The Upper Ottawa Valley has some incredible rivers for whitewater canoeing. And the Noire River fits the bill especially well. Though not as popular as its two sister rivers, the Dumoine and the Coulonge, the Noire River punches above its weight.
The Noire River is easily accessible, has fantastic whitewater and opportunities to see wildlife, and great campsites. But that’s just the beginning. So if you’re thinking of canoeing the Noire River, here is what the river has in store for you.
Noire River Trip Report
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Note: Many of the photos on this page were taken by my canoe guide partner, Connor Furneaux. You can see more of his work on his photography website.
What to expect canoe camping on the Noire River
The Noire River has everything you could ask for in a river
Located in Quebec and on traditional Algonquin territory, the Noire River (also known as the Rivière Noire) is a south-east flowing river in the Upper Ottawa Valley. Of all the rivers in the Ottawa Valley, this is one of the least paddled, and yet it also has (source):
- Longest distance of paddle-able whitewater
- Shortest distance that must be portaged
- Greatest chance of seeing wildlife
- Lowest chance of encountering other paddlers
That sounds like a win-win-win-win to me!
Planning a trip is fairly straightforward
The Noire River is quite accessible – you can drive to the river from either Toronto or Ottawa in less than six hours. You can park at the Black River Inn and Outfitter and they will shuttle you and your boats to the start of the river.
The inn is located right on the river, so at the end of your trip, you can quickly directly load your gear into your car. Of course, all this needs to be arranged ahead of time.
On the river you can make use of Hap Wilson’s excellent book Rivers of the Upper Ottawa Valley. In the book, he has illustrated all of the rapids on the Noire River in exquisite detail (including which ones to paddle and what line to take, as well as where you definitely need to portage).
The rapids are hand-drawn and don’t have coordinates, so make sure you also bring a set of topographic maps.
Alternatively, there are a few outfitters who run guided trips on the river. This is a good option if you don’t want to coordinate the logistics yourself, or you don’t have the whitewater skills to do the river self-guided. I highly recommend MHO Adventures (I took a trip with them last year and it was awesome).
Despite its calm appearance, the current is deceivingly strong
On our first day, we overshot our campsite by about 25 km. If that doesn’t sound crazy considering that we only had about 10 km to do that day total, meaning the current moved us so quickly we did 250% more than we’d intended.
It didn’t help that the river winds like a flimsy spaghetti strand (see below) and we weren’t sure what kind of campsite we were looking for.
I know arctic rivers have much stronger currents and that gets incorporated into route planning. I think it’s also a lot more obvious in a northern river because the current is visibly moving, often with continuous swifts for hundreds of kilometres.
The Noire River, on the other hand, looked really calm. It meanders its way along, secretly carrying you much faster than you realize. But hey, I’m not complaining. Made for some easy paddling!
Read More: The Ultimate Guide to Canoe Camping
The Noire River has tons of awesome rapids
There are lots of rapids on this river, perfect for an intermediate whitewater paddler. If you’re a little less experienced, all the rapids have well-maintained portages.
My favourite rapid was 50/50, which has a campsite adjacent to it and is perfect for a rest day. We spent the entire day running the set in empty boats, trying different lines and practicing our skills.
To guide you through the river, I highly recommend buying the book I mentioned above, Rivers of the Upper Ottawa Valley. Purchase the book and then photocopy and laminate the river maps and illustrations of the rapids. It’ll help you decide which rapids to run, and which to portage.
We had to use a pulley system to get a canoe down a cliff
This is something I had never done before and haven’t done since. There is a gnarly portage called “The Mountain Chute” around a waterfall and it gets incredibly steep at the end.
In order to get down to where you put in the canoe, there are ropes tied to trees to guide you down or support you going up. But you can’t exactly do that with a canoe on your back.
What’s recommended in the Rivers of the Upper Ottawa Valley and by my fellow paddlers is to use a pulley system. Whitewater canoe guides carry several types of rope, pulleys and carabiners for whitewater safety and these could be used.
I won’t go into the details of how we built it in this post, but you can see in this video what it looked like.
I finally saw a moose on a canoe trip!
Literally all summer I had been dying to see a moose and finally, on the Noire River, it happened. One lovely thing about paddling a relatively unpopular river is that there is very little human activity so scare away wildlife.
Black bear, fox and mink sightings are also common, though I was not lucky enough to see these creatures myself.
But oh my goodness there was so much sand
Two years after the trip I was looking through my trip report and was reminded of how we had sandy campsites for the first six nights. My campsite descriptions, at first optimistic, became bleaker and bleaker as the trip stretched on.
What first described features and offered positive sentiment “The campsite is long and narrow, situated on a sandbank on river right. The sand is everywhere but at least the terrain is flat and smooth for our tents!” soon devolved into “The campsite is sand” and eventually just became “SAND.”
Read More: How to Get Started in Whitewater Canoeing
Though there were eventually some campsites that didn’t have sand
And actually, some of the campsites were quite nice, though I never did get the pesky sand out of my hair (or my socks, my barrel, my tent or my soul). If you’re camping on the Noire River, expect lots of flat and smooth campsites.
It was a crazy fun adventure
Paddling the Noire River is an excellent river for canoeists of any ability. Either go self-guided (just ensure you brush up on your whitewater paddling and rescue skills as there are some big rapids).
Or go with a guided group – this one by MHO Adventures is six nights and also includes a half-day of rafting on the Ottawa River. You are sure to have a blast paddling the white water and enjoying the seclusion!
Have you paddled the Noire River? Would you paddle it now?
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Mikaela,
Is there anyone that will fly you and your gear up the Dumoine or Noire? I am wondering if there is the possibility to charter a float plane to get to the start of the paddle?
Hi Patrick,
You wouldn’t need to get a float plane (I don’t think there is a place wide enough on the river to land one), but Black River Inn does shuttles by van for people & gear. We used them on the Noire and Coulonge, and will be using them again on the Dumoine this year. It’s very affordable compared with flying. Hope that helps!
Mikaela
I have paddled the Noire 4 times back about a decade ago. Our first trip we flew into Lac Raymond to start but the trips after that we all used a shuttle service with a bus and trailer and were cheaper and better. Seeing your pics of Mountain Chutes, 50/50 and memories of Targie and the swifts makes me reminisce. YES, this river is a gem that should be tried. I preferred it over the Dumoine and Coulonge rivers by far.
One thing the Noire definitely has over the other two is character! The pulley portage, the quirky Class III rapids and the alternating sand / forest sites makes it really interesting. I still preferred the Dumoine, but Noire was a close second 🙂
I’m guessing I know this old geezer — and if I’m right, you’ll appreciate this Jeffery.. I’ve got Andy and his gang into the white water adventure. They did two years of flat water–and this year it’s the Noir.. Lol,, totally envious..