Matt's First Blog- Magpie River

          Hey everyone, Matt here. I’m 15 years old, and this is my third year at Keeners.  I live in Asheville, North Carolina, in the United States. I have been kayaking on rivers since I was eight, however in the last few years I have mainly focused on playboating.
          Last week I was also in Canada, but I was up in Quebec on the Magpie River. The Magpie is a beautiful river in the practically untouched Canadian wilderness, which starts on a 100-kilometer lake and ends at the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in the Atlantic Ocean. Our expedition started with a scenic flight to the end of the 100-kilometer lake in a 60-year-old float-plane! It took 3 trips back and forth to shuttle all of the people and gear to the lake. After the last trip, when the plane took off, we were all a little shocked at the silence in the Canadian wilderness.
          Before long, we all geared up and got ready to put on the river. The first day we only ran one rapid, and camped out on the side of the river. It didn’t take very long to realize that we had forgotten our tents. I remember thinking, “This is cool. We can just sleep under the stars.” That’s exactly what I did for the first night, and it was great! Then it rained every night for the rest of the 6-night trip.
          The next days we navigated our way down the river through some gorgeous canyons with the craziest cliff faces I have ever seen. We had a ton of great rapids and a few difficult portages, but it was all in all an amazing trip. It was as life-changing experience to be away the bustle of ordinary life and just go to bed when the sun sets and wake up when the sun rises. I learned how to make leave-no-trace fires that literally leave no trace. I learned how to brush my teeth without leaving a trace. I learned how to line rafts down rapids, and I appreciated the importance and beauty of nature that this trip offered. It’s heartbreaking to know that the Magpie River is likely to be dammed in the future for hydroelectric power. I can only say I am very happy to have paddled this river while it’s still around and I hope many more people will get the opportunity that I had.