Team Riot: Quebec Creeking Part One

Directly after school let out, I had plans to head north to the vast, strange land known as Quebec. So, after logging in a couple days of work prior to leaving, I headed to the Cheat River Festival to spend the weekend in West 'by god' Virginia. Due to the extreme low water on the Cheat, I ended up avoiding the Cheat altogether, along with many other insightful individuals who paddled the Upper Yough.

Later that night, I talked to a friend who did the downriver race on the Cheat the day before (10 miles). He said it was exhausting, a lot like following trickles of water into lakes that separated rapids. It sounded like more grueling endurance than anything else.

That night there was a party. All of the Albright, WV local hell raisers, as well as paddlers from all over the east coast enjoyed beer, some quality West Virginia music, and good times as the night slowly turned into the wee hours of the morning.

The next day was punctuated with hour after hour of sitting in the car, monotonously driving up Interstate-81; then, passing into Canada, arriving in the Ottawa Valley at around midnight. I think that, after I got off of Rt. 401, I saw about 6 cars in the three hour trek on the two lane road that led to Beechburg. Kinda creepy in the middle of the night...

I arrived at around 1 AM and scared the crap out of Chris Gragtmans (who didn’t know if I was River Run security coming to oust him or myself). We ended up staying at the Ottawa for three days, narrowly missing the Bus Eater wave, which was "in" two days before. After that, we went to Ben Marr's house to drop off cars, organize, then set out for some quality Quebec creeking.

After a day at Lachine, we got a phone call from Team Riot paddler Dominic Fournier saying that the creeking was going off and we should head to his home stomping grounds, the city of Trois-Rivières. Dom was nice enough to let us crash at his Climbing gym, an organization he runs known as Adrenergie.

Over the course of the next few days, we paddled the Blanche River (which means 'white' in English for us non-Frenchies), the Doncaster, and the Nelson, A section. We actually ran the Blanche twice, then decided to go run the A section of the Nelson--putting on at 7:15 pm (near dusk), paddling the 20 kilometers, and taking off at around 8:30. A great day of paddling. Big thanks to Dom for showing us the lines and being able to bomb down the run with four in tow.

To see the video of the Blanche and the Doncaster helmet cam, go here:

Quebec Creeking Video Part One

Quebec Creeking Video (Dial Up Users Only)

Thank you's go out to: Ben and Carol Marr for letting us crash at your apartment in Brock-vegas, Kelsey for driving and good times, Dominic F for letting us crash and taking us down the river, Dominic C for the race, David for the good times at the Cactus bar, Max for being Max and letting us crash, Max's mom for hanging up my jacket, Jeff Rivest for Riot factory refuge, Yann for the place to stay, the St. Raymond locals for being rowdy, and all the rest of the French Canadian locals just for being French Canadian-- to everyone, thank you!

Don't forget to check out Chris's "Part Deux" of the Canadian Expedition. Enjoy!