In 2020, a hot new video (that you can watch here!) hit the internet, it was an awesome group of québécois kayakistes running the Tortue for the first time. The video hit hard, getting noticed by kayakers all around for it's good quality and production values, not to mention intelligently chosen rapid names. After having done this run, it's pretty incredible the work they put into this video, thanks to them!
I was on a trip in West Virginia with some québécois friends in May when one of them mentioned being invited on a Tortue trip that they couldn't make, and I might get the replacement invite. I'm in the fortunate situation of being invited on expeditions as a replacement from time to time, which is great and very lucky! Sure enough, mid-late May rolled around and the invite came in! I said yes, and managed to juggle it between a ton of administration related to my move at about the same time from Petawawa to Borden, Ontario.
In mid-late-June (during my move) I headed to Québec to join my buddies Étienne, Romain and Simon after my customary supper at La maison Marocaine. We headed up in the Caravan to Sept-îles and the next day boarded the hydravion bound for lac Tortue. The flight was awesome, it was my first time in a float plane, and the pilot did some pretty sweet banking around the lake before taking us down. He managed to back the plane right up to the rocks, we probably could have got off the plane without even touching water!
As the plane took off, the reality would set in that we were in a cold, windy, remote area as we were staring at a nice big bank of snow beside us. We found some shelter, made a nice fire and set things up, using the snow as a fridge for our beer we brought for the night. Étienne caught a delicious trout which made for a nice appetizer. It did get cold that night! This brings up an important point though, cold vs bugs. Take the cold. We were on the river as the bugs came out, and the last day they made horrendous, even though we were prepared with nets and such. I highly suggest if you can, timing this run pre-bugs or later in the season when they die down a bit if you can!
When it comes to levels, you never really know with the Tortue. It can be flashy-ish, there is no gauge, but the nearby Magpie and Moisie both have gauges. I'd say the level in the video is pretty ideal looking, we had a bit more, but it was manageable as well, though it might have spiced things up a bit. We would have all rated the run class IV-V instead of IV+, I portaged a couple more things than the rest of the group, which was mostly fine, I would caution though, not to go in there expecting to portage things regularly, you're best ready to run the river if you go! The river has some snowmelt early on, and is rain based after that, I'd say it is not a bad idea to have a backup in case there's no water.
We did the run in 4 days, minus being dropped at the lake the evening prior. If you were dropped in the morning, you could do it in 4 days at a normal pace, 5 relaxed (or filming heavily maybe), 6 would be super chill. We did not choose the best campsites, we camped at the lake, just at the start of splinter canyon (the crux, and I was not a fan of waking up to the crux!), and then down in the 40 km of flat between the middle and lower. I highly suggest camping at the exit of lac Elinore, getting through Splinter canyon the following day and then choosing some nicer sites on the way after that.
The run itself is pretty choice. A couple lakes off the bat, long spreads of continuous boogy, and some quality canyons with a couple km (3-7 each) of flats between..eventually you hit Cowabunga, the main even 30 foot slide/falls with some technicality, and then ....surprise, more quality rapids until a messy hallway rapid with a sharks tooth in the middle before 40 km of moving flats floats you to the lower. The lower 2 km is no joke either, some big rapids, and likely some portages before you take out at the highway.
I thought this river was a treat, better bang for you buck rapid wise than Magpie ouest, and not even the same game. Don't necessarily think you can do this because you can do the Magpie ouest (unless you ran ALL the rapids there), this one is a step up I'd say. Much of the run is continuous class III, with a good chunk of continuous read and run class IV/IV+, that if you aren't comfortable doing would turn into a much longer stretch. I recommend being very comfortable on the Taureau and Valin at a minimum before doing this run. Candy Canyon felt like a compressed Taureau for example, pool drop, but with short pools and flowy class IV/IV+ rapids for hours!
Bonus, we got to celebrate Saint-Jean in Sept-îles, which was pretty neat-o!
Why are you still reading, get out, get your gear ready, book a flight and go! Cowamounga!
Here is a logistic guide put together by Adam Gendron-Mitchell in both languages, it is a useful tool...just keep in mind there are a good amount of rapids still following Cowabunga before the flats! English Français
Collection of random photos from all of us:
