The trip down the Mattawa river can be best summed up as good company in the land of heat, bugs, and drunken kids.

All was well. It was 8:30 p.m. on Friday night with a planned departure at 7:30 in the morning and the telephone rang..... it was Catherine. "Hi Don... I'm in Edmonton.... I will not be able to get back to Ottawa until 10:00am tomorrow.... what are you going to do?" We were left with the decision of abandoning one of the group or sleeping in and getting a late start. The pillow won.

12:30 saw us rendezvoused and ready to roll. By 5:00 p.m. we were ready to hit the river. The near campsites were all taken with power-boaters so we ended up camping at the dam portage. Out came the camping gear, and fifteen minutes later supper was cooking.

We woke up in the morning and started paddling around 7:30. There were lots and lots of power-boaters at every stretch of water that was road accessible. It seemed that they were at every campsite. Most campsites looked like someone had just pitched a tent on it to claim the site.

We stopped for lunch at Talon Lake Dam. We were treated to several groups of young "adults" camped along the edges of the cliffs with several fires burning. You really need a fire to keep warn when it is 32 degrees Celsius. There seemed to be a steady stream of beer cans being thrown off the cliffs, lots of loud talking with every third or fourth word being F**K, and cliff diving. I started to paddle out to take some pictures of the chute below the dam but got disgusted by the incredible amount of beer cans floating in the water (at least 3 dozen)  and  did not want to brave the barrage from the cliffs. After lunch, as we packed up, the comment was made: "Lets get out of here before one of those idiots kills themselves." This was a prophetic comment, we found out after the trip that one did manage to fall to his death. None of us were surprised.

We continued along, passed another group of drunk campers on the next portage, and after several more portages left the idiots behind. Now that we were away from road access the trip got quieter and the scenery got better. We passed several more campsites that had tents on them to claim them and just as things were getting desperate a very nice and EMPTY campsite was found.

It was a long day's travel in brutal heat. The group worked very well together and everyone performed to their best. After some food, coffee, and tea all was well. After demonstrating how to eat cookies without unzipping the bug suit I finally went to bed for a short nap.... waking up the next morning.

A good hearty breakfast, camp was quickly struck, and we were on the water again. The heat was brutal! You stop for a swim and minutes later you are overheated again! We made it into Mattawa, left the gear and people in the shade, and did the car shuttle.

We survived clouds of black-flies, some very friendly mosquitoes, record shattering heat, and had a good time doing it. Thank you Catherine, Mike, Cathy, Bill, and Vince for coming along on the trip.

I would not recommend going down the Mattawa River again during a long weekend. There was way too much boat traffic and most campsites were claimed with tents while there was nobody around to go with them. We were very lucky to have found ONE empty campsite on the first half of the trip and were even more lucky to have not been witness to the death at Talon Chutes. Public drunkenness was rampant and a steady stream of garbage was tossed into the river.

Don Haines