After many years of running guided trips on the Dumoine (we have been running guided trips on the Dumoine, every years since 1974, {see our 3 and 5 day guided trip options, or we can arrange a private guided trip}) we recently expanded our offerings.  In partnership with Dumoine River Expeditons(DRE) & Noel LeClerc we began offering canoe rentals and shuttles in 2008.  (We do the Canoe Rentals, DRE does the shuttles).

2010 Rental Prices:

Royalex (ABS) Canoes - $30 per day

    (no half day rentals)

Payment & booking can be made in advance to our Warsaw office via mastercard or visa

(phone 706.652.9461) or on line using the online booking form.

Payments & Bookings can also be done on site with Noel LeClerc, Cash or Cheque only. (613-586-2562, dumoine.river.exp@hotmail.com )

Shuttles:

River shuttles are also available through our partner Dumoine River Expeditions.

For shuttles you must call Noel LeClerc at 613-586-2562

Noel Leclerc  dumoine.river.exp@hotmail.com

Sample Private Guided Trip:

Eg:  5 day guided trip for a group of 4

Canoes, Shuttles & Guide:        725pp

            + group trip gear:          $895pp (does not include sleeping bag, sleeping pad, or personal gear)

            + food package:           $1050pp

(plus taxes)

More background on the Dumoine:

The Dumoine is one of seven wild rivers that flow into the Ottawa River off ...

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After many years of running guided trips on the Dumoine (we have been running guided trips on the Dumoine, every years since 1974, {see our 3 and 5 day guided trip options, or we can arrange a private guided trip}) we recently expanded our offerings.  In partnership with Dumoine River Expeditons(DRE) & Noel LeClerc we began offering canoe rentals and shuttles in 2008.  (We do the Canoe Rentals, DRE does the shuttles).

2010 Rental Prices:

Royalex (ABS) Canoes - $30 per day

    (no half day rentals)

Payment & booking can be made in advance to our Warsaw office via mastercard or visa

(phone 706.652.9461) or on line using the online booking form.

Payments & Bookings can also be done on site with Noel LeClerc, Cash or Cheque only. (613-586-2562, dumoine.river.exp@hotmail.com )

Shuttles:

River shuttles are also available through our partner Dumoine River Expeditions.

For shuttles you must call Noel LeClerc at 613-586-2562

Noel Leclerc  dumoine.river.exp@hotmail.com

Sample Private Guided Trip:

Eg:  5 day guided trip for a group of 4

Canoes, Shuttles & Guide:        725pp

            + group trip gear:          $895pp (does not include sleeping bag, sleeping pad, or personal gear)

            + food package:           $1050pp

(plus taxes)

More background on the Dumoine:

The Dumoine is one of seven wild rivers that flow into the Ottawa River off the southern edge of the Laurentian Highlands.  The Dumoine is not only an ideal river for improving your whitewater skills, it is also considered one of the prettiest rivers of the Ottawa Valley so makes for a great camping trip.  There are a variety of trip options for the Dumoine for trips ranging in length from 3 to 5 or 7 days.  Falling 500 feet in 50 miles, the river descends from Lac Dumoine through an area dominated by a forest cover of black spruce, white and red pine, and pockets of white cedar and white and yellow birch.  As the Ottawa is approached on the southern reaches of the river, maples and ash become a more significant part of the forest.  The fauna of the Dumoine River Valley includes moose and black bear as well as a variety of smaller mammals such as beaver, muskrat and otter.  Fish, particularly pike and pickerel, can be caught along the river.  Bass, speckled trout and lake trout live in the deeper pools along the river or a few miles back in the tributaries.

The river has played an important role as a north-south transportation corridor in the economic history of early groups of Canadians.  The Hurons and other central Ontario tribes who wished to avoid paying the toll which the Allumette Natives charged for portaging across the island used the Dumoine as an alternate route to the Ottawa River on their way to Montreal.  This also allowed the agriculturally oriented Hurons to trade their products with the nomadic Algonquins who inhabited theKipawa and La Verendrye region to the north but who rarely came south for fear of encountering the Iroquois. 

During the French domination of the Ottawa Valley trade routes, a French fort was built at the mouth of the river.  Undoubtedly the Dumoine Fort was deserted by 1701, when Alexander Henry Sr. passed by on his journey west.  The river remained afast route out of the fur country, despite the demise of the French establishment.

Sheerway, halfway down the river, is the site of a number of buildings begun as early as the earlyt nineteenth century when the Hawkesbury Lumber Company began cutting and driving timber on the Dumoine.  By 1870 there were 11 ‘stations' --a station being anything from a dam to a slideway-- on the river.  Evidence of this prosperous and colourful lumbering activity includes the Sheerway buildings, the dam and log chute at the head of the Dumoine gorge, and the numerous huge white pine stumps along the river.  After 1890, the peak of the lumbering in the Dumoine valley passed.  In 1918, the Dumoine Rod and Gun Club was established at the Sheerway site, using many of the Hawkesbury company buildings.  The main structure, once combination hotel, post office, and homestead became the main lodge of the club.

The set of rapids directly above Sheerway, the "Big Steel", was the scene of lively competition in the heyday of the timber trade.  The entire run from the top of Big Steel to the bridge at Sheerway was known as the "horserace."  The name originated with a challenge between the lumbermen and the Indians.  The lumberjacks would race the natives to the bridge from the top of the run, driving their wagons and horseteams while the natives paddled their canoes.  History does not record the results.

Further downstream the massive Dumoine Gorge drops more than 150ft in less than a mile as the river plunges through a series of falls and canyons.  At the beginning of the 20th century the log chute that descended the gorge was still operational, though deteriorating.  The top still exists today upstream of the dam and road and if you walk the scenic gorge trail you can still see remnants of it in other locations.  A story is told of a lumberman who was sent on a special mission from Lac Dumoine to the Ottawa River given only two days and one guide to do it.  Upon reaching the gorge the lumberman was less than enthusiastic about portaging the rough shore trail and welcomed the guide's suggestion to run the chute instead.  He claimed to have done it several years befor3e with a barrel of pork in his canoe.  The first portion was relatively flat, but then the drop off was soon reached.  The chute took several turns in the course of its descent.  As the two approached, the Indian guide turned to his companion, and pale with fear, advised the lumberman to hook his paddle over the right side and "hold on for dear life".  The next turn had no real left wall and if they could not ride the "right rail" they would be thrown out into the gorge below.  Hurtling past this hazard, they reached the bottom, only to have their canoe severely damaged as they exited the chute into mid air a number of feet above the water.  The aftermath of the event was an afternoon of canoe repair and late reaching of their destination.

The scenic lower reaches of the river include the "Bald Eagle Rock" a massive formation that springs from the edge of the river and towers 600ft up to a pin -crowned summit.  There is one final scenic falls before the Dumoine empties into the Ottawa River.  Because of the Dams on the Ottawa at Des Joachims the river is backed up in this section forming a large lake which flooded the lower few km of the Dumoine and allows boats to reach the bottom of the final small falls.