Al Stirt, Wendy Scott and Friends: Canoe Tripping in Northern Quebec and Labrador

 

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Nastapoka River

We've done two trips down the Nastapoka. In 2006, Wendy and I, Dave Brown and Bob Kimber flew from Raddisson to the Upper Seal Lakes. We traveled from there down a river to the east end of Seal Lake. (We called the river the upper Nastapoka, but it doesn't have a name on the map). We paddled to the western edge of the lake where the Nastapoka begins its journey to Hudson Bay.

From the mouth of the river on Hudson Bay, we paddled down to Umiujaq and traveled via a commercial flight back to Raddisson. We waited a few days for our canoes to arrive (via a freight flight) and then drove home.

The country is all semi-barren with varied terrain and lots of waterfalls, ledges and runnable rapids. The Nastapoka is a little gem of a river and it's one of my favorites.

For our second trip, in 2008, I paddled with Alexandra Conover and Dave and Ann were in the second canoe. We started from Kuujjuarapik and traveled up the Hudson Bay Coast to Richmond Gulf. We crossed the Gulf and went up the Wiachouan River and then pond to pond to get to the Clearwater River. We went up the Clearwater into Clearwater Lake and then went north to Seal Lake. For this part of the route, we were traveling on an old First Nations route, as described by A.P. low in 1898.

From Seal Lake we travelled as on our previous trip, ending again at Umiujaq.

The Nastapoka is now part of a National Park that includes Clearwater Lake and the surrounding area.

 

 

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