Upper Bras Du Nord

Quebec is Full of white water, and of that white water a lot of it has gone un touched, so this trip was very exciting because of the possibilities of first D's, and finding some amazing white water, now this 1st D comes after the trip we had on the Ouitchouion, which turned out to be a disaster, but with that set aside Pat and Tyler made the call that we would mission into the Upper Bras Du Nord, which as we found out was going to be hard work and a little disappointing. So as any mission this trip, we set of a little bit later than we wanted, but still made it to the put in by 12.30ish... ha ha. This drive also proved to be quite interesting as the road had a few very dodgy bridges which looked like they were designed and built for ATV's not pick up trucks or LP's Van, Exciting to say the least. 

One of the bridges, and this was a good one

Where does it lead?

So after we set shuttles and geared up we were on the river, and within the first 200 metres we were greeted by a rather substantial horizon line. Turned out there was a bit more water than we really needed as it turned out to be a bit pushy, but it was all goods, and after about 15-20 minutes of scouting the boys started to portage, but I saw a line and gave it a shot. Starting with a seal launch into the bottom of the entrance rapid (nervous moments as LP gave me the best push ever!) Set me up in the eddie only a few meters above the 2nd drop of 3. With a quick splash to the face a set of down the tongue, stopped for a second in the hole and got pushed further right than I wanted, Luckily there were a few shallow rocks I grounded my self on so I could pull my self back to the middle and set up for the last drop - slide. 

The last drop.. manky and a few trees hanging out.

Lining up...

Slide to...

Stoked!!

A quick look at tyler and the first words were... didn't look that nice.. I agreed. We set of after everyone reached the bottom until we were confronted with another horizonline.. which tyler got out to scout....No go boys.. trees.. this first instance of wood set the standard for the rest of the day, with pretty much every good rapid having  tree in the way of the line... After a few more rapids and portages we came to a section of class 3-4 read and run which I got out to scout... I saw and eddie and no obstructions and gave the boys the go ahead. I set of first, and as we came around a corner the hole river was blocked by a tree, all the team got into an eddie.. but I missed my chance so I charged for the right start with the hope that I would go up and over the tree, unfortunately I did not, and I got pinned pretty bad but with my head above the water..Tyler with his amazing speed in those types of situations was out of his boat already and pulling me to safety...Thanks bro! And with a quick search in the branches below the tree i found my paddle... a swim would have been disastrous. Unfortunately I didn't get my camera out much as this strange mist was sitting in the valley making pictures (and boat scouting) pretty hard. This first D was another hard one.. but it was a good day out with some cool people and another sick day in Quebec!

Keep the flow team! DHC OUT!