Who are we?

Geneviève Labonté is originally from a little town on the south shore of Québec city called Breakeyville. Her story starts at 18 while she travelled to Vancouver to learn her English. She spent one year as a nanny in a family there. At 19 she came back to Quebec and took a course in Montreal to become a travel agent. She graduated and received her first professional diploma in 2003. Lots of work experience followed and a trip to Peru made her dream come true. Geneviève realized that being a travel agent was just not what she wanted in life. She then started looking for alternatives and she found an Adventure Tourism and Ecotourism course given in Quebec. However, she had to wait a year to go back to school since the year’s program had already started. As a result, she decided to move out of the city that she couldn’t stand no more. She moved to the north to a touristic destination called mount Tremblant and worked the whole 2004-2005 winter season there. After saving her money, she returned to school where a whole new adventure began. This is where she met Jesse Allain.

Jesse Allain comes from the Bathurst region in New Brunswick. He has always liked being outdoors, organising activities and having a good time and that’s why his high school career advisor suggested him to take the Adventure Tourism and Ecotourism course given in Quebec.  Jesse also had to wait a full year since the program required students to have one year of work experience.  So, he then worked in Bathurst saving his money to go to school and taking his free time to organise snowboard trips to numerous destinations in Quebec. In May 2005 at 18 years old, he finally moved to Quebec to take his Tourism and Ecotourism course. This was a big change in his life and taking this course was a huge challenge for Jesse. But he doesn’t regret his decision nevertheless. He had a wonderful experience and got the chance to know wonderful people and to do things that he never even thought existed.

Our passion for the outdoors grew stronger and stronger during this year of intense program.  We graduated in 2006 and with lots of expeditions and guiding experiences; we managed to choose in what part of adventure tourism activities we would turn into.

When Jesse arrived on the work market, he became a canoe guide in New-Brunswick. Canoeing became one of his biggest passion when we did a 10 day paddling expedition on a river in the north of Quebec during our program. On the other side of the St-Lawrence River, Geneviève was working as a sea kayak guide on the north shore. Plenty of beautiful memories are still fresh in her thoughts of all her guiding experiences and whale watching tours. When the summer season ended, we decided to achieve a dream that we both shared: driving across Canada. So, we took off on a long journey to the Rockies working a full season of dog sledding in Lake Louise Alberta.

We got an offer from Nature Adventure at the beginning of winter 2006 to buy the company, which gave us the chance to think about it through the winter. We decided to take the challenge. It is not every day that an opportunity like this is offered to you. 2007 was our first season as owners and guides of Nature adventure.
s to offer you something new. More and more projects were taking shape in our heads for the years to come. In 2008, we offered a new river, the Upsalquitch. What a great season with lots of learning and growing experiences.

The lack of jobs in our region and work field brought us to take a big decision for 2008-2009 winter season. We decided to head back west in the Canadian Rockies. Jesse worked as a dog sledding guide in Lake Louise and Geneviève as an interpretive park guide in Banff. Since the economy was going down, Geneviève lost her job and ended up working with Jesse.

Back in the east after a long winter season of work, we were thrilled to be back to Matapedia. It’s when you leave that you realise how much you love the area. Happy and ready to start our 2009 season, nothing could stop us. We had bought 4 new canoes from Nova Craft Canoe and 2 new kayaks from Aquafusion on our way home from the west. We were proud to bring you back some Canadian products to try out. We also bought a new minibus to carry more people on the rivers.  And with all this new stuff, we needed a new guide. So we hired Augustin Eard for 12 weeks. Being a student at College Merici, he needed a place for his internship. Jesse dreamt of a photo contest. So we did one, come and check it out...

We had a wonderful season, thanks to all our clients!!!

So what do you want to do?

Canoeing or Kayaking on one of our 6 different rivers to experience one of nature's beauties... there will be one for every level!

Hiking on the International Appalachian Trail and take your breath away with its magnificent sceneries...

Our history!

Matapedia Nature Adventure was created in 1997 by David Leblanc, a passionate outdoor man who had just finished school and came back to settle in his native region. After graduating from biology and a lot of travelling, he returned to Matapedia to start his very own business (Matapedia Nature Adventure). 

During the first seasons, Nature Adventure offered adventure tourism activities such as: canoeing and kayaking on several rivers (Matapedia River, Restigouche River, Assemetquagan River and Patapedia River). The services included both rental equipment and transportation. The adventure trips varied from 2 hours to 4 days.

Mountain bike rentals were also proposed with canoe-mountain-bike-camping trips. Plenty of bike trails surround Matapedia-Les plateaux; lots were offered in this sector of activity for the outdoor junkies. Even though it was a great idea, there was just not enough demand to keep offering bike rentals. But the trails remain and are still accessible today.

Nature Adventure is also partly responsible for the creation of the first 65 km International Appalachian Trail which starts in Matapedia. This new trail helped Nature Adventure to offer more guiding adventures in the hiking sector. David then created a unique adventure of his own: Dog trekking. Dog trekking consists in having big malamutes with you hiking and carrying a part of the supplies with their backpacks.

In the winter 2002, Nature Adventure diversified its activities offering dog sledding adventures. Trips of 2 hours and half days were proposed. A service to appear in special events with the team of huskies/malamutes was also available. Snowshoe and cross-country skiing were mixed with dog sledding for 2 day adventures where clients would sleep in log cabins.

Because he was offered a job as the new director of the Restigouche River Watershed Management Council and also for family reasons, David Leblanc decided to recruit new promoters to take nature Adventure in hand.  It was in fall 2006 that David did put Nature adventure for sale.

It’s not long after that Jesse Allain and Geneviève Labonté received the sale offer of Nature Adventure. Working in the Canadian Rockies for a dogsled adventure company, they took the offer into consideration, having the season to think about it. They gathered a list of advantages and thought it over. Since Nature Adventure was already well-established, they decided to give it a shot.

Back in Quebec, we got the chance  to meet David Leblanc in Matapedia who showed us the equipment he was selling, taught us more about the business and the way he was running it. It’s at this point that we had to work very hard to put everything in place before the summer season. Summer 2007 was the beginning of a grand adventure for the new entrepreneurs.

The new owners didn’t buy the sled dogs that David Leblanc was also selling. Being new in the region, they didn’t want to put too much pressure on their shoulders, knowing how much work sled dogs are. Nature Adventure then became an operational business only for the summer season from mid-May to mid-October.

Since 2007, Nature Adventure is located in the heart of Matapedia’s village, in the Adams Park. At this time, canoe rental is the most profitable activity, not forgetting the fact that kayaking is being more and more in demand. The guided trips are always available. It includes meals flavoured be the local products, trained first aid and white water rescue guides. We also give canoe and kayak techniques for those that want to gain more skills about the sports. For now, we offer 5 rivers to choose from, adding the Kedgwick River for those who would be interested in a 5 day adventure. As far as the hiking packages are concerned, everything is also included, but without the dogs this time. The Shuttle that will bring you on the rivers and hiking trails is a green 16 passenger minibus, entirely painted by hand by the new owners.

New in 2008, Nature Adventure offered a sixth river to explore, the Upsalquitch. New packages were created on this wild river, ranging from 1 to 3 days. The season was also shortened from mid-May to the end September due to the lack of tourism in October.

During summer 2009, our third season as new owners, Nature adventure expanded its equipment. To accommodate more clients, we added canoes and kayaks to our inventory. We also purchased another used bus to be able to carry bigger groups all at the same time. Something else was new as well last season, we hired a student from College Mérici (Augustin Eard) for a period of 12 weeks. The Nature Adventure team grows as well as the company. Another new idea we had was the photo contest. We encouraged clients to take plenty of pictures and send them back to us. The pictures were placed on our website and prizes were handed to the winners.

Summer 2010 marked the 4th  season in business for Geneviève and Jesse but also the 14th season for Nature Adventure. We hired a qualified guide (Jesse Schnobb) who studies  Adventure Tourism, a bachelor’s program at University of Chicoutimi. He was part of our team for approximately 10 weeks. There was also a fourth employee (Raphael Leblanc Cyr), an active high school student of Matapedia that joined us part time. He will also be part of our team in 2011. The photo contest was also a huge success for its second edition. Thanks to all our participants. Breathtaking pictures where sent and placed on our website. Take a look for yourself, it’s worth it! We also added a new river (the Causapscal) to offer you more adventures in our vast Restigouche watershed.  Two or three days paddle can be done on this river when adding the Matapedia River. You’ll then be ending your journey at Nature Adventure’s head courters.  Overall, the 2010 season was most pleasant considering that water level was very low at the end of the summer. Thanks to all our clients for choosing Nature Adventure and making all of this possible. Hope to see you again next year for another beautiful summer!