out of the water, which was fantastic because at this point we could barely lift our arms. It was just after 6:00pm - 10 hours and 22 minutes from our start time.
After the Race
There was a dinner and an award ceremony held in Mattawa at 6:30pm. The food was delicious, a turkey roast with all the fixings. We got to chat with a guy named Rob and his wife Hilary. Rob set a course record for men’s C1 kayak - he finished in 6 hours and 28 minutes!
We were joking about needing a participation award for our big day out, but it turned out there were only 3 teams in our category. So we got some sweet little woodcut medallions as a keepsake from the event.
After the banquet, we took a hot shower at Tim and Anne’s hotel room, which felt heavenly on the sore muscles! Then we went back to the campsite and passed out.
The next day we took some time to visit the Mattawa Museum, and snapped a pic with the Big Joe Mufferaw statue. He is an icon in the Ottawa River Valley, and stands tall in the area’s collective imagination. There are many wooden statues throughout Mattawa, but this one is definitely the biggest! It is well worth the visit if you are ever passing through the area.
Now that we’re back home, I think it’ll be a few days of recovery before my arms feel normal again. The race was a gruelling experience, and we were certainly humbled and inspired by seeing the speed with which others paddled. Regardless, we had a great time out on the water, and loved getting a chance to meet some other paddling enthusiasts. Overall, it was a weekend well spent and we would do it again!
Wow, great job!