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.
Hello again everyone, I'm Ken Whiting
and this is the third episode of Paddle Tales,
The series that goes to some of the most
amazing places in the world
and does cool paddling trips along the way.
Now in this episode we're going
to another incredible place in Québec
called the Bas-Saint-Laurent region,
which is really well known for its spectacular
Saint Lawrence coastline,
and for the rugged wilderness.
But before we get started
make sure you subscribe to PaddleTV
so you get notified every time a new episode is released.
Now, Québec is a big place.
Not only is it the biggest province in Canada,
but to put it in perspective,
it's almost three times the size of France
or the state of Texas.
On top of this, Québec is blessed
with a whopping 3% of the world's fresh water
and has more than half a million lakes.
It also has one of the world's largest rivers
flowing through its interior, the Saint Lawrence River
which empties the great lakes into the Atlantic Ocean.
Not surprisingly,
it's a river that's rich in history
and in marine life, which is why I'm excited
to explore the place.
And so in this episode of Paddle Tales
we're visiting Bas-Saint-Laurent.
On the southern shore of the Saint Lawrence River
where its fresh water meets the saltwater of the Atlantic,
you'll find the Bas-Saint-Laurent region of Québec.
It's a place that many people drive right through
on their way to Gaspésie
without even knowing what they're missing.
What they're missing, is a gorgeous landscape
with beautiful coastal and rural villages,
a stunning coastline and spectacular wilderness.
In other words, it's an outdoor adventure traveler's dream.
My first stop, is probably the most obvious stop
for anyone that knows the area.
Bic National Park.
At only 13 square miles in size,
Bic is one of the smaller national parks you'll find,
but what it lacks in size, it definitely
makes up for with its visual impact.
Although hiking is the most popular way
to explore the area, sea kayaking is recognized
as the best way to see the place.
And so we're meeting up with Bernard Dugas
of Aventures Archipel, who's been kayaking and guiding
in these waters for as long as anyone.
So, Bernard, tell me a bit about
where we're going paddling today.
- Yeah today we're starting
with the first island just in front of us,
it's called l'Ile Brulee.
- [Ken] Yeah.
- [Bernard] Smoky Island
- [Ken] Okay.
- Yes.
A fire occurred many years ago.
The blue herons make their nest
on the top of the trees.
With about 20, 25 great blue herons, on the--
- Really?
- [Bernard] Yeah.
- [Ken] Well, let's hit it!
- [Bernard] Yeah, go, let's go!
Okay!
(lighthearted music)
We are at the beginning of the National Park.
- Yes.
- We're at the boundary of the park here.
- [Ken] Right here?
- [Bernard] Right there, yeah, yeah.
- [Ken] So this is the island known
for the great blue herons.
- [Bernard] Yes, it's called l'Ile Brulee
- [Ken] Brulee.
- [Bernard] Smoky island you see?
- [Ken] Smoky, yeah.
- [Bernard] Yes, and before the great blue heron
were in there, and since I would say three years now,
they appeared and now we can count
about 25 great blue heron on the island.
- [Ken] Cool.
Incredible creatures really.
- [Bernard] Yeah.
- [Ken] And you were saying that a creature,
a bird that size is only five or six pounds.
- [Bernard] Exactly, five, six pounds, yeah.
- [Ken] Wild!
- [Bernard] Yeah.
- [Ken] So with Aventures Archipel,
you take total beginners out here.
- We can say that, at the beginning,
at the first beginning, we're a small company
but we decided to improve,
and to help both to really discover
the park in kayak excursions.
- Yeah.
- And now, we consider we are really in a good spot
to practice the sea kayaking,
it's a quiet place and yeah.
- [Ken] It seems like a pretty great place
to get your feet wet for a first kayaking experience.
It's easy to see why Bic National Park is one of
the top destinations for visitors to the region.
The terrain is dramatic and varied,
and even with the strong winds we're facing today,
it's easy to find sheltered areas
amongst the islands and cliffs.
- [Bernard] You like that, eh?
- [Ken] Like this? Yeah.
It's good.
This is good.
- [Bernard] It's not really a job.
- [Ken] No, no.
This doesn't suck.
(both laugh)
Although the scenery is reason enough to visit Bic,
one of the park's major attractions
is the large seal population that lives here.
As the tide goes out, big rounded rocks
reveal themselves and provide ideal
lounge chairs for the curious animals.
I definitely question the comfort factor,
but maybe if I wrap myself in a thick coat
of blubber those rocks would look more appealing.
With the wind picking up, Bernard and I
decide to head back to the lodge.
I hate to leave so soon,
because this is the type of coastline
that can keep you captivated for days.
But our adventure in Bas-Saint-Laurent has only begun.
Only a couple of hours away is another national park:
Lake Témiscouata National Park.
Very different from the coastal nature
of Bic National Park,
Lake Témiscouata National Park is found
inland of the Saint Lawrence,
and stretches along one of the most beautiful
and largest lakes in the region.
Although the pristine wilderness landscape
is spectacular on it's own,
what I'm really looking forward to learning more about
is the rich cultural history of the area.
For thousands of years the Témiscouata waterway
was a crossroads for trade between a variety of people,
with the oldest evidence of human occupation
dating back more than 9000 years.
To learn more about these people,
I'm heading to Le Jardin des Memoires,
or the garden of memories,
Where archeologist Marianne-Marilou Leclerc
spends her days looking for clues.
- For all the summer with the visitor
in the park it is their game.
And they can dig with me.
This site, it's a native people site,
but long time ago.
It could be 2000 years ago.
I don't know now because I don't have the date
because I need the carbon to date it
and I didn't find it yet.
- But you've already found some real artifacts here.
- Some real artifacts.
- [Ken] Yeah, so that one looked, let's see.
An arrowhead?
- [Marianne-Marilou] It's a arrowhead, yeah.
- [Ken] Or a shark's tooth.
One of the two.
- [Marianne-Marilou] Yeah! (laughs)
- [Ken] I mean, these are tiny
pieces that you're having to find.
- [Marianne-Marilou] Yes.
- [Ken] This is a needle in a haystack.
- [Marianne-Marilou] Yes, almost, almost.
- But you do every once in a while
find something more substantial.
- Exactly.
- [Ken] Watching Marianne-Marilou slowly
and methodically work through the ground's
different layers of organic material
really drives home not just
how incredibly patient she is,
but the timeline she's working with.
She's searching for clues left behind
thousands of yeas ago,
and their depth and location lets her tell
an important story that has long since been forgotten.
Well, I can see why this became such a meeting spot,
I mean it's such a gorgeous spot.
The end of the lake, the river starts,
you can see the current starting to build up.
- Exactly - It's a beautiful river.
- [Marianne-Marilou] It's a beautiful place to fish,
It's a big bay, so everybody wants to stop here.
- [Ken] Yeah.
With some valuable insight into
the history of the region,
I'm looking forward to exploring the park itself.
And so we're meeting up with Audree Morin,
to do some canoeing and hopefully
see some of the bald eagles that the park is known for.
- So my name is Audree Morin
and my position here is I'm
a natural environment technician.
And my job is to get as much knowledge
on the natural environment of the park as possible
in order to protect it better.
The first thing that makes
Témiscouata Lake National Park pretty special
is that it's really new,
like not so many of our parks are recent.
It's just five years old,
and the special features of our park,
it's lakes.
Other special features are, of course,
our bald eagle populations,
because the habitat of the park
here is perfect for the bald eagle
with high natural trees
and those big, fishy lakes.
So we can land the canoe right here,
and then we're gonna walk around this point here,
it's called the pointe-au-toma.
And we should have a good observation spot
over there on the other side of the point.
The nest is in the bay really high
in the pine trees so we should see it.
- Cool!
- Ready?
- Let's do it.
- So, look at that.
We have, like, right here
three pieces of the chert rock
that comes from the mountain right across there.
- Wow
So someone brought this over here
and this remains from someone actually
knapping, trying to make a--
- Exaclty, like, that's not the actual tool,
but we can still see, like,
that it produces really sharp edges.
And, yeah, those are the leftovers.
And I'm going to put them back in place
because we really want them to stay
in context because that's how they get their value.
- Leave it the way you found it
- So if anyone
finds anything like that,
it's super important to leave them
in their context. - Cool.
- The bald eagle is in the nest right now.
- [Ken] So this is the eagles nest that you
wanted to find and monitor.
- [Audree] Yeah, exactly.
- [Ken] And so, monitoring is--
what are you looking for?
- We're looking at the reproductive success
of the bald eagle,
so at the beginning of May we come
a first time to see if the eagles have hatchlings.
And we found a number,
so this way, at this time of year
when we're close to their first flight,
then we know the survival rate
of those hatchlings that were born
at the beginning of May.
- Gotcha.
Well, I know you could probably
watch these eagle all day.
I could too,
but we have to get to Jardin des Memoires.
The wind is definitely picking up.
At least we're paddling downwind to get there,
but we should probably make a move.
- Bye, bald eagles!
(Ken laughs)
- [Ken] Once again,
I'm blown away by what I've discovered
on my trip to Bas-Saint-Laurent.
My only regret is not having more time,
because I know I've only scratched the surface
of what the area has to offer.
Well, that does it for this episode of Paddle Tales.
Thanks for watching.
If you enjoyed it, make sure
give it a big thumbs up
and subscribe to PaddleTV if you haven't already
so that you get notified of the next episode
when it releases.
Last but not least, stick around
for a sneak peak at the next paddling adventure
on Paddle Tales.
(adventurous music)
Next time on Paddle Tales,
I'm heading to the Côte-Nord,
a more remote region of Québec
that's known for its rugged beauty
and the diversity of its wildlife.
We'll sea kayak with puffins, and monoliths
in Mingan National Park.
Stand up paddle down one of the wilderness rivers,
and challenge white water where the river meets the sea.
The Côte-Nord is a wild and wonderful place
that's filled with new discoveries.
You won't wanna miss it.
(water lapping)