TATACHIKAPIKA RIVER

Route: Tatachikapika River Date: May 15 – 20, 2016-11-01 People: Wayne, Cathy, Samantha, Peter Water Levels: May 15 – 94.82/May 20 – 94.65

Length: 90 km/Days: 5

Gauge: https://wateroffice.ec.gc.ca/report/report_e.html?type=realTime&stn=04LA003

Maps: 41 P/13 Mattagami River; 42 A/4 Kenogaming Lake, 42 A/5 Dana, 42 A/6 Timmins Tatachicapika River Canoe Route Map, Mattagami Region conservation Authority, 2014

As I was looking at canoe routes through the winter, I had actually decided on a different spring route than this one. I was looking at paddling the Nippising River across Algonquin Park. Somewhere surfing the internet, the Tatachikapika crossed my screen and caught my eye. It is one of Kevin Callan’s Lost Canoe Routes and I could find very little information on it on the web. This sounded intriguing.

The Tat is only runnable in the early spring, from ice out until early June. We had very little information before we started this trip. Will there be campsites? How bad are the portages? How many rapids are runnable?

The river starts at Tatachikapika Lake, just north of Gogama and flows into the Mattagami River in Timmins. We drove to Timmins on Sunday, May 15, where we stayed in the Travelodge and met our friend, Peter and sorted some gear. The day was very cold and we had snow flurries most of the drive. What were we getting into?

On the drive to Timmins, we decided to drive into the put in just to make sure the road was open. Thankfully, it was. The road is rough but passable right to Tatachikapika Lodge.

While making plans for the trip, I had been in contact with Jen from Timmins Adventure Tours. Jen was a great help! A very old MNR brochure indicated to take out where the river crosses Hwy 144. The last section into the town of Timmins was for “expert paddlers” only. Well, of course now we had to do this section.

The map indicated the Mattagami River flowed under the Malette bridge on Waferboard Road in Timmins.  We had arranged with Jen to do our vehicle shuttle for us. Jen went and scoped out the Malette Bridge for us. She decided that the banks were way to steep to exit there. She was kind enough to look for a better take out for us.

Jen found one a little upstream of the Malette Bridge. We checked it out on Sunday and it was perfect. It was flat, easy to exit and lots of room for vehicles.

Tatachikapika Lodge 705-894-2037 It may be possible to camp here your first night and to have a shuttle arranged. Call in the evening.

Timmins Adventure Tours Jeannette Johnstone 705-268-8069 Put in: Tatachikapika Lodge on Tatachikapika Lake Take Out: Mattagami River.  Road Enterance 48 24' 23.61 N; 81 26' 39.02 W  Take Out 48 24' 17.84 N; 81 26' 57.04 W

Monday morning we met Carol, our shuttle driver Jen provided for us. She was great. Carol was familiar with the put in, and had also checked out the take out with Jen. Carol even volunteered to keep our vehicle at her house and move it to the take out on our last day, to keep it safe. Jen and Carol are wonderful, helpful people and you shouldn’t hesitate to call Timmins Adventure Tours.

The shuttle from Timmins to Tatachikapika Lake took us one and a half hours. We dressed in our cold weather paddling gear, loaded the boats, said good bye to Carol and were on the water by 9 am. The temperature was -1C!

We paddled down the lake with the wind in our faces (of course), and it was quite cold. The entrance to the river is a wide marsh. For the next hour we paddled this meandering marsh with the cold wind still in our faces. The Tat River then enters a geological fault with rocks on both sides of the river. Shortly after, the current begins to pick up.

We stopped for a quick lunch but didn’t linger because of the cold temperature. It was a clear day but the sun was starting to feel warm. About a half hour paddle later, we came to a couple of unmarked double campsites. We then arrived at P1, a CI rapid that ran under McChesney Road. There is no evidence of a portage but it was an easy run. If you are looking for a shorter trip or to miss the flatwater, you can start your trip here at McChesney Road.

Not too long later, we came to P2, a CII technical rapid. This was our camp for the night, even though it was only 1:30 in the afternoon. Not knowing what we would find downstream, we decided to take the bird in the hand and camp. The campsite is at the top of the rapid. We unloaded our gear and ran the empty boats to the bottom of the rapid.

Today we passed many burned out sections of forest from a large forest fire in 2012. We were wondering what we would encounter down river. But right now, we were in camp early, the day had been easy, and the sun was shining and feeling warm.

Day 2 we woke to partly sunny skies and that same cold wind. We were on the water by 9:30 and paddled through a meandering flood plain for the next two and a half hours, but there was current so we moved alone at a good pace. We passed P3, an easy CI with no portage. There was a camp marked on the MNR map before the lake but we never saw it. There may have been one on the lake on the North West side but we didn’t go and investigate. Lunch was on Miskwamabi Lake.

On our way again, we soon arrived at P4, which is a great CII to run, though there is a portage available. P5 had a large CIII drop at the top and then a nice CII after that. We fireman carried the canoes around the drop and then ran the remaining 200 m CII rapid. We camped at the bottom of this rapid, on an exposed point. This again, was all in burnt out forest.

We had paddled in and out of burnt forest all day and our camp was in a burn out once again. It is a very weird feeling seeing all this burnt forest. No vegetation has started to grow yet, since it is so early in the year. There is no green, only black and grey.

All of the campsites we have passed so far have been small, grown over or burnt out, and only big enough for 2 tents.

The day was very pleasant, partly sunny and 12 degrees, much warmer than we had thought it would be. Another short, 5 hour day. We were in camp by 2:30 enjoying a warm day and no bugs.

Day 3 starts out as a great day. Lost Dog Creek enters the Tat just after P6 adding more water to the river. Until now, the rapids have been a little boney but now the river is wider and has solid channels for running with no boulder gardens at the bottom of the rapids. We had good current, we were making good time.

P6 to P10 were all runnable CII rapids. Portages seemed to exist for some of these but were not needed.

We arrived at P11, which is a CIII drop followed by a CII run. On river right there was a slide down the drop with an eddy beside it. We paddled to the brink of the slide, lined the boats down the slide, then jumped back in and ran the CII. It was very thrilling. There is a 200 m portage on river left, but what fun is that?

Next up is P12, Horseshoe Falls. This is an easy CII. Not sure what the Falls part of this rapid is??Between P12 and P13, there are numerous swifts and CI rapids. It makes for a great paddle.

The campsite before P13 doesn’t exist, so we continued on. P13 is a nice CII runnable rapid with CIII wave at the top. The campsite is a great but about half way down the portage. We unloaded the gear at the top of the portage and then carried the gear to the campsite. We then ran the canoes down to the bottom empty.

The second half of this portage was almost completely obscured with trees and branches that had fallen after the fire. We spent time cutting ang clearing the portage making it passable again.

 It is the last marked portage before Hwy 144. We lucked out with another warm and sunny day! The campsite was the best so far and we had actually put in a full day of paddling, from 9:30 am to 4 pm.

Day 4 looked like it was going to be another hot, sunny day. From P13, it only took an hour to paddle to Hwy 144, where you could exit. We wanted to do the final section marked for “Experienced Paddlers Only” but could find absolutely nothing on the web about this section. This should be interesting.

About an hour passed the highway, we came to P14. P 14 is a long CI rapid. Even though this is a very short day, we had planned to camp here not knowing what lay beyond. It was warm and sunny so we arrived by noon and had a lazy afternoon in camp.

Finding the campsite was more interesting.

We saw no portage around P14 and saw no campsite at the beginning of this rapid either. We started to paddle the rapid and saw a flat area about a quarter of the way down on river right We ferried across the river to have a look. The campsite is up on a small embankment and the landing is in a small eddy barley big enough for the two canoes. Getting the gear up and down the embankment was a bit of a challenge. The campsite is a very large, flat area and must have been an old camp at one time. We walked the portage to the end to see if a better camp was at the end. The portage was terrible but there was a small, buggy campsite in a marsh at the end. We decided to stay where we were since it would be hard to travel back upstream if nothing else materialized.

As it turns out, the real campsite is just past P14, on river left tucked into a small bay. It looked quite nice.

There were many fun swifts and CI rapids to run today. We were also out of the burned out forest. It is nice to see green again.

Today is Day 5 and our last day. We were worried about weather on this trip but every day was sunny and every day was warmer than the next. Today it is sunny and 25 degrees.

Today is another great day of paddling. Again, there are numerous CI and swifts between P15 and P15. P15 is a mandatory 150 m portage around a waterfall. The portage trail was clear and in good shape making this, our only true portage of the trip, easy. There is a nice, but small campsite here with a view overlooking the falls. There is also a geocache to be found here.

After P15, there are again numerous CIs and swifts making for a great paddle.  This is a great section of the Tat that takes you almost the entire way to the confluence with the Mattagami River.

We started to see signs of civilization now. Along the way we passed the tailings output to Lakeshore Gold’s tailing pond and a very nice cottage.

The Mattagami River is flat, but with a very strong current pushing us along. There is an old shack at the confluence that would make a great campsite.

We were making good time and it was a beautiful, sunny, warm, bug free day so we did a little geocaching as we went down the river.

This section of the river, past Hwy 144 was marked as “expert paddlers only”. Technically, there are no portages around the numerous swifts to CII rapids, but these were easily handles with basic whitewater skills.

By 2 pm we were at the take out. It was easy to find, easy to exit and lots of spots for cars, though there weren’t any besides ours.

Soon we were packed up and on our way back to the Timmins Travelodge for a hot shower and some dinner.