WINTER 2018 Vol. 45 No. 4 Quarterly Journal of the Wilderness Canoe Association Running Beam Rapids (CII), approximately 20 kilometres north of Mattice. Where the Rivers are Wild: A Journey Down the Lower Missinaibi and Moose Rivers Story and photos by ErikThomsen The cold subarctic gales, driving rains, unrelenting head - your endurance and fortitude. You may question why you winds, the ruggedness of the lands, the turbulence of the wa - do it. ters – the Missinaibi and Moose Rivers in northern Ontario But it is here that you will find colours you have never may well put you on a threshing floor and strip you down seen and Gods that you never knew existed. Swallows will to your rawest emotions. Isolation, desolation, fear, and at flicker as they feed in the dimming dusk, the Aurora Borealis times, utter despondency; nature here is unforgiving, un - will dance through the northern sky as it has for aeons and compromising, and is capable of testing the upper limits of you will edge closer to answering the great questions. Rising mists over the Missinaibi at dawn of our first day on the river. This photograph was taken from the public park on the east bank of the Missinaibi in Mattice. On these mighty rivers, yet free and mixed boreal forest that surrounds the exchange their goods, and the many untamed, you will find a glory that glacier-scoured shores of Missinaibi doomed canoeists who had been caught binds all, through the ages, who have Lake, in the heart of the Chapleau in the alluring flow of the river above ever gazed over the expanses of the Game Preserve. From there, the head - the falls before being drawn into its wild and endeavoured to solve the mys - waters of the Missinaibi, I followed its deadly maw. tery beyond. narrow serpentine flow northward, past Beyond Thunderhouse, I studied the It was under a purple pre-dawn sky, the train bridge and abandoned Missinaibi’s sudden confluence with on an unseasonably crisp July morning Hudson’s Bay Company post at the Mattagami to form the Moose that I sat on the grassy banks of the Peterbell, over the notorious, raging River, and I wondered about the expan - Missinaibi in Mattice, Ontario, con - waters of Greenhill Rapids, and beyond siveness of the sky – this is a region sumed by that very sense of mystery. the town of Mattice. I envisioned this known for its vast, low-lying, impene - Amongst the early morning bird song rolling river and its rapids cutting deep trable muskeg and stunted vegetation. and through a swirling mist, I watched through thick stands of black spruce, In the lowlands, it is the mercurial the river abidingly as the ascending sun balsam fir and tamarack. multi-tonal sky that prevails as the crept slowly above the horizon. In a Continuing north and northeast, I dominant feature of the landscape. few hours, our group of four longtime contemplated the immense, earthshak - At last, I traced the ever-widening friends would finally launch our canoes ing power of Thunderhouse Falls – the river further north to Moosonee and and begin our 316 kilometre journey to place where the river begins its dra - Moose Factory, further still to James the isolated Cree community of matic, roaring descent off the Canadian Bay and ultimately to the Arctic Ocean Moosonee, on the edge of James Bay. Shield and into the Hudson Bay itself. For many years I had traced the Lowlands. I thought of Algonkin As I looked over those maps, I course of the Missinaibi and Moose shamans who practiced rituals here thought of the bald eagle soaring high Rivers on my topographic maps. I had over millennia, the traders and Bay men above the spires of its lonely domain; pondered the sweeping breadth of the who used the falls as a meeting place to the timber wolf roaming wild and free 2 NASTAWGAN WINTER 2018 through the dank hollows of the dark northern coniferous taiga and this place of shadows; the woodland caribou run - ning as unconstrained as the river itself. I thought of the power of the moon and how it heaved the cold ocean waters of the Bay 15 kilometres inland and up - river. I thought of the smoky-white bel - uga breaching the briny waters near the mouth of the Moose, and the mighty polar bear rambling along the desolate, cobble coastline in the southernmost extent of its global range. This is how our rivers were meant to be. Over its magnificent, free-flowing course, the Missinaibi takes its travel - ers back 8,000 years to the retreat of the three-kilometre-thick Wisconsin Ice Sheet, which covered all of Ontario during the last ice age. With the melt - ing of the glacier, the uplands of the Missinaibi region became habitable to hunters of the central plains, and over Paddling under gloomy skies at the bottom of Black Feather Rapids. Though not visible in this photograph, Black Feather Rapids is a massive boulder field; lining/wading may be necessary depending on water levels. NASTAWGAN WINTER 2018 3 Second of three drops at Thunderhouse Falls (low water levels). Note the suspended driftwood at the top left of the frame; at high water, the river crashes over most of the exposed rock visible in this picture. millennia, the migration of these river is virtually devoid of development stiff southerly headwinds, to reach hunters followed the retreating glacier and exploitation. Incredibly, pic - Thunderhouse Falls. Arriving there in further north. tographs, ruined Hudson’s Bay the dim iridescent glow of the late af - At the time of European arrival and Company forts, and gravesites survive ternoon, we were greeted by a large settlement in the 16th century, the river to this day. These age-old relics serve golden eagle perched, like a sentry, was well utilized for hunting and travel to remind the traveler, unequivocally, atop the twisted skeleton of a dead tree. by Michipicoten Ojibwe in the south that every moment of his journey in Under the ominous flight of this majes - and Moose Cree in the north. By the this precious land is fleeting. tic creature, we continued down the late 1770s, and for 140 years thereafter, It was with these thoughts that our 1,650-metre portage trail towards the the Missinaibi and Moose Rivers be - journey down the Missinaibi finally cliffs that overlook Thunderhouse came one of the most important canoe commenced on that chilly morning in canyon. routes in the North American fur trade July. Gazing down this vast, sweeping Thunderhouse is comprised of three as the most direct link between the artery is a clear, ancient pathway, voluminous, cascading drops that col - posts on Hudson Bay and Lake shrouded symmetrically by stately lectively measure upwards of 15 me - Superior. emerald palisades atop sloping grassy tres. The dark, yellowish waters of the But unlike many other famous, his - shores. The landscape is simple, if not Missinaibi, in high water, crash over torical routes – the Ottawa, the austere. The dark river winds far into those drops with a violence that would Mattawa, the French – signs of moder - the distance, over turbulent rapids, falls perhaps rival any wild river in the nity here remain sparse. Bridges span and boulder fields. province. Below the falls, the river set - the river only four times in its course, It took our group two days, paddling tles placidly into a glorious canyon set and beyond the town of Mattice, the almost 60 kilometres from Mattice, into 35 metres below the forest. The canyon 4 NASTAWGAN WINTER 2018 is punctuated by a lone pillar of gneiss, ous, untamed fury, had come alive, as if ahead, the next day brought no re - known as Conjuring House Rock, to warn us of the challenges ahead. prieve. For most of the morning, we which towers 20 metres out of the The next day, through steady rains, waited for the weather to improve, but water. we continued our descent off the Shield failing that, decided to launch our boats We set camp on the brink of these and encountered our next major obsta - under a lull. Within two kilometres the cliffs and gazed contentedly over the cle – Hell’s Gate Canyon. The massive rainstorm intensified, and with no obvi - serenity of the lower falls, Conjuror’s cascading falls that characterize this ous place to gain shelter on the scrubby, Rock and the canyon’s east wall for a secondary canyon are dangerous and waterlogged banks, we forged ahead. long time. We admired the reflection of caution must be exercised on approach After 10 more kilometres – our rain the dying sun as it glimmered off the of the portage, given the speed of the gear saturated, and a hypothermic chill foamy waters below and gave audience river and obscured trailhead. Once affecting us all – we finally staked shel - to the canyon even as darkness took ashore, we struggled through the knee- ter at the mouth of the Coal River. hold and the northern winds began to deep mud that glazed much of 2,300- Here, with a depleted morale, we swirl. metre trail. Unfortunately, both the de - waited for the rain to abate again, be - The wind came quickly and with teriorating conditions and thick, twisted fore getting back into our boats and scant warning. Dark clouds swept brush shrouding the trail discouraged pushing to camp at Pivabiskau River. across the purple twilight; foliage us from exploring the canyon to any For 120 kilometres and three days of began to roar and trees began to sway great extent. Thus, forward we travelled travel past Thunderhouse Falls – and and crackle; our fire raged in a wild, on to the river and to the high clay despite it being early summer – we en - uncontrollable frenzy; heavy drops of bluffs of Bell’s Bay, where we laid our dured cold temperatures, soaking rains, rain battered our tents as thunder shelter for the night.