Hi Bill, nice canoe! The race starts in North Bay, Ontario and follows what used to be a major fur trading route down the Mattawa river to Mattawa, Ontario.
Depending on water levels you can face as few as 5 or as many as 12 portages, some of which require scaling rockfaces and hoisting your canoe up in order to bypass large rapids.
I will be doing it in a two person canoe and will be using what is called marathon canoe racing style, which means a fairly high stroke rate and switching sides every 6-10 strokes. No j-stroke is used with this style, except to avoid rocks, bears
or moose along the way.
Cheers!