We rounded a bend in the river and immediately hit Tri-play Rapids. I had misread Hap's description of this rapid, thinking that it was 3 consecutive rapids in a row. What is was, rather, was a small ledge in the river that contained three different channels or V's across the span of the river. I opted for the one on river-left, a nice little CI over a couple of tiny haystacks. Fun. 

Within a half hour, we were taking out on the right to portage past Rapides Gallinotes, two waterfalls separated by a CI rapid. Between the falls, it was runnable, but again, Dad and I find that the in-and-out of the boat, including the loading and reloading, is as much work, if not more, than a single carry. We opted to carry the 525 meters past everything. I felt these falls to be one of the prettiest spots on the river. 

We carried over our first load and took our time taking photos and investigating the falls on our return trip for the second load. The rapids started with a ledge drop amongst a collection of large boulders.   

Then, the river dropped into the upper falls, which I found to be the nicest en route. 

We walked out to the rock above the falls and took the opportunity to get a couple of shots of us with the falls in the background. Dad and I don't often pose for photos, but this time we made an exception. 

Here is a shot of the run leading to the bottom falls for those opting to put back in to decrease portage distance. 

It is an easy run between them, no doubt. Paddlers would just want to make sure they get out on the right again to avoid going over the nastiness at the bottom pictured below. 

After putting in at the end of the portage and paddling out into the swifts below the drop, we turned to take one last look at Gallinotes from below. 

Just downriver and around a bend from there, we ran an easy CI on a bend. There were a couple of trailers that looked to be permanently placed on the right bank at that bend. 

Between that CI and the confluence with the East Coulonge, the river moved swiftly. Although there were no major drops in the river, there were continuous swifts along this section. In the high water we were enjoying, these swifts were more like an easy CI where the two rivers met. 

Just after that, we went through Rapids Poplar which were nothing more than swifts. 

Twenty minutes following Poplar, we arrived at Rapides #52, a CII run amongst some boulders and rocks. We pulled over on the right to scout them and discovered that there was a road there that we could use to portage if needed. There was a large cabin at the end of the portage that would require paddlers to walk in front of to get to the put-in. No one appeared to be at the cabin, so we were happy not to be disturbing anyone when we walked past it. 

Upon scouting the rapids, Dad didn't feel comfortable running them, but I wanted to give it a go. So, we carried our gear to the bottom, and I ran the rapids alone with the food barrel only. I stayed right of Hap's suggested route avoiding the large boulders at the bottom to the right of them rather than the left. It was a fun run! Here are some photos of the rapids I took while walking first to scout them. 

By that time of the day, the clouds finally left and we had some full-on sunshine! We ate our lunch on the beach at the put-in, soaking up some badly needed rays. 

After putting in and moving downriver, I turned to snap another shot of the run from below. 

Forty-five minutes later, we arrived at Chute a l'Ours, a must-carry past a falls. It was just before 2:45 PM at this point, and although it was early in the day, we decided we would make camp for the night there. Despite the fact that we were finally enjoying sunshine for the moment, the weather app on my sat. device was predicting rain on its way later...again. Chute a l'Ours was supposed to have a nice site and we wanted to be set up with a tarp before things got wet. 

Once again, we found ourselves at a portage with marked campsites at either end. We walked the length of the trail to see which was the better site of the two. We much preferred the one at the start of the trail which meant we would complete the portage with our gear the following day. We did take some photos on the walk, though. 

The bottom half of this drop was a CIII and CIV run into a small waterfall. The portage trail went through the forest at the top and then led down across a slab of rock at the river's edge. Here are some photos of the hefty rapids from that part of the trail. 

The campsite at the end of the trail was the smaller of the two and was in a grove of trees on a bluff overlooking the river. The most interesting thing about that site was the rather colourful commode -- another communion of art and pooping on the Coulonge River. 

We walked back to our site at the start of the trail and investigated more there. There was a large open and flat space to pitch a number of tents, a beautiful firepit, and the choice of either a rocky front porch or a beach for river access. Here is a picture from the rocky front porch looking downriver. The beach area is on the right.  

We set up our tent, hammock, and tarp. We then got a bunch of firewood ready and stowed it under the tarp to keep it dry before the rain came. 

We were a bit grimy from collecting and cutting firewood, so we went down to the river to wash off. While doing so, Dad was visited by a snake which surprised him. The snake hung out in the water for a bit between Dad, who was swimming in the river, and his towel and clothes on shore. That stubborn fellow did not want to seem to move despite Dad's efforts to splash and shout at it in an attempt to scare it away. Snakes hear by vibration and not at all in the way that humans do. The snake was underwater, so I'm sure it couldn't detect the vibrations of Dad's voice. I found the situation comical! Dad...not so much at the time. 

We were subjected to a sprinkle or two while making dinner, but by 6:45 PM we could feel the barometer dropping and the air cooling. The sky got really dark and foreboding. 

It rained steadily for a half hour or so, but no storm arrived. I think the brunt of the showers missed us, thankfully. With all the rain that we had experienced over the trip thus far, I felt that there simply wasn't enough humidity left in the air to warrant a thunderstorm. It was our last night of the trip and we had definitely had our fill of rain and cloudy weather. The forecast was calling for more rain over the night, but it was supposed to clear up and become sunny the following day. We were certainly hoping and looking forward to that. 

We got a decent fire going that we enjoyed under the tarp amongst intermittent sprinkles. It was cool enough not to be bothered by mosquitos, inviting us to warm our tootsies by the fire while sipping on a whiskey or two. We had a nice night despite the weather.