River Kayaking Part 3 - The Rouge

One of the reasons I started writing this blog is that much of the greatest stuff in Tremblant is frustratingly unadvertised on the web.  Kayaking information is a great example...good luck figuring out where the best routes are and where you can embark.  That's why we have chronicled our adventures in our river kayaking posts and another mystery was solved during our latest fall vacation in Tremblant.  Our trip was along the Rouge river, from La Conception to just north of Brebeuf. We drive along this river every time we head home along the 323 towards Montebello, but this time we saw the river from a very different vantage point.

Start here...if you can find it

My wife Karen got us thinking about this segment of the Rouge because she found the kayak company Pause Plein Air.  They are located in La Conception and if you want the easy way out, they will rent you a canoe or kayak and provide transportation.  We drove past their base camp, adored with a riverside tiki bar and apparently they make good pizzas, so perhaps worth a try sometime.  They also provide transportation services if you have your own vessel.  We, however, wanted to explore this for ourselves so we didn't contact the Plein Air folks this time.  Here are the details on this excellent route.

First, the access point (mise a l'eau in French) is very close to the La Conception exit off Highway 117.  The exit is marked "Route des Tulipes", and follow this road under the highway towards town.  Immediately after crossing under the bridge, you will see a small side street called Place des Tulipes on the right.  Head down this little lane (you'll pass Pause Plein Air on the left) and come to a paved cul de sac...keep heading straight onto the dirt road and you'll find a parking lot in the bushes behind.  This is your entry point!  There's a safe, gradual ramp leading to the river's edge and a clean sandy spot to push the boats in.   There are also a couple of picnic tables in case you want a snack before heading out.  We started our adventure here by dropping off the kayaks and driving down to the end point.

Yes, believe it, this is your exit point

To get to the exit point, we took Route Des Erables out of town, turning left on Route des Ormes after about 1km down the road.  Ormes travels alongside the Rouge river and eventually turns into Rang des Collines, which in turn leads all the way to the town of Brebeuf.  Before you get into metropolitan Brebeuf however, look for Chemin du Domaine des Cedres and turn left.  You'll drive about 30 seconds and come to a fork in the road: straight ahead leads to the Domaine des Cedres camp ground, and a right turn leads to a fenced in municipal building.  It's at this fork that you have found the entry point!  There's a canoe sign on a post in a grassy area littered with in sewer hole covers...this must be some sort of waste water management facility.  Anyway, head through the grass towards the forest and you'll see an obvious path.  Follow this to a clearing (you're now behind the fenced-in building) and hang a left...keep walking and you will eventually see the river.  This is your public exit point: it is fairly steep, and the "beach area" (I use that term loosely here) is a combination or rocks and muck.  You'll see a much more civilized path to the road, but this is privately owned by the Domaine des Cedres...we thought of paying them a day fee for use of this exit point but they were closed.  [Next time we will see if te Domaine wold let us exit from their beautiful beach...that would be nicer.] All in all, this is one of the less desirable exit points but hey, it's free.

The beautiful cycling back to the kayaks!

We parked our car right beside the grassy area and cycled back along the riverside to the kayaks.  The bike segment took about 40 minutes and it was fairly easy except for one nasty hill and a segment of gravel road.  We really enjoyed this part because of the great mountain scenery, the proximity to the river and the idyllic countryside.  Fall colours were just starting to come out (late this year) and we lucked out with a nice sunny day, albeit it about 12 degrees.  The other nice thing was the lack of car traffic on these roads so the biking felt very comfortable.  We also did something in La Conception that you can't do in a car, and that was to cross the river via Rue de Centenaire, which features the most magnificent covered bridge we've ever seen (see photo below).  It's pedestrian only and features towering post-and-beam construction, windows on both sides and now serves as an event space.  This is a must-see!

Behold the covered bridge

Now back at the kayaks, we locked up the bikes beside the picnic tables and set out.  As I mentioned above, this is a great entry point, in stark contrast to what awaited at the end.  Just ten seconds into the kayak, you pass the Pause Plein Air encampment on the left, turn a corner and you're instantly rewarded with a grand view of the covered bridge.  Stay left as you go under this bridge because the centre channel is quite shallow...when we kayaked in the fall, the water levels were low so this spot (and several points beyond) had the potential to beach you, even in a kayak.  This part of the trip was the most densely populated along the riverbank and we enjoyed snooping into the back yards of the local La Conception home owners.  [If you have a chance, there are some exceptional historic homes in town along rue des Lilas to check out...there's not much else to see in La Conception but we enjoyed these homes as we searched for the mise a l'eau.]

Looking back - beach and mountain

Like other parts of the Rouge that we wrote about in our first posting on river kayaking, this segment is gentle with no rocky rapids to deal with [although some low grade rapids are always fun].  It also features many sand beaches, most of which are privately owned but there are a couple quality spots to pull up and have a snack.  But the best part of the trip is all the mountain vistas...the mountains are great through this stretch, kind of lumpy, so it seems like every time you turn a corner you're heading into another great view.  Add in the fledgling fall colours and it was truly spectacular.  We passed a couple of campgrounds as well, but given it was early October, they had pretty much closed for the season.  In summertime, guaranteed to have lots of people waving "bonjour" on the shore.

Look for this sign - it's your exit point!

After a couple hours of kayaking, we started keeping a keen eye out for the exit point.  We knew we'd pass the large beach owned by Domaine des Cedres on the right, immediately after which we'd see the sign.  Well, we had a couple false positive identifications of the beach along the way but after about two and a half hours, we finally got there.  I thought the signs might be easy to miss, and if we passed them by accident, the river leads to the fairly treacherous Blueberry Falls (chute aux bleuets).  But, the signs are very conspicuous, particularly if you are looking for them on the right side. The extraction was as awkward as we had anticipated...some muck to wade through by the water's edge, and a bit of a grunt getting the kayaks up the slope and through the paths. But our car was right there waiting for us and we were glad we did this excellent segment of the Rouge!

The Rouge - very wide at points, and windy!

Next up: there's another segment of the Rouge starting just down-river from this that we haven't done yet, but will post information on it here as soon as we've done it, likely in 2016.  We'll target spring/summer when the river is a bit higher as it appears there are some shallow spots along this route.  It starts at Brebeuf beach and we believe we'd be able to park in the beach lot on Chemin de la Rouge (or along the road as people do) and put the kayaks in at the walkway to the beach.  The exit point is about 14km down the road - drive along Chemin de la Rouge, and just outside Huberdeau, the road ends and you bear left on Rue Principale.  Shortly thereafter, turn left on Rue de Fer a Cheval and take it out to its furthest point.  This is a residential area but you'll find a small public beach where the kayaks can be extracted.  It's just across the river from the Arundel Golf Course so that should serve as a good signpost that the trip is done.  We saw some rocky rapids in parts of the river as we drove the route this fall, but nothing aggressive.  We also consulted our river map and the rapids are marked as low/moderate so nothing scary (but indeed fun).

July 2018 Update

Karen sets out from Brebeuf beach!

We finally did the segment of the Rouge mentioned above, although it took us a couple more years to get around to it than expected.  I would rate this as the best river kayaking experience we've had to date, although it didn't turn out exactly as we had expected!  I must say we had perfect weather and couldn't have designed a better day.  25 degrees celsius, clear skies, zero humidity and a wind at our back as we kayaked.  Amazing!

Let's start with a pat on the back for me and my awesome planning - the trip went almost exactly according to schedule.  Here's what we mapped out:

1. Leave the house at 10:15 with kayaks and bikes loaded on/in car
2. Arrive at Brebeuf beach, and have the kayaks unloaded by 10:45
3. Arrive at Huberdeau to leave the car and set out on bikes by 11:15
4. Cycle back to the kayaks and lock up the bikes by 12:15
5. Lunch, and then start the kayak by 12:45
6. Arrive at the end point in about 3-4 hours (the trip took us about 3 hours)

We had a couple concerns when we scoped out the trip.

Beautiful field of yellow stuff

The first was that the bike trip would take too long...it felt like a long way driving it in the car, but we finished in about an hour.  It's just 15km so we had no rational reason to fear the cycling.  We had considered cycling from Huberdeau along Chemin de lac a la Loutre as it seemed like a wider, safer roadway and a more direct route.  But Google Maps showed us it was also a lot of aggressive up and down took the flatter Chemin de la Rouge.  A good decision...this route provided beautiful river views as well as stunning countryside scenery.  The Huberdeau/Arundel region is quite spectacular and this route truly reveals the beauty of the area.

Karen surveys the beginning of the rapids

Our second concern was the rapids.  I smirk now as I reread the comments above where I mentioned some low/moderate difficulty rapids.  We had scoped out this route in May of this year when the water levels were high, and the rapid were violent.  The rushing of the water was deafening and so our conclusion was that we would wait until water levels were low, or find a way to portage the kayaks around the rocks.  But the water levels were low this July, and the rapids seemed tame by comparison so we decided to brave them!  Long story short, my wife Karen navigated them brilliantly, but I got turned sideways against a rock and flipped over.  I managed to eventually get my kayak to shore, dumped out the water and resumed, but not before a few bumps and bruises and a few key lessons learned.  Based on that experience I think I should share a few thoughts about these rapids for anyone considering taking this route.

First, if you look at the river maps produced by Federation quebecoise du canot et du kayak [whose acronym is FQCK, haha] they rate these rapids as class 2, which are described roughly as "moving navigation, maneuvers, passes, regular waves". They also provide the additional rating of EV, which stands for eau vive. The description of EV is "white water (strong current with small waves and some rare rocks)". There was definitely white water, and the rocks were anything but rare as I was thrown into a few of them and got a little banged up. A more experienced kayaker would know better, but I suspect these rapids were a bit much for our long kayaks and we should have been in something shorter and more nimble, and skirted. I probably should also have had a helmet on for this. I did have a life jacket on and that was a huge help - the water was far deeper than I thought. After my kayak tipped, I was fully submerged and couldn't touch the bottom with my feet. If you are considering this trip, I suggest you check out the rapids in advance and be cautious. If you aren't confident in your skills, there apparently is a portage to the left of the rapids.

Amazing white sand beach

Ok, enough drama.  Inasmuch as the rapids were fun, the real highlight of the trip was the beautiful surroundings.  About 5km into the kayak, we came across a magnificent white sand beach that was completely uninhabited...or so it seemed, as all the nice beaches have somebody's loungers or umbrellas on them, or an abandoned fire pit, and this had nothing.  It was too early for lunch so we just stopped and admired it before moving on.  Next highlight is the confluence of the Diable and Rouge rivers.  Yes, the might Diable that runs through Tremblant empties out into the Rouge.  See the photo below...it may be hard to discern but the Diable is on the right (where Karen is, she paddled up the Diable a bit) and the Rouge is on the left.  There is also a great red sand beach just opposite the confluence that would be worth a visit on a future trip.  The other highlight was the bank swallows nesting in the high river bank.  We've seen this elsewhere and it's fun to see the nimble little birds swooping into their holes.  All three of the these sights are within 500m of each other.

Hidden beach at Huberdeau

After the rapids, we had a few more K's of river to enjoy, alongside the Arundel golf course on the left.  This was a much-welcomed return to calm water, and before long we were at the secluded little beach near Arundel.  When we arrived, there was a couple enjoying a sunny afternoon and they were stunned to see us paddle up.  I guess there isn't much through traffic on this river!  This is a very easy departure point, and to find it easily, just type the following into Google Maps: 45.975516, -74.622500.  There is parking for about 4-5 cars beside the road so if you use our method, it's a good place to leave the car during the bike/kayak segments of the trip.

This was an excellent day and highly recommended, with the cautions I made above.  This segment of the Rouge is wide and relatively straight, offering dramatic views along the river.  Enjoy!

Bank swallows inhabit the upper portion of this river bank.  Can you see the holes?

Relaxing along the river...strong current makes a easy paddling

Rouge river on the left, Karen paddles in the Diable river on the right