Last May I did a 7 day trip down the Spanish River in Ontario. I wanted to try a different river up there and was thinking about the Missinaibi. Has anyone paddled this river? Any suggestions for other rivers in Ontario/western Quebec? Thanks.
Photo Report
Check out the Paddling.net photo trip report from several years ago:
http://www.paddling.net/places/missinaibi.html
-Brent
Paddling.net
wealth of information
on myccr.com.
Visit and do a discussion forum search. You will find literally hundreds of threads on the Missinaibi (I have done it) and thousands on other Ontario/ QC rivers. The routes section has good writeups too.
Lots of rivers up there . . .
I’ll second myccr for a search engine.
A write up here:
http://www.paddling.net/message/showThread.html?fid=wtrip&tid=217808
about our Missinaibi trip in 2004.
Great river, you’ll like it.
A bit of an aside about the Spanish . . . I’m heading out Thursday morning for a five day solo trip. Water is high high high! Should be a good run.
Paul
oh you have had our weather
glub glub glub.
It seems there is a gremlin preventing access at myccr.com today but maybe I need to hit my computer.
Is there any temperature besides six?
Top to bottom
We ran the Missinaibi a couple of years ago. 1st year Dog Lake to Mattice, 2nd Mattice to Moose Factory. Had a great time. A true wilderness adventure. Check your WW skills before you go or portageall the tough stuff. Buy Haps book, it’s all you need.
spanish
Is there any way to know what the water level is going to be on that river? I understand that it is a controlled river sysytem, and was curious if there was a scheduled let-off? Last May was a little low for my liking, but decent enough. Would have been great had the water been a foot or more higher…Are you kayaking or canoeing?
Miss is freeflowing
One of the highlights of the Missinaibi is that it is freeflowing and not dam controlled. If you camp at Portage Island at the confluence of the Miss and the Mattagami you will be awestruck at the difference( the Mattagami is dam controlled). That said the best advice is local . I would recommend Owen and Denise Korpelya at Mattice Lake Outfitters
http://www.duenorth.net/missinaibi/canoe.html
No you don’t need to be a whitewater expert. Just common sense. There are portage trails to avoid rapids. Hap’s book is good but back it with topos!
(I am always asuming one will be wet) The title is Missinaibi: Journey to the Northern Sky From Lake Superior to James Bay by Canoe.
Like 2 different rivers
Agree it’s a great trip ! (but go @ hi water)
Have run it twice from Mattice. 1st trip in early June’s hi water was a blast. Had no problem reaching James Bay in 8 easy days & saw no one else. Late July trip 4 yrs later was literally a drag in places & we turned back & abandoned @ Moose River crossing after lining thru almost 2m of shallows just below. Thunderhouse Falls was also crowded.
Hap’s guide was all we used. It shows every rock in river. Save Topo costs toward fees now required
Be sure to check out great overlook on short spur path 1/2 way across hell’s gate portage. Enjoy !
Controlled
for electrical generation. Releases depend on rainfall in the area and a bunch of other inputs from cottage owners and the ministry of environment to name a few.
We have had rain lately so a release started today.
I’ll be taking the train up about 85 km and paddling back to Agnew Lake.
In a canoe. Its fully bagged tho 'cause I have my eye on a particular rapid that has done me in before 
Paul