Who Was There:

The Rafters

Roy - Fondation Rivières
Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny - Fondation Rivières
Me - Fondation Rivières
Daniel Green - mercury specialist, Programme RIVE
Charles-Antoine Drolet - biologist, specialist, Nature Québec
Christian Simard - specialist, Nature Québec
Eden Bromfield - biologist, specialist
Alex Schoumatoff - journalist
Jessica Nadeau - “Journal de Montréal” journalist
Hugo-Sebastien Aubert - “Journal de Montréal” photographer

The Super Canoe Boys

Nicolas Boisclair
Alexis De Gheldere

Guides

Bruno
Derek
Guillame

The Canoe People

Fran Bristow - Alliance Romaine
Steve Leckman - Alliance Romaine
Christian - guide
Annie
Amy
Annie’s boyfriend
Fran’s father
George

Day 1

Roy, Anne-Marie, Daniel and I flew into Sept-Îles which is the last town of any size on the North
Shore (Côte-Nord) of the St. Lawrence River and which is about a 3 hour drive from Havre
Saint-Pierre, the smaller further-east town which is closest to the Romaine River and will be
most directly affected if the dam is built or not. Anne-Marie and Daniel did a couple of
interviews at the airport, and Roy did one while Anne-Marie and I arranged to have the rental car delivered to the airport.

Before we left the airport, we were met by Christian and Charles-Antoine of Nature Québec, who were in Charles-Antoine’s car and who fortunately had enough room for my suitcase in their car.
For once my luggage was smaller than everyone else’s because I didn’t have my tent and sleeping bag yet–they had been sent on to Havre Saint-Pierre earlier in the week with the river guides.

The trip took about 4 l/2 hours because we stopped to eat or get coffee, and at every stop people knew that Roy was there about the river, so they wanted to come over and talk to him about it.
We ate lunch in Riviere-au-Tonnerre (Thunder River, BoomBoom River) at a small restaurant
that backed up on the gulf of the St. Lawrence, but was set quite a ways back from the water.
We ordered crab club sandwiches. Since there was no outdoor patio, we walked along a narrow
path and sat on huge boulders beside the sea to eat lunch and discuss the press conference and
meeting with the mayor which would take place late that afternoon when we arrived in Sept-Îles. It was warm and sunny, but very windy along the shore.

After lunch we went to a convenience store a couple of blocks away so that Roy and I could get a
fishing license. We weren’t sure that we would be fishing, but we couldn’t take the risk of being
caught fishing without a license, which would have been an embarrassment to the Foundation.
The older lady taking the license applications was so bowled over by selling a fishing license to
Roy that she didn’t even look at my paperwork or passport–she just gave me my license.

Havre Saint-Pierre is a smaller town with some paved streets and some that are dirt or gravel.
Lots of the houses I saw looked pretty new, and the pubic buildings such as the hospital and the
city facilities looked good. We had reservations at a small B&B which was a sprawling house
with outdoor staircases and two-level wooden decks on the south side where we could sit facing
the sea. We were at least a couple of blocks from the marina, but from the decks you could see
the water and boats between the buildings.

My room had a small dining room, kitchen and living room combined as well as a bedroom and a
bath with washer and dryer. Spacious and nice, but among the most usual decorations I’ve seen
in a while. Lots of antiques, and every inch of space in every room that I saw was decorated to
the nth degree. There were pigs and rabbits and angels and birds everywhere, as well as ruffles,
lace and velvet, beads and bright colors. I mean, there wasn’t a square inch anywhere that wasn’t decorated. Even the chairs at the kitchen table had little lace up booties on them.

Anne-Marie and Daniel ran some errands and spent some time trying to find Christian and
Charles-Antoine because they had gone to their hotel and forgotten they had my suitcase, and we couldn’t find them for a while.

Then Eden stopped by. He had been in and around town all day and had spoken to a number of
locals about the dam project. He knew that it was popular with many people in town and
seemed to think that those who were opposed felt intimidated about speaking up.

He is British but has lived and worked in Ottawa for decades. He is a biologist who has spent
enormous amounts of time fishing and camping on a very large number of rivers in Quebec and
is very knowledgeable about the wildlife and plants in this area and all around Quebec. He never
went anywhere without his pipe and tobacco and his thermos of hot water so that he could make
his special brand of darjeeling tea.

A while later we went to the marina a few blocks away which overlooked some of the Mingan
Islands in the Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve. What looked like one of the larger
isles was immediately across from where we were in the port area, and we were able to watch the boats and ships coming into the harbor there. We saw a species of whale leaping in and out of
the water close in too.

The meeting with the mayor and some other city officials, as well as the press conference, took
place upstairs in the Reception and Interpretation Center for the national park reserve. Later the photos that appeared in the newspapers were taken on the deck outside on the south side of the building overlooking the harbor. The mayor appears to be persuaded that the only way to save the town is to build the dam so that employment will be guaranteed in the next ten years,
although it is not clear to me what employment will remain after the dam is built and what the
people in the area will do at that time when they have no river. If an alternative energy source is
discovered or chosen by the eastern seaboard, reducing or ending the need for the hydro-electric
power from the Romaine, the area will really have nothing.

Our first meeting with the guides was at 7:30 P.M. at a bar which was directly across the street
from the marina and the center. They were waiting for us on the patio where all the
introductions were made, and then we moved to another nicer restaurant for dinner. The
restaurant had set up a large room in the back for us where we were joined by Hugo and Jessica
from the Journal de Montréal for the first time. Bruno made some announcements and gave us
instructions about the next day, and we finished filling out the needed forms.

Before we left we were given our bright new red dry bags so that we could pack them before the
next morning.

Back at the B&B I went through everything that I had planned to take and decided I had to leave part of it even though everyone who had been on a rafting trip before told me these were the
biggest dry bags they had ever been allowed to use. We were still extremely limited on the
clothing and other items we could take because our sleeping bags, tents, wet suits, paddle jackets, hiking boots, and everything else had to go into the one bag

Day 2

There would be two planes taking us to the river site that morning. The guides’ van picked up
Anne-Marie and Daniel early so they could take the first flight and arrive on the river to start
organizing the mercury testing. Roy and I took the second flight. We arrived at the airport in
time to watch the first group take off and were fitted for our wetsuits and rafting boots, which
were made of neoprene. Neither was as uncomfortable as I thought they might be, but then they were dry and clean at the time.

Eden, Jessica and Hugo were on the same plane. I sat in the back because I was the lightest, and
Roy and Hugo were up front. The seaplane was very basic inside and all of the seats were in a
single line along the far side. The ride was about 20 minutes; it was sunny and bright, and we
were all excited and interested to see the river from the air for the first time. While we were in
the air, the plane door, which was immediately across from me, came unlatched and flapped open and shut during most of the trip. I kept my seat belt fastened and didn’t worry.

We landed on the water about a quarter of a mile from where the guides had decided our first
camp would be and Bruno met us. He was the leader of the guides, and I think one of the
owners of the rafting company. He has a round face, rosy cheeks and twinkly eyes and is short,
stocky and strong as an ox. When we landed, one by one we stepped out on to the plane’s floats.
The guys went first and jumped into the shallow water to wade to the shore. Bruno threw Jessica over his shoulder and waded to land with her, and then came back to get me. I laughed and told
him that I didn’t want to get wet, and everyone laughed and someone said I was going to have a
long week.

When I came out of the plane, what I saw first was Guillame in his little kayak moving up and
down and all around the area where the plane landed. He had introduced himself to me the night
before as the safety officer for the rafting trip, and it was amazing what he could do with his kayak. He also had a fishing pole in the kayak and fished at every opportunity.

We had to unload all of the stuff off of the plane, which included our dry bags and part of the
camp’s equipment and supplies, and which we then carried down the beach to the camp. When
we got there, the first group was setting up their tents and the remaining two guides were setting up the “kitchen,” which was a blue canopy, open on all 4 side and held up by the paddles.

My sleeping bag was located among the piles of supplies that had come in on the planes but the
tent was nowhere to be found. Alex’s tent with us although he wasn’t supposed to arrive until
the third day so it was decided I would use his tent until he arrived....and we’d worry about my
tent “tomorrow”.

I spread the tent out on the sand and started trying to put it together. It was kind of a strange
one, and three of the guys came over to help me figure it out. After that I was on my own, every
day that we moved, I took down my tent and stored it, and then put it up again at night. Piece of
cake. Until this camping trip, I had no idea now handy the vestibule of a tent can be. That’s
where I stored my hiking boots, rafting boots and tennis shoes every night, as well as clothes that became so dripping wet I couldn’t put them in my tent. It rained every night, so we couldn’t leave anything outside to dry–everything had to be put somewhere inside, except I left my helmet and life preserver outside.

Our first camp where we stayed for two days and two nights was a long wide sandy beach with
woods and trees and bushes behind us. We were all able to spread out with good distances
between the tents. The canoe people had arrived at the camp site simultaneously and set up their camp behind ours, between us and the woods.

We ate our first meal, which was pita sandwiches, and I had one of many surprises. I had
anticipated that we would be washing with the river water, but we would also drink
it–unaltered–and use it to brush our teeth and make our tea, coffee, gatorade or whatever. The
water is pure enough, and I’ve never been around a river that was so clean.

After lunch we were prepared to start helping Daniel with the mercury testing which was to
occupy the first part of the trip. Mercury is present in a harmless form in much soil, but bacteria feeding on decomposing matter under a new reservoir transforms this inorganic mercury into methylmercury, a central nervous system toxin, which is absorbed by creatures at the bottom at the food chain. As the methylmercury passes up the food chain, it becomes concentrated in the animals eating contaminated prey until levels of methylmercury in large fish-eating fish at the top of the reservoir food chain are several times higher than in the small organisms at the bottom of the chain. It’s my understanding that when a reservoir fills, the fish can be contaminated for 20 or 30 years thereafter and that our mission was to measure the existing mercury in areas at certain distances from the river so that the mercury level could be measured once the area was flooded by the dams.

Daniel had a map with coordinates of where the testing needed to take place. There were 3 sites
in the forest on the mountain behind us. All of the rafters were going as well as Guillame. We
walked at least a quarter of a mile south on the beach and then started walking up into the trees
and undergrowth on the side of the mountain. The guys, including Roy, Christian and Charles-
Antoine with Guillame, went first and they had at least one machete to hack their way through
the woods, clear the way for the rest of us and mark the path so we wouldn’t all get lost.

When we first started up the mountain we came upon some pieces of crumbled blue plastic on
the ground in the woods which was just about the only evidence of civilization we saw anywhere
(someone said it was compliments of Hydro-Quebec, but I don’t know if that is true). Roy said
that we couldn’t just leave it there, does everyone have pockets--so the guys gathered up all the
pieces and put them in their pockets.

We climbed for a long time until we were a good ways up the mountain side. The woods were
very old and very dense, so it was slow going, and there were dead trees everywhere. Each time, it was a decision for me whether to go over or under the logs blocking the path, and frequently
we had to cross ravines by walking across a dead tree trunk, which might not have anything to
hold onto nearby. In places where we had to walk around parts of the mountain or boulders
where there wasn’t a good foothold, the advance group had strung rope for us to hold onto and
tied it to trees or around rocks. Since we were on a mountain, it was steep and in places very
slippery, even where there was vegetation. It was hard work. We looked for the testing areas for several hours, and then climbed back down to the beach.

By this time Daniel had decided that we needed to find the mouth of the Bernard River, where it
fed into the Romaine, but that the going was too difficult to reach it by going over the mountain,
and we would have to go around the mountain. There had been so little, if any, human traffic in
that area that maps and information about the terrain were almost non-existent. Roy and
Christian set out walking south to try to find the mouth of the Bernard; it was a long ways, and it
was quite a while before they returned to camp.

Beside one of the pools, we found perfect sets of bear foot prints that extended about 6 feet along the beach. Eden was very knowledgeable about the wild bears in that area and assured us that
they would be curious about humans but because they had no experience with humans, they
would not attack us.

I walked back to camp with Charles-Antoine. He is a scientist, a biologist, from Quebec City
who has spent his entire career studying wildlife in Quebec. He has camped for months in subzero weather to study various species, although his specialty has become birds in more recent years. He is an amazing retired gentleman who is a wealth of information about everything outdoors in Quebec. Despite his age, he is very active and was an enormous help in doing all of the difficult preparation for the mercury testing.

Bruno cooked dinner, as he did each evening, but all 3 of the guides helped with the meals and
clean up. We gathered up the dishes for one another, and sometimes washed our own dishes in
the big pan of water in the kitchen.

By this time, it was dark, and there was a campfire started. We were waiting for the full moon to
come up over the mountains to the east, and when it did, it was a magnificent sight. I grew up in
the country and one of the two things I was most anticipating on this trip was seeing the stars
without the ambient light of civilization, but with the full moon, we were never able to see them
very well, which I didn’t regret because the moon was amazing to see.

The canoe people had their own campfire in their camp area which was between ours and the
edge of the woods. Our fire was on the beach near the water’s edge.

One of the best tips I received before I came on the camping trip was to buy a head lamp
flashlight. Almost everyone had one, including the guides, and on the nights when the moon
went behind the clouds, we could see the headlamps moving all around the camp.

There was no changing in to PJs for bed; I had learned while I was preparing for the trip that you slept in what was warm and dry, and as clean as possible, and that we essentially had two sets of clothes–the warm dry ones for in camp, and the wet miserable ones that we wore during the day. This particular trip required a little more clothing variety because we spent two days climbing through the mountains for the mercury testing, but we simply didn’t have packing space to make much of a distinction.

Day 3

I was almost the only one in camp who had a watch but rarely looked at it. I woke up when I
heard voices in camp and dressed for the day. It had rained at least a couple of times in the night and was cooler than the day before. We had short rain showers during the first part of the day
with patches of bright sunshine so we started the day wearing our rain gear.

Breakfast was the same every day, scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, maple syrup, peanut butter,
jelly, fruit, coffee, juice, cereal and milk. A couple of days later, I learned from Guillome that
they were having an issue because some of our group were early risers who got up before the
guides did and needed their coffee. It was worked out satisfactorily, and the guides were
relieved that even if I woke up early, I stayed in my tent until they were all up, which was awfully early anyway.

Because the mouth of the Bernard River was so far away that we couldn’t possibly walk there
carrying all of the testing materials and supplies, it was arranged that the canoe people would
transport us and that they would stay with us to help. There were so few of us, and so much to be done, that I don’t see how we could have done it ourselves without their help.

Fran was one of the canoe people who is a part of Alliance Romaine had been accompanying
Alexis and Nicholas on their 48-day canoe trip down the river. She had been on the river since
July 11 and had actually canoed the Romaine last summer as well. Steve, a very pleasant young
man, was her canoeing partner. Anne-Marie decided that Roy would ride in their canoe, and then assigned me to the canoe between Roy and Fran. When I was introduced to Fran, she realized that we had met before, and although neither of us could remember exactly when, it had been at some event in Montreal in the year before.

It was so beautiful and quiet canoeing across the widest part of the river–my first time in a canoe. When we turned to go from the Romaine into the Bernard River, the river became very narrow and shallow, lots of rocks, and tree branches, and fallen trees in the river. Some of the other canoes were getting stuck on the rocks and branches as we went down the river, so Roy got a paddle and started helping Fran and Steve. We bumped along a little, but were able to keep moving. The others extricated themselves, usually by someone getting out and pulling the canoe
along, and then we all arrived at the extremely muddy place on the bank where we were to go
into the woods.

There were several groups once again. Daniel had a GPS with coordinates so Fran set out with
it and one group who were to find the place for the first dig. Others were once again hacking a
way for us through the forest and marking the way. Once the three testing locations were found,
a hole big enough for Daniel to sit in had to be dug at each, which wasn’t easy because the woods
were so dense and there were so many tree roots and buried rocks.

The lead parties went on, most of the men, and the rest of us stayed with Daniel so that he could
divide the equipment and supplies into a separate group for each dig. Annie, Amy and George
were with us, as were Jessica, Hugo and Anne-Marie. The testing required a lot of stuff, and it
was bulky, heavy and hard to maneuver in the space available. Amy was from Holland and was a big strong woman, who insisted on carrying one of the heaviest loads. Annie was one of the
younger ones in both groups; she had a very wry, very funny sense of humor, and we had a lot of fun together.

The mosquitoes, black flies and no-see-ums were in clouds all around us, and we were covered
with deet and insect repellants. The woods were the same as yesterday, but more difficult because we were gradually moving further up the mountain, and as we moved along the steep path, we could sometimes see through the trees how far up we were, and how far down it was.

When we got to the place for the first dig, Daniel and Anne-Marie set up the area around the hole for the testing, and Annie and I with Anne-Marie became, as Annie called us, the “dishwasher
girls.” Jessica had the clipboard to keep track of each sample as it was taken, to make labels and
to record the time. Fran handled the sample jars and labels. We washed the tools in a
complicated procedure so that they were clean for Daniel’s testing.

After we finished with the testing on the first site, we flipped over the blue mat we had been
working on and spread our pita sandwich lunch on it. Everyone was really hungry–and we were
all dirty from climbing, pulling ourselves up on trees, rocks and dirt, and then digging in dirt,
chopping trees, or whatever our jobs were. But, there was no place to wash, we were very
occupied, and I don’t think anyone gave it a thought. What’s a little deet among friends?

The second and third holes were increasingly harder climbs but our efficiency level had increased a lot, and we were all moving and working faster. The women in our group were having a good time, at one point discussing the pros and cons of various insect repellants, and tongue-in-cheek proposing commercials that could be used to raise money for Fondation Rivieres. We also discussed how awful we felt we looked by day 2 and composed a list of fashion statements that we found perfectly acceptable on an extended camping trip, but that we wouldn’t be caught dead n anywhere else: sandals with black socks, tights under athletic shorts; mosquito veils, flannel pants rolled up to the knee; bucket hats; and so on.

When we were finished, the testing group cleaned everything up, packed it up to move and filled
in the hole before we started moving back down to the river. We were making good time going
back down the mountain, although it seemed like–and was–quite a distance. Once I was
walking across a dead tree bridging a ravine, slipped and fell into the ravine. I fell flat on my
back and smacked my head, but fortunately the hole was only about 6 feet deep and did not have water or sharp rocks at the bottom. Steve was behind me and he pulled me out of the hole and back onto the log.

Before dinner a seaplane flew in and landed on the river immediately in front of our camp. The
plane had come to take the soil samples away for mercury testing and also brought Alex, the
journalist. The plane brought my tent as well, which had been located at the seaplane airport,
resolving what could have been a serious dilemma. Alex opted to use my new tent, allowing me
to keep the little green tent that had become my home.

The plane also took Charles-Antoine away; because of a situation at home, he couldn’t go with
us on the rafting trip, and we were fortunate that he had been able to get away to come with us
for the testing phase. I was so sorry to see him go.

Alex was outgoing, and immediately came into the group and started talking to everyone. He is
a New Yorker but lives in Montreal now. He was interested in everything and everyone, and
over the trip spent a good deal of time discussing our lives, our jobs, our ancestry and our
opinions. He talked to Roy a lot.

Early in the evening Jessica, Roy and I were sitting by the campfire site, and Alex along. As he
sat down he said conversationally, “Roy, now which town do you live in outside Montreal?
There was a long pause before Roy said in a measured, but pleasant tone, “I don’t usually tell
journalists where I live.” Jessica and I laughed so hard, and I’m sure Alex wondered what on
earth.

Day 4

It rained quite a lot and was much colder during the night. I woke up as soon as I heard muted
voices in camp because I knew it would take me a while to get all of my stuff back together and
packed back into my dry bag, and I didn’t want to make them wait for me. The first day of
rafting was to be mostly paddling along the river and sightseeing, with a few rapids that might go
up to level 3, but nothing more serious. We needed to wear our wetsuits, life preservers and rafting boots because it was cooler and raining off and on, but we didn’t need to wear our helmets except when we were going through the rapids.

Before we got into the raft, both Bruno and Derek talked to us about plans for the day and safety in the raft. Derek told what to do if we fell out of the raft and how to handle it if Guilliame gave
us instructions or tried to pick us up in his kayak.

We had two rafts, the blue one which carried the rafters, and the white one which was the supply raft. Bruno rowed the supply raft, and Hugo accompanied him with a paddle so that he could
take photos. They had all of the equipment and supplies with them, as well as some of our dry
bags and the guide’s.

Adjacent to our campsite, the river was probably as wide as any part that we saw during the trip. Derek was our guide in the raft, and we spent the first part of the day learning to paddle properly and letting Derek re-arrange us in the raft to the places where he wanted us. After the first rearranging,
Roy was in the front on the left, followed by Jessica, Alex and Anne-Marie. On the right side, Christian was first, then Daniel, Eden and me. On the second day, Anne-Marie and I
were moved up, and Alex and Eden traded sides with one another and moved to the back, and Christian and Jessica traded places.

Derek went through all of the commands he would give us, and we practiced them over and over, with limited success at first. Derek was completely bilingual and always gave the commands in French first, followed by English, but we had to change directions or follow instructions quickly and couldn’t wait for the English instructions. If the raft was in danger of flipping on one side, we were all instructed to move over to that side to weigh it down. If a big wave was about to wash over the center of the raft, it was an “oh sh*t” and we were all to hit the bottom of the raft so the wave would wash over us. We used that instruction a number of times over the next few days. Roy’s paddling form was exceptionally good so Derek referred all of us to him to observe and learn.

Besides seeing the stars at night, I was also anticipating the silence that I expected in such a
remote area, like that I had experienced growing up. Not so. The two first nights in camp there
were close to 25 people, which made quiet scare except at night when everyone was asleep. In
the raft, it was hard because there were 2 or 3 people who talked constantly. At one time in the
morning after we had spent some time practicing rowing, we were drifting along and Derek was
rowing us with his huge oars. Roy said that we were in such a beautiful place that he thought we
should enjoy it by being quiet for a few moments. Everyone agreed, and we were quiet for just a
few moments but no more. Then the talkers started talking again, and that was the way it was.

The day before we arrived, Alexis and Nicholas had dropped their camera in the water.
Fortunately, they lost only a small amount of film, but the camera was wet and inoperable. Every night when the campfire was started, they would bring the camera and lay it by the fire to try to dry it, but it wasn’t working. Before we left the place we had stopped for lunch that day, there was a very serious discussion about what to do about the camera situation.

Roy had brought a new camera, very state of the art, which took both still photos and movies.
He had given it to Nicholas and Alexis to use when we arrived and found out what happened to
their camera. It wasn’t the same as their broken camera, but it was fortunate that they had his
camera to use because otherwise they would have had nothing. But, they needed a professional
camera and had arranged to acquire another one through their satellite phone contacts. To have
a seaplane bring in the camera would have cost $700-800, but we were now in an area of the
river that was too narrow for a seaplane. To have a helicopter bring it was initially quoted at
$2800, but the price kept going up, and it was eventually quoted at $4500. Several people and
groups offered to contribute to the fund, and someone negotiated a better rate, so it was arranged by satellite phone for a helicopter to bring the new camera to Nicholas and Alexis, but it would still be a while.

Until our first day in camp, I did not realize that the Romaine had probably never been rafted
before. The only maps in existence were made by canoeists and kayakers, and our guides,
although vastly experienced, had never been on this river until they came with us. As a result,
they knew fairly well where the rapids were but hadn’t had a previous opportunity to read them
and decide what was the best way to get through them. As we approached each rapid, they
would stop the rafts, get out and climb up on the cliffs or boulders overlooking the rapids, and as
a group decide how we should cross it. Sometimes we would all get out of the raft and walk
around on the boulders while they were conversing. The scenery was breathtaking.

That evening we stopped for camp at one of the most beautiful places I have seen. It was an
island covered with stones in a narrow part of the river. In front of us to the west was a sheer
cliff that went up probably 180-200 feet. Behind us were the mountains, and north and south of
us the river wound around through the canyons. To the south we could hear the rushing of the
falls which we would encounter first thing the next morning.

Since every square inch of the island was covered with rocks that were 4-6 inches in diameter,
we had to take a paddle and scrape a place the size of our tent floor to set our tents. We couldn’t
have slept on the rocks. There was only one plant on the whole island, a small plant about 8
inches tall with purple flowers, and I felt its perseverance was deserving, so I took a picture of it.
On the island we didn’t have access to the woods, so the guides dug a long trench and devised a
blue and yellow tent canopy that was open on three sides, which was our latrine for the night.
Another new experience for me.....

Nicholas and Alexis had been eating meals with us since we arrived, but Nicholas explained to
me that they wanted to contribute something to our meals each day to share with us since we
were sharing with them. This night Nicholas made two cakes for us, which are like Indian fry
bread, except thicker and somewhat sweeter. He mixed them in pans by the campfire and cooked them over the campfire. It seemed to take forever for them to bake, but they were delicious. One had chocolate and nuts in it, and Bruno melted dark chocolate over it before we ate it, and the other had dehydrated pineapple, cherries and lime peel in it.

When the moon came up, it shown on the rock wall in front of us and was an amazing sight.

Day 5

The canoe people were no longer with us and were camping further downsteam. In the middle of the night, Christian, their guide, sneaked into our camp and stole our big coffee pot, replacing it with their smaller one. I guess this was a prank.

Today we were to pass through level 3, 4 and 5 rapids, starting with the ones just down river
from camp, so we had on our helmets and everything in the rafts was firmly tied down. We
passed through the rapids, very exciting, and stopped before going through all of them so the
guides could look at them and determine what was the best path.

At one time before lunch we stopped on an island of huge boulders to have a snack of the
remaining cake, to check the upcoming rapids and so Hugo could take some pictures of Roy for
the newspaper. I took some pictures of Roy too, and in a couple of them, he waved at the fans
because he knew my pictures were for them.

It was this day that the helicopters began to appear, flying over us from time to time, and obviously more than one. We surmised that they were from Hydro-Quebec because there didn’t seem to be any reason to have so much air traffic over this remote part of the river.

After lunch we encountered level 5 rapids that the guides weren’t sure we could get through without taking everything out of the rafts for portaging, but they decided to try. Derek called us together to tell us that it was rather dangerous and he needed 4 strong paddlers to take the raft through the very narrow pass, but he didn’t want to carry all of us because of the weight. Before he could finish his sentence, Roy was holding up his hand volunteering. The others of us took our paddles and climbed over the huge boulders that were along the river on the west side. The neoprene boots were really slippery, but by this time the sun was shining some so at least the boulders that weren’t in the water were dry. They were really tall though and hard to climb over.

The rafters made it through the rapids on their first attempt, and they were moving very very fast to do so. We all gathered together again and spent some time walking around on the boulders and taking pictures of the fierce rapids that surrounded us.

By this time it was much colder and getting towards evening, so we paddled to a sandy island on the east bank just down river from the falls to set up camp. Even though it was terribly cold, I
decided that I had to wash my hair, so after I set up my tent, I put on my Nike running top and my base layer pants, sat down in the water along the sandy river bank, tossed my head down into the water and washed my hair with my biodegradable shampoo in the freezing cold water. It was so cold that my hair didn’t dry even over night and, of course, looked even worse than it had, but at least it was (somewhat) clean, and I had acquired some sopping wet clothes that didn’t dry for the remainder of the trip.

There was wet sand everywhere, inside my tent and out, and no way to wash if off without getting covered with wet sand again. I finally gave up and put my clean(est) socks on over the sand on my feet, no choice.

This island was quite small, so our tents were very close together, and the latrine was set up on the far south end of the island. The kitchen and campfire were on the far north end, and our tents were in between.

After dinner Nicholas baked some bread in a skillet to save for the next day’s lunch. It was
another beautiful night with a full moon occasionally covered by clouds. The Big Dipper was
right over us to the south, some of the few stars we could see.

Day 6

I woke to the sound of some of the campers yelling something about the canoe and found that the latrine had been taken down for the day, so we were having to take the canoe across the narrow part of the river to the mainland woods. Apparently, some of those using the canoe weren’t doing a very good job of it, so the others were instructing them rather loudly.

Then there was the sound of the helicopter approaching and landing to deliver the camera for Alexis and Nicolas. It touched down, made the delivery and was off again immediately. Fortunately, the helicopter made it to the river early because that was as bright as the day would be. After I was up and ready to go, it started raining, and it absolutely poured off and on all day. And it was colder than it had been all week.

The rapids were rough and exciting, and fun at the beginning of the day. On the last day of the
trip before we left the river on the plane, I spoke to both Derek and Bruno about how I wasn’t
scared, possibly because I didn’t understand how dangerous it was, and they both agreed and told me that if I had known what peril we were in a good deal of the time, I would have been
frightened! At least I should have been.

Mid-morning we reached some rapids that the guides didn’t think we could cross so they decided we would unload almost everything out of both rafts, take the rafts through the rapids, and then
load everything back on to the rafts, which meant that we would have to portage everything
through the woods and over the cliffs to the place where we could safely load the rafts again.

Nicolas and some of the guys climbed up the boulders into the woods to try to find a path that
kayakers had used in the past to portage over that part of the river. They found somewhat of a
path, but it was rough and rugged and not well marked. Once again the lead party went ahead
and hacked through the forest with a machete, marking the trees and rocks, and tying ropes for
the rest of us to follow. It was a long hike up the cliff, through the woods and then down
another cliff through a very narrow passage between the boulders to the boulders below. We
carried all of the smaller bags and boxes.

At some point it was determined that the rafts wouldn’t be able to go through the rapids even
after they were unloaded, so the guides decided to deflate them, carry them to the top of the cliff and then re-inflate them before throwing them down the cliff into the river again. Derek had
attached all 8 of our water bottles (BPA free) together and was going to leave them in the raft if
he had paddled it through the rapids. I had gone back to the raft to see if there was anything
more I needed to carry and saw Roy’s hat lying on the bottom of the boat. I told Derek that it
was Roy’s hat, and we didn’t want to lose it, so he asked me to attach the hat to the water bottles so it wouldn’t get lost out of the raft. Then when they decided to deflate the raft, someone
carried the water bottles with Roy’s hat attached up through the woods and back down to the
river. By this time, it looked terrible, soaking wet, dirty, flat and still attached to the water
bottles.

Because we had so much heavy stuff, Bruno and the guides devised a rope and pulley system
from the top of the cliffs to the rocks below, and one by one using carabiner clips, the dry bags
and all of our equipment and supplies, including the raft frames, were slipped on a cable from the top to the bottom. The rafts were deflated and carried to the top of the cliff where the guys took
turns using a single hand pump to pump them up again. Then they were sent down the cliff on
the rope and pulley. Some of us were at the bottom, catching the stuff and moving it out of the
way, and most of the others were helping at the top. Our feet were in the water most of the time
because the boulders we were on were in the water. The wind was cold so between shipments
from above, we would sit partially in the water behind the biggest rocks to block the wind. It
rained off and on, but with our wetsuits and helmets on, and since we were already so wet, we
didn’t even notice if the rain started or stopped.

Guilliame’s kayak came down on the pulleys, and he was insisting that someone get his fishing
pole out of the kayak and do some fishing. Eventually, Roy came down from the cliff and
looked in the kayak to find the fishing pole. He started casting into the water from one of the
piles and boulders, and within moments he caught a fish. Christian, Eden and Daniel had fished
every night before dinner, and Derek and Guilliame had both fished daily, and no one had caught a fish--but Roy. He caught it through the tail, and it was only about 6 inches long, but it was the
first and only fish of the expedition!

The canoe people had caught up with us here and were also portaging. I watched in amazement
as Fran and Steve each carried a canoe on their heads, down the cliff through the narrow passage and across the boulders alongside the river. That was the last time we saw them on the trip.

Around noon, with all that Bruno had to do during the portage, he climbed up over the boulders
to the south to a narrow ledge where he set up lunch. The guys had been working so hard all
morning, and they were starving.

So everything was loaded back into the rafts, and we started down the river again. More fun
with the rapids. We came to a difficult spot where Bruno went ahead in the supply raft to check
it out with Guillame in his little kayak. Bruno made it almost through the rapids, and then just
as he was about to go out of sight behind a large rock pillar, his raft flipped, throwing him and
Hugo into the water. We all looked at Derek and then watched helplessly, and in what seemed
no time, they righted the raft and moved to a quieter place on the river. Then we had to go
through the same rapids, and fortunately, Derek learned something from Bruno’s experience, and we passed through without incident.

We were having some great runs, getting soaked, with several “oh sh*ts.” We went over a big
rock that was part of a small falls and were all preparing for the excitement of a straight drop
down when the raft stuck in mid-motion, immobilized on a giant rock.. It was funny, like a
cartoon, and everyone started laughing. There we sat. At first the paddlers on one side would
jump up and down, and then the other side, trying to jar the raft loose, but then we all jumped up and down at the same time until the raft came lose from the rock and spun out into the rapids
again.

Soon after we came to another very difficult spot, and after evaluation, Bruno and Guilliame
went through it. With Derek’s instructions, we tried four times to go through, but were stuck
each time against a large rock sticking up out of the water. At this time, Derek rowed us over to
the other side of the river so the guides could look for any kayakers path (which they didn’t find).

We all climbed up the mountain with Derek, where he told us we needed to build a fire to try to
get warm. He said if any of us had spent any time in the woods, we should be able to get a fire
started--although everything including the ground, the ground cover and all of the trees and dead branches were drenched after days of rain. Then he hurried back down to the raft to meet with the other guides and try to figure out how to get us out of there.

We all started gathering up wood, and Daniel and Jessica, who had a lighter, took some moss and
small bits of wood and did get a fire started. At first we broke the small dead branches off of the
nearby trees, and then the larger branches. At one time Roy came crashing through the woods
back to the fire carrying two great big logs, and the men chuckled and called him “superman.”
Eventually we did get a pretty good fire going, but it wasn’t a threat because our surroundings
were soaking wet. It felt so good.

Eden had brought his thermos of hot water, which he used to make his tea, and although he
didn’t have any tea bags with him, he offered the thermos around for us each to drink the hot
water. Every one of us, as we took a first drink, said exactly the same thing, “I didn’t know hot
water could taste so good.” And it did, because we were so cold and thirsty too.

After warming ourselves, the others climbed down to try to help the guides and left Jessica and I to keep the fire going. We devised a system of drying wood alongside the fire before we put it on
the fire, and the others came back from time to time to get warm again. After a while Daniel
came to show Jessica and me how to get down the mountain and find the others so we could help
with the portage.

As we left with Daniel, he told us that the portage was a long way, that it was very difficult and
worse than the one we did that morning. By this time, everything had been removed from the
rafts and moved up the mountain a ways. The plan was that each of us would carry as much as
we could as far as we could and leave items along the path when we couldn’t carry them any
longer. Then the next group would come along and pick them up and move them further down
the path. Daniel put a really huge backpack on my back, and I picked up a pelican case and the 8
water bottles that were still clipped together with Roy’s hat. The water bottles looked like a huge bunch of multi-colored bananas along with one hat.

I have used the word “path” loosely because not even a semblance of a previous path could be
found along the rapids. Maybe it was on the other side of the river? Once again, the initial party
had looked for the best route, marked it by chopping trees and devising rope or tree branch hand holds along the cliffs so the rest of us could make it along the way. As always, the mountain
was slippery, and the boulders were huge. We climbed up and down them, straight up above the
river. We had to look for toe and hand holds in the rocks, and on the tall rocks that I couldn’t
possibly climb, someone would give me a hand to help me climb up or over. I left the pelican
case along the path with some other bags that had been left behind by others because I needed
both hands to climb over the rocks and trees. I was dragging the water bottles and the hat over
the rocks and through the trees, and they were covered with mud, black marks and green moss,
and could hardly have looked any worse.

Eventually, we came to a cliff that was at least ten feet tall. Alex was at the top, and he was
throwing a rope down to each person as they came through, and then he would pull on the rope,
which was tied to a tree, and haul them up the cliff. I took off the backpack so Alex could pull
it to the top first, and then Nicolas pulled me up to the top of the cliff. He took the long string
of water bottles with Roy’s hat attached and fastened it onto his belt; then he dragged them
around the mountain for the remainder of the day.

I was so glad to get to the rocks along the edge of the water. There was already a growing pile
dry bags and other supplies and equipment. We slathered repellant on ourselves because the
flying insects were horrendous.

The plan was that Alexis was to canoe us in groups of 2 or 3 across the river, which was actually
a lake at this point, with all of our belongings. While we were waiting there, some of the other
guys arrived and said that there were still a LOT of bags, etc., left on the mountainside, all of
which needed to be carried down to be loaded in the canoe.

Roy was getting something out of his dry bag, which was laying there on the rocks, and found
that everything he pulled out of his dry bag was wet! I had noticed earlier that day after our first portage that all of our group’s dry bags were in our raft except Roy’s, Alex’s and mine, which
were on the supply raft. His bag had obviously gotten wet when the raft rolled, so I had a strong
suspicion that my bag and Alex’s would be wet as well, although our bags were still up on the
mountain and we couldn’t check yet.

Roy, Christian and all of the guys who had made it down the mountain then went back up to help carry all of the remaining bags and supplies.

When Alexis came to join us, he loaded the canoe with as much as it could carry, and Anne-
Marie and Jessica paddled across the river with him to a long sand bar where we were to camp.
We needed to be at this place in the river for the night because it was wide enough for the planes
to land tomorrow when it was time to leave. Jessica and Anne-Marie’s mission was to get a fire
started because it was already getting dark.

Next trip, Eden and I paddled across the lake with Alexis after we filled the canoe again with as
much as we could carry. Nicholas had left the water bottles with Roy’s hat lying on the beach, so
I put them in the canoe. The hat looked like a wadded up rag. Eden was an experienced paddler,
and Alexis gave me a paddle and showed me how to use it–another new experience. The water
was gorgeous-–and it really was getting dark. We were all concerned about the men who were
still working on the rocks and cliffs.

When we got to the other side, Anne-Marie and Jessica had a fire started, and they were trying to dry Roy’s clothes and sleeping bag. Anne-Marie wanted me to put up my tent as quickly as
possible before it was completely dark so that if anyone wanted to change clothes before they had their own tent up, they could use mine. Eden and Alexis unloaded the canoe so Alexis could
return to the other side of the river.

My sleeping bag was wet, and by the time I took it to put by the fire, Roy’s was almost dry.
Alex’s was wet also, but his had a flannel lining, and we suspected that it would never dry by
bedtime, which it didn’t.

Some of my clothes were in vacuum sealed bags, which didn’t get wet, but everything else was
soaked, including all of my shoes. I took them and set them all by the fire. My tennis shoes
were the least wet and dried quickest so that I was able to put them on with my dry clothes. I
ended up holding my sleeping bag by the fire most of the evening to try to dry it. By the time the guys all returned to camp by canoe, it was dark. The guides built long clothes lines using all of
the paddles and every available rope. Every inch was covered with our wet clothing because we
were all trying to dry our clothes for the trip home tomorrow.

Since my sleeping bag didn’t entirely dry, Alexis suggested that I fill my water bottle with
boiling water and put it in the sleeping bag, which was a brilliant idea that I am passing along.
Someone found my water bottle, and Daniel filled it with water that we heated on the fire.

We ate in the dark, except for the two campfires that we had going to warm us and dry the
clothes and boots. The night was beautiful–the clouds had cleared and the moon was shining on
the water.

Day 7

Our last morning in camp–we got up a little later and packed our belongings for the last time. The morning was clear, warm and dry, but Bruno told us early on that the weather was not expected to hold, and if we wanted to leave the river today, we had to get packed up and ready
because the plane would be there in an hour. If we missed it, we would be there with no plans, until at least the next day. That got everyone moving, and even the campers who had been the
slowest every day packed up quickly.

As I was gathering up my belongings, I noticed that sometime in the late night or early morning Roy’s hat had been washed out and placed on a big stick of driftwood by the fire to dry. It was dry and looked like brand new, and before long he was wearing it again. The hat’s adventure was over.

Today the helicopters were out in force again, this time flying very low over our camp, back and
forth.

After the plane arrived, we gathered around on the beach and Bruno talked to us about the
expedition and said the when the trip was planned, the only thing he knew we should expect was the unexpected. It had been quite a time. Nicholas and some of the experienced outdoorsmen
said it was the worst portage they had ever experienced.

We canoed out to the plane, although some of the guys rolled up their pants legs and waded.
The plane took off on the water, and circled back around over our camp twice before we flew
away. The guides on the ground had stripped off their clothing when we flew over them for the
last time and were all three standing on the beach, totally naked, waving at us from (fortunately) far below.

We were all quiet on the trip back to seaplane port at Havre Saint-Pierre, and when we arrived
there, the sun was still shining, and it was a perfect day. We headed back to the B&B where we had stayed before the trip. I unpacked my clothes which were still ranging from damp to wet and got into the shower without looking in the mirror. I would have frightened myself.

Alex, Hugo and Jessica cleaned up at our place, and after sharing some pizza, said good-bye
because they had to drive to Sept-Îles to catch their plane. Roy, Christian, Anne-Marie, Daniel and I drove to a local bar/kayaking club, which is kind of like a surf club in warmer places. There was a bar area and an area where they sold and maintained kayaks. The club employees were having a cookout outside, and it had gotten cold and dark by the time we left. We went there to meet with local people both who opposed the dams and who supported them.

Day 8

We had to leave the hotel at 10:00 am to go to Mingan to meet with Innu community leaders.
Before we left, the mayor came by to meet with Roy again.

Christian was with us, and Eden joined us in Mingan. Mingan has a quite a lot of newer
buildings, but the houses are smaller and closer together. There are some very nice new public
buildings though, and I noticed that throughout the town the native name of the town Ekuanitshit was used on the signs and buildings

First we went to the town hall office building where we met with the vice chief and Rita, a
beautiful highly educated woman who serves as a member of the Ekuanitshit Council. Another
woman came into the room and sat at the end of the table and took one photo after another
throughout the meeting. When we went out into the hall, there was a group of women gathered
on the other side of the glass wall, and all of them wanted their photo taken with Roy too.

Then we walked across the street to another new-appearing building which was the town’s
meeting hall. Inside the chairs were arranged in a big circle, and we were seated at one end.
Most of the people there were women, which was probably partly explained because it was noon
on a work day and more likely because Roy was there. Roy spoke, and Daniel spoke, and the
ladies asked lots of questions. The younger people spoke French, and many of the older people
spoke only their native language which someone then translated into French.

There was a little girl there who had her photo taken with Roy when he came out of the meeting room, and then she attached herself to me. I took her photo with my camera, and for the next hour she followed me and sat on my lap and looked at her photo over and over until one of the teenage girls in the group gathered up all of the children and took them outside to play for a while.

After the meeting, we were asked to join them for lunch, which was salmon from the local river
with a pastry crust on the top, sliced bread and fried bread that looked like donuts and was a little sweeter. We enjoyed sharing the meal with them. One of the younger women served everyone in our group, but when it was my turn, one of the older women took the spoon and gave me a HUGE serving of salmon. I wasn’t sure what was up with that....

We stayed to talk for a while after lunch, and I spent some time talking to Rita. She told me it
was the first day of school and that they begin school earlier in the year because the children take time out of school in October to go out into the woods where it is easier to learn their culture, as well as their language, close to nature. She is fluent in French and English, as well as her native language. The local people are very close to their history, culture and land.

We said our good-byes, including to Eden, who was leaving to go back to Ontario while we were
driving to the airport in Sept-Îles.

Along the way, we turned north along a paved road, which later turned into a dirt road, and then
became a rough and bumpy path which lead to a falls on Riviere-au-Tonnerre (Thunder River).
The falls and river, which were small by comparison to what we had seen in the previous week,
were still extraordinary and worth seeing.

In Sept-Îles we stopped at the port area to get something to eat since it wasn’t time to catch the
plane, then stayed a little too long and had to rush to the airport to check in on time. When we
arrived, Christian left us since he was driving home from there. Roy did a last interview with a
local newspaper journalist who had been waiting for him to arrive while we checked the
luggage, and then she took some photos, and we hurried to get on the plane. Although we were
in a rush, and the airport was deserted, Daniel and I both had our luggage thoroughly searched
before we got on the plane. And we flew back to Montreal.