xxxxxEarth River Expeditions a small, highly regarded New York-based outfitter. Its specialty is combining rafting the world's great white-water rivers with an intense cultural and environmental experience. Its principal, Eric Hertz, and guides are among the most experienced rafters and kayakers in the business; the locations the company visits are some of the most remote.
xxxxxThe Cree have lived in northern Quebec for 5,000 years, but only in the past twenty have they come to understand what it might be like to live without their land. Since the early 1970s, Quebec's government and Hydro-Quebec, an influential power company, have successfully bought and subsequently flooded thousands of acres once covered by firs and Cree trap lines. The government's goal is to create a string of massive hydropower dams. The Cree are fighting to preserve many thousands more acres and a dozen fast-flowing rivers that the government would like to see turned into power sources. This trip will take you to two of those rivers - the Grande Riviere de la Baleine (Great Whale River) and the Riviere de l'Eau Claire - in the company of several Cree leaders engaged in the fight against the damming of the James Bay/Hudson Bay area.
xxxxxThe village of Great Whale -home to 500 Inuit and 500 Cree - sits at the confluence of the Great Whale River and Hudson Bay, 620 miles north of Montreal and 124 miles from the closest asphalt road. You shuttle up-river by float plane and spend five days rafting down the Great Whale River. The rapids are big Class IVs (Class VI are waterfalls), which make for long, wet, fun-filled days. At night , up go the eighteen-man tepees. The Cree are more than happy to share the history of their people and their land as you communally make the night's fire and dinner (bannock, fresh trout, smoked caribou, duck, goose and - the whtie man's contribution- pasta) while camped on spongy moss riverbanks. Overhead are miraculous views of the northern lights, which turn the sky technicolor green, blue, yellow and red each night.
xxxxxHaving successfully navigated the Great Whale river, it's back into the float plane for an hour's flight farther north, away fro even the remote villages, to the headwaters of the Eau Claire. (While the company has run raft trips on the Great Whale River, only a handful of guides have ever rafted the Eau Claire.) Herds of caribou can be seen swimming across the river; the scenery is unmatched. Even August nights are cool (you're at 55 degrees north latitude, just south of the Arctic Circle) but the days are warm. The four day float-and-paddle (with some portages), a mix of calm and white water, offers untouched geography.
xxxxxAfter seeing this region of northern Quebec -its land unchanged for thousands of years. its people for now relatively untouched by civilization- you realize that some people still live their lives as dictated by their natural surroundings rather than Filofaxes and TV schedules.