(exciting music)
- My name's Ken Whiting.
I'm a world champion whitewater paddler,
and I've led trips and taught kayaking around the world.
As an athlete and explorer,
my lifelong passion has been to challenge myself,
meet interesting new people, discover beautiful places,
and share these experiences with others.
This is the story of these adventures.
This is Paddle Tales.
Hey, everyone, Ken Whiting back with another episode
of Paddle Tales.
Now in this episode, we're gonna explore one
of the least-well-known national parks in Québec,
and we're gonna check out a really cool urban paddling city,
but before we get started, if you haven't already,
subscribe to PaddleTV so that you get notified
the next time an episode goes live.
In this episode of Paddle Tales, we're heading to a part
of Québec that's considered by many to be a distillation
of the best the province has to offer.
It's a beautiful and wide-open landscape
that offers incredible access to the natural world
through its two national parks, 15 regional parks,
and three wildlife reserves,
but the postcard beauty is anything but static,
as the area prides itself on having a vibrant community
that shares an intimate connection with the outdoors.
In this episode of Paddle Tales,
we're exploring the beautiful waters
and incredible diversity of Québec Authentique.
(music fades out)
(energetic folk music)
Located on the north shore of the St Lawrence river,
between Québec's two urban hubs of
Québec City and Montréal.
Authentique Québec is a blending of the province's
beautiful Lanaudière and Mauricie regions.
To kickstart my adventures, I found myself in
the province's largest, oldest, and probably most-well-known
national park, Mont-Tremblant National Park.
Although I've spent a fair amount of time
in the park over the years, this particular area
is new to me.
The Mont-Tremblant Park that I know
is very close to Mont-Tremblant Resort
and it's beautiful, but pretty busy,
because it's close to Montréal.
Where we are here in the park is only an hour
further from Montréal, but it has such a remote feel.
Not many people here, very thick wilderness,
it's- this is very cool.
(upbeat folk music plays)
To show me around I'm meeting up with Ben Peterson
from Au Canot Volant.
- Hi Again - Nice to meet ya - You, too. Welcome!
- Thank you very much!
L'Assomption?
- [Ben] There it is!
- Very cool.
- [Ben] This looks like it's gonna be a good day.
- [Ken] Yep!
So this is the lake itself?
- [Ben] This is the main lake, about one square kilometer
- Heading down?
- We're heading that way - That way?
- Towards the beginning of the river
it's about five kilometers down
so it's a long narrow lake, caused by the dam.
- Cool. Well, - beautiful day - shall we do it?
- Let's do it. - it's a good day - Yes (laughs)
- [Ken] Although I've never been to this part of
Québec before, I've heard plenty about
the L'Assomption River. It's a well-known
paddling route and at over 120 miles in length
it's one of the most important rivers in
the Lanaudière region.
Although canoes tend to be the preferred choice
on the river, there are three of us on the water today
and I really don't feel like fighting the wind
in a solo canoe, and so I'm taking a kayak,
while Ben is taking a canoe with the help of
park naturalist Eric Loiseau.
(upbeat music)
Coool!
(folk music plays)
- [Ken] So Ben, tell me about Au Canot Valot
- [Ben] Um, the company itself has been around
for, we celebrated 15 years last year, so this
is our 16th summer, and so we do mainly canoeing,
a little bit of kayaking - Yeah
- It's a great school river - Okay
- For, no matter what level you are on canoeing
or even certain sections for river kayaking.
There's gonna be a section for you to, you know,
raise your game.
- Yeah.
- So we take people that have never seen a canoe,
never been in a canoe and take them into
class two rapids, guided. - Yeah
- But we can give classes on different parts of
the river, you know, so people can get up to
like their level threes and stuff like that
with the Québec Federation.
Whatever level you're at, we can take you to parts
to raise you up a notch.
So you've got waterfalls and you've got rapids
and you've got nice beautiful rock and stuff like that.
- [Ken] Well the neat thing about, I mean for me
seeing it is just how much variety it offers,
even, you see a lot of it when you're driving
- [Ben] Yeah - [Ken] Alongside the river
- [Ben] Oh there's hun- I think there's over a hundred
lakes in the watershed of L'Assomption.
Like important lakes, they're not puddles (laughs)
- Yeah
- And you've got here we're in the shield,
the Canadian Shield, so you've got waterfalls
and you've got rapids, and you've got
nice beautiful rock and stuff like that.
- [Eric] The park is open all year round
so during the winter you can still come here
do snowshoeing and cross-country skiing.
And we are not so far from Montreal
so we've got a lot of families that are coming here
so it's really, it's really nice.
- [Ken] The L'Assomption River really is
a classic wilderness river.
From the moment you leave the launch
you feel as though you've left civilization behind
and the only connections that matter
are the connections you make with nature
and those you're traveling with.
(upbeat folk music)
- [Ken] But as amazing as it is to dive into
the wilderness and escape the real world
for a while, paddling is more than that
and can play a special role in our day-to-day lives,
and in urban environments.
A perfect example of this is Maikan Aventure
an adventure travel company found
in the city of Trois-Rivières.
- [Ken] Where exactly are we?
- [Alex] We are at Maikan Club in Trois-Rivières
and this is a canoe, canuk, kayak club
and also a center for ski, skiing, and hiking.
- [Ken] And this is the Saint-Maurice River?
- [Alex] Saint-Maurice River
It's a, we're at the bottom, exactly at the bottom
of the Saint-Maurice River.
- [Ken] Has this always been home this area?
- [Alex] Yeah
- [Ken] Yeah? You've always lived here?
So this river has played a big role in your life?
- Yeah a big, big, big.
Yeah I started racing in 1965
- [Ken] Really?
- And I - [Ken] Canoe or kayak?
- Canoeing, yeah. - [Ken] Yeah? - Yeah
Tandem canoeing, that's what we have popular down here
and now they have also in the race
big canoes there were 9 persons in it.
- [Ken] Oh really?
- [Alex] Really spectacular.
- [Ken] It's such a big canoe, kayak, paddling community
- [Alex] Yes it is
- [Ken] I mean it's beautiful, but it's you know it's
it's really cool to see all the people out paddling
just enjoying the water.
- [Alex] It's wonderful, meet friends and you'll see
when we go dinner, there's a lot of people
on the shore there.
So this is Borealis.
- [Ken] Borealis.
- [Alex] Borealis.
That was the Canadian International Paper Corporation
- [Ken] Yeah
- [Alex] And this was the draining system here
they took it and made a beautiful restaurant inside
- [Ken] Really?
- [Alex] And all the explanations and
respect for all the loggers, the thousands of loggers
that worked on the river over the years.
- [Ken] Saint Lawrence is just down there
- [Alex] Just down there.
In the Saint Lawrence River the water is green.
- [Ken] Right.
- [Alex] And it make's a separation with the
water that comes from the Saint-Maurice that are black.
- [Ken] Although I love wilderness paddling trips
there's something really cool about urban paddling
especially in a place like Trois-Rivieres
that has such an active paddling scene.
It's fun to see other people enjoy the river so much
and to be able to pull over at a riverside restaurant.
You also just a unique perspective of things
from the water that you simply can't get from the land.
After a quick lunch stop Alex and I head further
upstream to a section of the Saint-Maurice River
that has some fast flowing water and which leads
to a very special place.
- [Ken] Well I'm guessing this is the spot?
- [Alex] Yeah this is the spot
It's the Devils Fountain legend.
Anyway you're gonna go and see that
and look what it looks like - Let's do it!
- And sometimes it burns a lot more
maybe it's because we're late in summer.
- [Ken] Look at that.
- [Alex] Yeah, so you see?
- [Ken] That's very cool.
Whoa! (laughs)
(lighter clicks)
That one was still on fire.
- [Alex] Yeah it was still on fire.
- [Ken] I think it got your hand a little
because (laughs) I smell burnt hair.
(laughter)
- [Alex] That's okay I have so much (laughs)
I can spare some (laughs)
- Right on that's cool!
You don't usually get to light water on fire
that's a nice.
- [Alex] Yeah just to see water burning
- [Ken] Burn. - [Alex] That's something. - [Ken] Yeah
- [Alex] So this is it.
- Well.
Shall we?
- [Alex] Shall we? We shall
- Let's move on
(water bubbles)
- [Ken] Leaving the Devil's Fountain we have
a few miles of cruise-y class one whitewater
to take us back to Maikan Aventure.
It's been a really enjoyable day paddling with Alex
through the heart of Trois-Riviere,
but even though the sun is quickly dropping
towards the horizon, I have one more place to check out.
Word has it that Lac Saint-Pierre is
one of the best spots in Quebec to watch the sunset.
And I'm a sucker for a good sunset.
(light music)
Sunsets are like waterfalls and lighthouses
it doesn't matter how many you see
it's always cool.
I really can't think of a better way to finish
this trip to Lanaudière-Mauricie than a sunset paddle
in Lac Saint-Pierre.
What a night, what a day!
(birds cawing)
Paddling away the last hour of light
is a great opportunity to reflect
on the past few days in Lanaudière and Mauricie.
The trip has been amazing and a real reminder
of how many different types of experiences
you can have with a paddle in your hand,
and there's no such thing as the best experience,
all that matters is having an experience,
and that just means getting out there,
whenever you can, in whatever craft you can,
wherever you can.
Well that does it for this episode of Paddle Tales
thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed it,
and if you did, give it a big thumbs up.
Also, feel free to leave a comment down below
and lastly, subscribe to PaddleTV if you haven't already
so that you get notified
the next time an episode goes live.
(upbeat folk music)
(dramatic music)
- [Ken] Next time on Paddle Tales:
Luke Hopkins is grabbing his stand up paddle board
and heading to one of the most vibrant
and exciting cities in North America,
the city of Montréal.
A striking union of European charm
and North American attitude,
Montréal is a historic and multi-cultural
place that pulses with energy.
Set on the banks of the Saint Lawrence River
Montréal also boasts some of the best
freshwater surfing that you'll find anywhere.
Join us as we explore all sides of Montréal.
Next time on Paddle Tales.
(bright music)
(water rustling)