Wilderness Canoeing: Paddling the Bloodvein River

[@larrythompson5617]

I've ben moose hunting this area for 25 yrs with great success. Thanks for the update.

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Fantastic area. I feel so privileged to have travelled this river four times over the years.

[@jefflanham1080]

Ray’s is great…..and that British humor is refreshing.

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Thank you

[@PaulKirtley]

Thanks for putting this together Ray. It's a very nice document of our third trip down the Bloodvein together.

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

It took some time! I went back completely refiled all the original video clips and started again. So only four and half years to produce it. Almost a record for me.

[@LostLakes]

Great video Ray, loved the flashbacks and narration which both added very nicely to the experience, especially contrasted against the dry rapids and fire. Cheers!

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Glad you enjoyed it and thank you for the kind words. Mind I only dream of the success you are having with your channel. Keep up the great content. Best wishes, PS for anyone else reading this click on the Lost Lakes icon for great video of the Canadian Wilderness (and a bit of fishing)

[@LostLakes]

@@RayGoodwinCanoe Thank you good sir :)

[@XanderBudnick]

Awesome trip thanks for sharing, I've always wanted to do the blood vein, hopefully next spring the water levels are higher

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

It is tremendous. But that last trip was a terrible water level but still an adventure

[@XanderBudnick]

Still looked like a blast :D

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

@@XanderBudnick It was except the second time we ran out of river!

[@majordave4789]

Awesome video. Very helpful for those of us wanna-bees.

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Glad to be of help. Thank you

[@Igorfun]

Still a great adventure Ray. Friday I will be on the water , only micro rapids but I will certainly see some beautiful birds, the real ones with feathers 😉. Keep paddling, Igor from Belgium

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Sounds wonderful. I love rivers and even easy ones give me great pleasure. With the birds it sounds great

[@bencollyer2296]

Absolutely beautiful just to see them pictographs our ancient ancestors painted all them years ago. Just wonderful.and respect for sticking to tradition with an offering. I hope the ancestors see your offering and blessed your journey

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

I feel privileged to just feel a small part of continuing that tradition. The camp spots we use and the portages we carry over had been used by the indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Wonderful to be there

[@bencollyer2296]

That’s nice of you. Bless mate it’s mad how low the water is

[@KevinOutdoors]

Wow, only half way through I realized this was this year. Well done!

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Hi Kevin, not this year. I was on the Porcupine this year (2023). The video covers the 2020 trip with snippets from three earlier trips. Hope that clarifies. Now working on the Porcupine videos. Best wishes, Ray

[@KevinOutdoors]

@@RayGoodwinCanoe Thanks Ray that does clarify. I just saw you out with KC you are certainly getting a lot of Canadian waters in. I am going to have to add the Bloodvein to my to-do list. Greetings from Thunder Bay.

[@tailwindsnorth]

Looked like a frustrating trip with those water levels. This river is on our list. Thanks for sharing.

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Yep it was frustrating particularly when I guessed wrong on channels

[@Mainepolingguide]

Ray, thanks so much for including the pics of previous water levels. It’s why as canoeists we can do the same rivers several times and it’s never the same. The fire must have been nerve racking. There’s enough to keep track of on a wilderness canoe trip without adding that to the mix. Great video.

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Thank you Lisa. Yep I realised I had footage and photos from 4 trips and it was the different water levels that stood out, so pleased I could illustrate that. The one ‘fire’ night was stressful. The group were briefed to unpack the minimum and be prepared for a quick retreat to the water. Thankfully with the wind dying down so did the fire. Keep well

[@paddlermike]

Just back from a trip down the Bloodvein from Barclay Lake. The river is a truly magical place, and we were blessed with a strong paddling group and unseasonably high water levels (more like your 2015 photos). Its amazing how much the rapids change with water levels, so much so that many in the video are hard to reconcile with my memories that will never fade. We got out at the bridge, not having seen any bears. Trailer loaded, we set off across the bridge - just as a bear cub crossed the road. Wonderful. Haps guide was very useful! Lol, i am sure Graham R will tell you all about it.

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Doing it in very low water was a real eye opener after doing it in high. Sounds like you had a great trip. PS we finished in Bloodvein Village. Driver took us to the village dump. Three well fed bears there. Only ones on that trip,.

[@paddlermike]

@@RayGoodwinCanoe it's a fantastic place, a pity that we don't have such expansive wilderness within the UK. And everyone was just so welcoming

[@duncanbrown7160]

Wonderful! Wetted the appetite, as I’m paddling the Missinaibi with Paul and Henry next year. Many thanks for sharing the adventure!

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

I am gutted not to going to the Missinaibi but it was time for me to step down. 70 years and the body is telling me enough of the portaging. You will have a great time. Have you seen my Missinaibi video? kzbin.info/www/bejne/oojOdHmPn66Jlac

[@RoryMatchett]

Nice video of your trip. Glad you liked one of our nice Canadian rivers. I was glad to see that the grab loops on your rental canoes were correctly located in a low position. Really helps for lining and tracking. Most manufacturers install them much too high on canoes, then the general population sees them in that location and assume it is correct, so they copy it. When I see a canoe with a low down grab loop I know instantly that the installer is an experienced wilderness canoeist. Thanks for taking the trouble to film and edit the video. Much appreciated. From Rory- Paddle Canada Instructor Trainer and wilderness traveller.

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Many thanks Rory. Much appreciated. I have loved paddling the Canadian trips (indeed all my North American trips). Been as far south as the Rio Grande in the US and on the Bonnet Plume in the north. Loved every river or area, been one of the passions of my life. Sadly time and health have caught up with me, something I explore on our Porcupine River trip. But all things come to an end and it has been wonderful.

[@robbullis5025]

Nice trip Ray. I live about 15 miles south of were NorthStar canoes are made. Ted & Bear build some great canoes.

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

They are great and well built canoes. Loved the B17

[@paddlermike]

Awesome video - Hoping to get there this year.

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Have fun!

[@nigelgregory7308]

Wow, Ray that looked both an awesome trip and a frustrating journey due to the lack of water. In the context of an expedition you have to deal with what you come across and overcome the problems, I'm sure everyone had a great time with lots of great memories of a journey that was different, I also believe that Bert is Dutch and I met him on Frontiers forest hunter course in 2019, small world, take care Ray keep the videos coming, still watching the old stuff over and over 👍👍☕️☕️

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Yep it was Bert! A real star on a trip. And thank you for the kind video remarks

[@willcravens2893]

awesome video !

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Thank you. Appreciated

[@NobleEndeavours123]

It was very, very interesting to see the contrasting waterlevels as shown by your previous year pictures mixed in with the footage. I also quite enjoyed the slippy sliding rock especially since usually that would be me landing on my butt and sliding in to the water much to my friend's amusement! Thanks for sharing!

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

yep I was hoping the water level contrast would interest folk. so thank you for confirming that. Yep it was a very slippery rock.... I kept well clear.

[@spoonerbooner]

Really enjoyed that Ray, off to Llangollen this weekend really looking forward to get on the water its been a while

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Thank you. Enjoy your time in Llan. I am off to work on Windermere for a week from Sunday.

[@grahamrowe6278]

Fire! Disaster... Nice boats Ray.

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Yep it was interesting (not in a good way) to be in the middle of a forest fire. Great river though. Keep well Graham.

[@alistairwylie6730]

Fabulous

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Thank you

[@JaguarInfinity]

I paddled this river in 2007, crazy to see the river level so low! And it almost seems a shame not to take the old ferry boat back across the lake at the end of the trip now that the village has road access!

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Yep desperate low level. Took the ferry back across at the end of my first trip. 2nd time the ferry broke down: had to paddle back upstream to where they were building the bridge for a road extraction. Loved that ferry trip

[@downeastprimitiveskills7688]

Low levels can still make for a technical run. I do enjoy picking the way through low water, usually with a pole. I would guess this smooth ledge base would require a pike on the end of the pole perhaps hope to gain some traction with. We've had a dry spring here in Maine with low water levels and just received a week of welcome rain making many of my local streams runnable again.

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

It would have been interesting doing the journey in reverse at that level. A Maine poler would be in their element. Out of intent rivers here are exceptionally low except for dam releases.

[@ryanhines2857]

I’ve got the exact same canoe and layup. Planning for Bloodvein in 2024. Wondering your opinion on bow and stern flotation bags for tripping? I’m going to add eyelets for middle flotation bags for playing in whitewater. Obviously we won’t use those for tripping. Eyelets will probably make pulling bags out on trip at portages more challenging though. Debating on whether I should rig bow and stern with small or medium flotation bags as well. More weight to carry though on a trip but would make things easier in a capsize.

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Hi Ryan, yep it's a great river. Done it four times now each time as a guiding trip. On the Bloodvein we had no room for airbags in bow or stern as we had so much gear for the trip. All the packs were normally tied with a pair of cords running from bow seat to the last thwart. This way the gear provided the buoyancy in a swamping or capsize. For British stuff I tend to drill and lace the sides rather than use eyelets. Personal choice but in the early days of my canoeing I found the eyelets less reliable. Hope that helps a little.

[@jjjpppggg1]

Great video, great information. We will be doing this trip shortly and it looks like we will have low water levels too. I was wondering which channel of the three near the end of the trip would you recommend to use in low water levels. Thanks!

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Glad it was helpful and here is hoping you have more water than on my last trip. We took the river right channel so that didn't work. Have fun

[@CraigJOutdoors]

Great video and well documented! I am curious; were these already know fires or did you have a way of reporting them upon discovery?

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

The river had only just reopened after a month of closure due to the fires. These would have picked up by satellite. We had a sat phone so spoke to our base to let them know and kept them updated on our situation. Thank you for your kind words

[@CraigJOutdoors]

@@RayGoodwinCanoe Ah that makes sense. Thanks for your response!

[@jimhanson7476]

Nice…

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@martinoutdoors6941]

I don’t ever imagine Canadian rivers to be that low on water.

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

And considering the area it drains it stunned me too. So I have paddled it in massive flood and desperate low.

[@ManitobanOutdoors]

Nice video! I might have missed mention of it, how many days did it take you?

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

13 days including flight in day and pick up day. Thanks

[@fedorov1984]

Ray, Are those Kevlar canoes? How do you protect them from damage on such trips?

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

These are Northstar canoes in their IPX material. This material was designed for hard use in whitewater. northstarcanoes.com/canoe/b-17/. Scroll down on the link and there is info on IPX

[@akcarlos]

it seems to me that some of the portages could have been paddled, were you being extra cautious because of some of the paddlers skill level or just in general because you were so faraway from help?

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

If you look closely all the rapids we portaged had an abundance of rock. You don't risk a boat, or a person, this far into the wilderness. On one of the trips we were lining a lot of the grade 2 rapids, a year later we were running a lot of the grade 3 ones. Water was higher and the rocks were well under water so no risk even to boat or swimmer, every grade 3 we paddled ran out into flat water so recovery was easy. So yep extra cautious when there are lots of rocks to dodge. Plus manoeuvring heavily laden canoes is not easy within a rapid, so not only did we have all our personal gear but cook kit and food for 13 days. Caution is the key in such a deeply committing environment.

[@akcarlos]

@@RayGoodwinCanoe I'm in agreement with you however I often get grief for being too conservative in these things so wanted to understand your thought processes.

[@yukonheart]

NO insects ? lol Also what was the water level ? IS there a reference gauge ? Amazing trip !! Really enjoyed watching this . Use to canoe switched over to WW kayaking but getting a bit old for that . I would really like to do a trip like this ! Will have to see if I can get some people together !!

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

It was in early September so few insects. There is a gauge above Bloodvein Village but I didn’t get any data. Sorry

[@melarch.5424]

You should take a look at a recent trip down the river, where the Stagger Inn cabin has been completely trashed by a bear! Here is the link to part one (five parts): kzbin.info/www/bejne/aaiZnZRrq89qi5o

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Thanks for that. For those that have been with me on the river the part with the Stagger Inn damage is: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nIaUnWh8p8mknNksi=LU2LW-XX8C_F2koM