4 Days Camping and Fishing on Noire River

Just got back from the Yukon about a week ago. In another week I'm heading off to the Amazon rainforest. I have a little bit of downtime to spend time with friends and family. I'm out here with my brother Dylan and we're here on the Noir River in Quebec. This is the first time either of us have ever paddled in Quebec. This is the first time Dylan's ever solo paddled a boat as well as his first whitewater canoe experience. I'm in a new boat myself. This is all new. It's a brand new experience for us. It's going to be a pretty beginner river but it should be a lot of fun. We got great weather. Should be good fishing. Come along. Say hi everyone. Hi everyone. Are you asking everyone to say hi to me? Both. Okay so hi everyone and then I'll wait for them. Hi. Okay so we're coming up to a class four here. It's kind of like a waterfall. So the trick is to not go over. So the food barrel we kind of just threw stuff in and Dylan's chocolate is haphazardly packed in there and the chocolate is like it's uh it's it's uh it's a little bit limp. I don't even bring like snack bars with chocolate in them anymore because of how much of a mess they make. It's funny I always expect chocolate to melt but the one one of the times when I can't think you had chocolate I'm like this is this is so amazing out in the woods and I just like wanted to relive that experience. It was like a fruity nutty chocolate. I'm like okay when I get a snack I'm gonna get Was it winter? It was winter yeah. That's why we have hot chocolate in the summer. Pointy end down river. There's this cool little sandbar right here. This is really cool. So we're on this little sandbar. We're gonna make this camp tonight. Cook some steaks. Hang out. Fish. Catch a prize-winning walleye. Tell some jokes. Laugh. Maybe cry a little bit. Reflect on life and just have a jolly time. We have a lot of time and not a lot that we need to do. Look at that. I love walleye. They're my favorite. We'd keep this if we didn't have steaks but we got lots of steaks so we're gonna let this guy go. No that's a big walleye. Oh my god dude. That's like a massive walleye. Holy crap. Okay that's like the biggest walleye I've ever seen. Wow. Oh my god. Look at that thing. That is massive. That is such a good fish. Oh my god. I did not expect to catch a massive walleye like this and such a beautiful fish too. Holy cow. Good. That was like the most beautiful walleye I've ever seen. It was perfect. It was massive. Yes. Give me a high five. Nice. So sick. All right let's get you one. Let's do it. You want to use my rod? Uh. Or you can use. No I need to champion my own rod. Okay let me see. Modest but. All right stick your rod beside my rod. It's not the size of the rod that matters. No it's. It's how you use it. I also don't know how to use a fishing rod so. Well. It's just. Just keep on casting. We can get you on one of these twister tails but they're quite similar so. Cozy with each other. You said you had an infinite amount of green onions. So like. That's fair. I mean I showed the camera how much you got. Yeah. I gotta put it right close. This river didn't excite me all that much. It's kind of like quite easy and not extremely remote. But honestly it's such a good day and just getting to hang out with Dylan is priceless really. He's just over there icing his finger in the water because he burnt it on some metal. But we got some hot chocolates. Fire going at the thermosel. Killing all the bugs in our mitts because it's uh they just started coming out but yeah it's good to be here. Bummer. How bad is it? I mean it's kind of impossible to tell in this light. Where is it? Oh it's like it's terrible when you like burn yourself grabbing something because it's right between my thumb and then like on my pointer finger. Okay. So it's like that right. Oh yeah. Yeah you definitely burnt yourself. Yeah it's kind of blistered. Yeah. Not burnt. Wakey wakey. It's Christmas. You got the fire going and food. Food's ready. Got the coffee. Yeah yeah. You got all those things? All the things are in order. Just wait a couple minutes. I guess it's time to wake up then. Sorry? I guess it's time to wake up then. River and rapids today. What time is it? Okay. Well. Hey. I offered Dylan the first pancake but he insisted that I take it. Anyways Dylan. Yeah. How's your fingers? Awesome. I'm actually really stoked. No blistering. Doesn't really hurt at all. All right. Cool. Nice 360. All right before we get going on the day I just want to talk about the new boat that I got in the fleet and this one is an Eskif Pocket Canyon made in T4 Max that I picked up from Derek over at Paddle.ca. Eskif makes boats in T4 Max. T4 Max is a very durable material. Excellent for ripping over rocks, running through whitewater. It just it'll last the test of time. Super stoked to be in this boat. The Pocket Canyon has a hull shape that's very good for whitewater. Stoked to be in that and Derek over at Paddle.ca hooked me up with this thing. He's extremely knowledgeable in all things canoeing especially when it comes to Eskif boats. If you're looking to get into your first boat maybe your second boat or you just don't know anything about canoes and you kind of want to figure out which canoe might be right for you call Derek over at Paddle.ca. Give him a call. Message him and he's going to help set you guys up. Great guy. So check him out. Paddle.ca. Eskif. T4 Max. Awesome boat. So stoked to have it in the fleet. Isn't that right girl? That's right. So Dylan's learning some strokes and he's getting his J-stroke better but also something that Jim Baird taught me and it's really good to have it in your mind when you're you're paddling especially when you're trying to make paddle moves is you're not trying to just paddle you're not trying to just bring your paddle towards your boat you're trying to bring your boat towards the paddle so every stroke you make if you can just visualize yourself bringing your boat to where the paddle is it gives you significantly more power because you find different muscles to activate. It's for sure leveled up my strength in a boat. That was awesome. It was kind of exciting and we kind of found it pretty easy for that first one at least. Great. Yeah we're on here in Quebec these well I absolutely love rivers are my favorite way to canoe but what's interesting about these rivers here in Quebec is they're very sandy it seems and the same latitude in Ontario where we are just a province province beside us it's all Canadian Shield which is all bedrock so it's a totally different environment. Oh this is kind of unique. I feel like by the end of it though we're gonna get sick of all the sand in our clothes and our tents and in our food but so far nice little change of pace. We got ourselves another bassie. Did you get it unstuck? Damn. Or did I break it? No I think I think I got it. Yeah you gotta be careful there's a lot of weight on this so it's gonna fly back. It's gonna sink really quick? Oh I see yeah. I could throw a lighter weight on it. No let me yeah okay this is on here. Sweet sweet. Do you want to eat them for lunch? Yeah I'd be down. Sweet. We've been out here for almost 24 hours and we've gone five kilometers down the stream we are really taking our time I think we have 55 kilometers total we've done five. 50 more to go in the next day and a half roughly you know cut all that. Oh and then you try to go behind to get to the spine and come down the fly okay the reason why I leave that on is because then I can just put my knife into this here and it holds it for me as I finish off the fly. Do it do it man you can't do it Xander can. To the bottom yeah yeah all the way to is yeah watch watching you're not stabbing yourself here or a bit further yeah you can go all the way through but it's harder to hold on to the fish as you do the last part yeah that's that's fine there yeah I'm gonna come back to the top picking up the sand on the knife and then pulling it into the fish oh geez brilliant hey that's not bad man yeah that's great yeah actually I got uh you might want to cut that little bit of skin off uh yeah up here yeah I'm gonna rinse this first how many times do I swing it around my head before I throw it in the water is it like what's the normal practice two to three two two to three yeah okay let me say thank you thank you hey Xander this is you when you're on that beach somewhere and perfection this broke apart sorry bud it's really nice yeah it feels like you know fluffy is the right word but the texture is nice well like low on the fishy tasting yeah it doesn't taste frozen that'd be weird but I'm just saying that breading was a good idea come here oi oi talking to you yeah the beginner move I always do it well not as much anymore thank goodness but uh when you get jostled you you let go of the paddle want to grab the ground but you always want to hold the paddle always don't let go of the paddle yeah so the map says that it's a class one but we realize that the class one's on this side and we already have our canoes over here on this side plus that looks like like a lot of fun um so we're gonna run this side though problem is you got to come around this corner here and then there's this kind of flipper if you flip just uh scream and howl and wait for you to come just try to like grab the rope in the back and try to get to the shore keep my feet up yeah and make sure all your stuff is secured down but you want to hit that straight yeah and if you hit it sideways lean into that right not up river so I don't feel the canoe yeah a lot of fun at that last rapid what an unexpected treat we have probably around five more kilometers we want to make it today maybe a bit longer we're still on the first map we have two and a half maps to do with the majority of the paddling that we have given ourselves to do tomorrow because we want to head out of here early on our fourth day because we got to get back so still a lot of paddling to do it's like 5 30 and uh getting tired great day that's cool that's kind of cool yeah that's like cute little whatever you call them i think cute what'd you say you just said this is only camp two and i said what do you mean what do you see it's like a fair amount of dragonflies i don't know what business they conduct this is some sort of territorial dispute right or actually you know they're probably just eating a bunch of these little things are sand gnats or i don't know whatever these tiny little bugs are whatever that's on us yeah it's just covering our bodies right now they're whipping around yeah they're ripping it whoa it's kind of hard to keep track of even one oh yeah the cheese got the prosciutto the pear and then we got goat cheese on top the goat cheese on top looks a little weird it's supposed to be like italian sweet and savory but now it's just like something else this is offensive to all the italian viewers yeah people don't like it when i call these things pizzas yeah calling it a pizza is a bit of a stretch though this is like closer to like a panini or something right good morning everyone fell right asleep and now it's 7 a.m back on the water it's five minutes to 15 after nine we are we are still stuck in this braided section so a lot more winding back and forth till we get to some rapids and then some swifts which should accelerate our pace to the finish line and uh potentially we're getting rain tonight so that might make things wet and sandy but we shall see but for now it's nice to be back on the water that's what you get dylan thought he'd be cute and tried to run me off the river not on my watch bucko trying to pit maneuver me such a bastard you were adopted yeah there you go like that yeah you got it keep that tension yep there you go nice there you go you're on the board i'm on the board all right the first rapid of the day it's an easy class one nice hold uh hold up the the dorsal fin nice man great fish is that your first walleye yeah dude so nice beautiful isn't that a nice fish there's a cutie nice catch dude dylan caught another one okay all right so this next rapid coming up is called 50 50 rapids and the reason why it's called 50 50 is because there's a 50 chance you live and there's a 50 chance you die so pretty much follow the main yellow stream going through here around that you have a big one right there that hole like that micro hole right there just try to punch it straight if you end up backwards for whatever reason paddle forward paddle forward you'll gain control okay yeah that'd be a really nice place to have a camp cabin or a hunt camp oh my goodness is that a lot of fun well we'll see how dylan does i feel like the perfect spot for developing new skills is when you you think you can do something but kind of a little bit unsure you're a little bit hesitant you got that little bit of a free adrenaline i got that i'm excited to do this so let's see how it goes i wouldn't be surprised if dylan has a few bruises after that one came too far right sorry too far right and then uh i don't know what it's called i tried to like cross stroke or crossbow draw and you're swiping the air and then you just want to do it again i kind of do yeah you should do it again will dylan make his second attempt with an empty canoe place your bets i don't think he will he's never paddled an open empty canoe yet so we'll see redemption i'm sorry dylan for doubting you you crushed it yes yes three oh thread the needle or will he spill down these rapids i guess we'll find out so much adrenaline that just never kind of goes down and then probably also like not eating and drinking enough water we ate no lunch today yeah we ate no lunch breakfast was pretty it's high calorie but just sugar just sugar yeah there's a lot of sugar so i feel like i'm like buzzing so i'm i'm kind of happy that was the the last one and i'm glad i ran it yes yeah i was gonna make you run it yeah no it's uh yeah so that's why i was hesitating i'm like this looks easier than the other ones but i'm just feeling different it's kind of like at a built-up intensity almost i've definitely bailed on rap i wasn't gonna make you run it but uh you're gonna suggest i was gonna suggest it yeah but i've definitely bailed on rapids because at the end of the day i'm just like you know what i'm too tired i can't think straight and then i'll just skip rapids yeah good day good day good day a really great day what was your favorite part of the trip personally the sand just getting sand on all of my gear and i liked 50 50 a lot i felt like my first actual rapid right yeah how about you that's my favorite part yeah probably no the fish the fish oh yeah obviously it was the fish yesterday the fish on day one no i'm just kidding i was hanging out with you good morning it's raining it's raining out oh my god i gotta go on i should do this more often you should if only you didn't have work and you weren't an engineer getting your phd lame come live in the woods with me yeah it's one of those things where it's you never feel like you have the time and then you just take the time and it didn't matter yeah it didn't really impact your work that much at all we're just about at the pullout we uh had an early morning this morning dylan's got to get home which makes sense he's got a life i don't so we're gonna get out of here what an awesome paddling session we had dylan absolutely blew me away with uh his paddling skills he is a paddling savant and i'm just absolutely so stoked to be out here with him but uh plus just ahead so we're gonna wrap this one up i hope you guys enjoyed that one as much as i did thanks for watching cheers goodbye cheers goodbye