River Kayaking Part One - Our First Excursions

Setting out on the Riviere Rouge

I used to have a single post for kayaking, which outlined our experiences on Lacs Tremblant and Ouimet.  But after we did some river kayaking this week, I felt the need to treat the river and lake excursions separately because the former really is a different experience.

We have our own kayaks, but for our first river trip, we weren't sure where we'd start and finish, and how we'd sort out the whole 2-car thing.  So instead, we found Kayak Cafe in Labelle, which is about a 30 minute drive door to door,  north of the Tremblant area along the 117.  Kayak's Cafe's value proposition is pretty simple: park here, take our kayaks down the river, we bring you and the kayaks back afterward, and then have lunch at our amazing patio. [June 2016 update: Kayak Cafe has moved up river a bit and have expanded their services...so almost everything below remains trues, except for where to find them.  See their website for more.]

Beautiful rock wall

We were able to make our reservations via email, which I prefer.  When we arrived, the staff were happy to entertain my fledgling French, but most were fluently bilingual.  After a few tips on how to read the river, they handed us paddles (we had our own lifejackets), put us in our kayaks, and we were away.  The Kayak cafe is situated right on the river for easy access.  The trips are not guided, so you basically head out on your own with a pre-arranged pick up time.  The river is marked with buoys, the first at 4km (so you can gauge how you're doing for time) and the remainder at the end of each excursion, which are 9.5, 12 and 23 km in length respectively.  There's a small dock at the end of each trip, where you pull your kayaks up and the Kayak Cafe bus comes to pick you up.  That's it!

A few thoughts about our trip.  First of all, I really enjoyed river kayaking because the scenery is always changing and there's no need to double back to a point of entry.  Second, I love the current.  I know, I shouldn't be surprised that a river has current, but the Rouge River always looked so placid.  It was somehow satisfying that I could be moving so quickly even if I barely paddled...and just floating along without paddling was a blast.  Along the way, we passed mallards, a heron and a couple broods of mergansers.  When you're in a kayak, it's almost like you're one of them, bobbing along the ripples.

Big, beautiful sandy beaches!

Another pleasant surprise was the beaches.  We had seen these from the highway...large riverside beaches with bathers out sunning themselves.  My surprise is that the beaches are actually sand.  I thought they would be slightly mucky soil, perhaps a bit buggy when wet.  But to the contrary, the beaches were amazingly clean and plentiful, making ideal spots to pull your kayak up and have a snack.  And because the river bottom is also sand, the water is beautifully clear for swimming.  I grew up in southwestern Ontario where the rivers are mostly murky brown and muddy-bottomed, so this experience was quite foreign.

Oops - too shallow!

The day we went, the water levels were quite low after an extended period of dry weather, but we still had no problem as long as we read the river correctly. The folks at the Cafe advised us to stay on the wide side of every turn where the current is swiftest and therefore, the water is its deepest.  Didn't stop us from making the occasional mistake, and heading right through the shallowest parts of the river.  The only penalty for this is to get out and pull your kayak through the ankle-deep water.  Kinda nice actually, as the water was swimmably warm.  Speaking of water levels, you won't see any rapids on this trip, so don't worry if you're not the white-water rapid kayaking type.  This is all quite safe.

View of Labelle from the Kayak Cafe patio

I was sad when the trip was over.  We chose the 9.5km trip, and wished I could have had another hour or two.  Again, because of the current, river kayaking isn't as physically demanding as lake kayaking.  Even the gentlest padding gets you moving quickly, and there's never any hard paddling into the wind.  When we were done, the Cafe people came with their short little school bus to collect us and the gear.  Back at the Cafe, we had a lovely lunch on their amazing patio overlooking Labelle and the river below.  This was a great experience that we highly recommend!

June 2016 Update: Kayak Cafe was highlighted in a feature article in the Tremblant Express.

August 8 2012 Update
We just read in the local paper about a 13km stretch of the Diable river that is available for canoeing and kayaking.  We haven't tried it yet but you can get basic details here.

August 30 2012 Update

Start at the iron bridge

Further to the last update, we have now kayaked the Diable river and it was fantastic.  The town of Mont Tremblant has done a nice job setting this up, with a series of entry points for your kayak or canoe all along the river.  We started at the further point possible on the river, which is off of Chemin du pont du fer (Iron Bridge Road).  If you search that in Google maps, you'll find the road, but notice that this road is essentially a crescent off of Chemin du Village...because the bridge is closed, you can only access the entry point from the northwest side of the river.  Drive right to the end of Chemin du pont du fer and you'll see the old bridge, likely with a few cars parked along the side of the road.  Park with them, and walk down to the river where you'll see the launch spot, equipped with a map of the river course as well as a handy fold-down dock.

Karen braves the rapids!

The river is fairly swift here, and right away the river forks.  Either left or right is fine, but going right offers a bit more of the rapids...nothing to worry about as you just bob your way through, but they're a fun change to the more gentle sections of the river.  Odds are you'll pass a few fly fishers like we did, as well as a few modern mansions built along the cliffs overlooking the river.

Further down the river, you pass a few identifiable spots: several golf courses (Manitou, La Bete, Le Maitre), The Montee Ryan bridge, the Scandinave Spa (they have a platform where you dip into the river, even in winter!) as well as Diable camp ground where some of the permanent residents will cheer you with a beer.  And of course you'll pass many houses and cottages along the way.  We also encountered a few fellow river travellers, including some young folks making their way down on an inflatable mattress, as well as a family of four in a bouncey castle (yes really).

The bridge at Rue St-Jovite...pass under and keep your eyes
open on the left for the exit point!

After the last of the rapids, the river calms and you drift your way toward Rue de Saint-Jovite, passing under the bridge and towards the Hotel de Ville (town hall).  This is where the in-town portion ends, and you really have to keep your eyes open to find the exit point as it isn't well-marked.  Look for a marsh-like section on the left after a sharp left turn, and you'll see a small channel of water that leads inward...beyond is the town hall.  Disembark your vessels and wade through, dragging them into the nearby grass.  Now here's how we get back: wander through the town hall parking lot to Rue St-Jovite, turn right and head towards the Metro grocery store.  Across the street is the Ultramar gas station, and behind that is the Taxi Mont-Tremblant office.  There's always a car and driver there, and they'll return you to Chemin du Pont de Fer for about fifteen bucks or so.  Magic!

Sept 2013 Update
Further to the article above, we saw the street corner with the Taxi office and Ultramar closed down and fenced off.  Looks like they're tearing the buildings down...but you could still call a taxi from this location and ask them to pick you up at the Hotel de Ville.  

Oct 2013 Update

Karen heads out on glass-like waters on Lac Chat

As you may have read on our posting for Hiking - Mont Tremblant National Park, we found a river kayaking excursion on the Diable river as it runs through the park.  Of course, you can either kayak or canoe as you prefer, and if you don't have your own gear, you can rent everything you need (vessel, lifejacket, paddle) from the park.  In our case, we had all our own stuff so all we needed was transport from the end of the excursion back to the starting point...this can all be booked online at the Sepaq site for Mont Tremblant National Park.

Once you've booked your transport, you just check-in at the activity centre at the head of Lac Monroe (not the Discovery Centre).  Then they know when you're heading out and roughly when to expect to pick you up, according to their hourly afternoon schedule of pickups.  You basically depart from Lac Chat...if you don't have your own vessel, you rent one from the Park and it's ready for you at Lac Chat.  If you do have your own boats like we do, you park at Lac Chat and head out.  The voyage along the Riviere Diable takes about 3.5 hours give or take, and you finish at the Vache Noir, which is a beach near the large rock face where the Via Ferrata is conducted.

Oct 2015 Update
Read all about more recent adventures in:

• River Kayaking Part 2
• River Kayaking Part 3 - The Rouge
• River Kayaking: Rouge Redux