Mattawa River Canoe Route

The original voyageur highway — a wilderness canoe route through Canadian Shield lakes

The Mattawa River is now a provincial park and one of the most historically significant canoe routes in Canada. The river connects a chain of lakes between Lake Nipissing and the Ottawa River over about 60 kilometres, following the exact path that First Nations people, Champlain, and generations of voyageurs used for centuries. The portages are the same ones marked on 17th-century French maps.

The paddling itself suits intermediate canoeists: a mix of flat lake crossings, current, and a handful of rapids. Most people take three to four days. The route is not heavily commercialised — there are backcountry campsites but no lodges or outfitters on the river itself. Canoe rentals are available in Mattawa town. The Canadian Shield geology along the route is striking, with pink granite outcrops rising above dark water edged with black spruce and jack pine.

things to do sight
A story
Samuel de Champlain first paddled the Mattawa River in 1615, following an Indigenous route that would become the main corridor of the French fur trade. For two centuries, voyageurs paddled enormous canots du maitre — up to 12 metres long, carrying four tonnes of trade goods — through these same rapids and portages. At the height of the fur trade, a voyageur from Montreal might paddle 16 hours a day, singing to keep the stroke rhythm, cover 80 kilometres, and smoke exactly two pipefuls of tobacco at rest stops spaced along the river.