Adventure Advisor:

Total isolation tops the long list of reasons to choose Quebec's immaculate Bonaventure River. Surrounded by dense boreal forest from beginning to end, you can paddle Class Is through IIIs for days, portage-free, without bumping into a single human. Of course, such solitude has its price: You can't just hop out and quit at any point along the three- or six-day route. Canadian canoe guide Francois Durantaye warns, "If you're a beginner, don't even think about it."

Even so, there's no reason to pack up your paddles and sulk off to the calmer waterways of Ontario (just as beautiful, but so mellow you just might sleep through the experience). Durantaye's company Quebec Adventures (www.quebecadv.com, 888-678-3232) offers small-group trips on the Bonaventure throughout the summer. In addition to the usual guidely duties of picking out campsites and pointing out moose, black bears and loons, trip leaders will teach you the long lost art of poling -- pulling yourself upstream with a 17-foot pole while standing in the canoe. It may not be the most practical of river skills back home, but something to brag about nonetheless.