Rivière à l'Ours (Ashuapmushuan River tributary)

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Rivière à l’Ours, or Bear River, is a 55-kilometre-long river in Quebec, Canada. It flows into the Ashuapmushuan River, which then connects to Lac Saint-Jean and the Saguenay River, and finally to the St. Lawrence River.

Source and course
The river begins at Lac à l’Ours (Bear Lake), located in the Zec de la Lièvre in the unorganized territory of Lac-Ashuapmushuan. The head lake is about 2.4 kilometres long and sits at an elevation of 416 metres. From there, the Bear River runs through the Laurentian region, passing through the Lac-Ashuapmushuan area and the municipalities of Saint-Félicien and Saint-Prime, in the Le Domaine-du-Roy regional county municipality.

Environment and economy
The upper valley around the river is mainly forested and used for forestry. In the Zec de la Lièvre area, recreational tourism is common, while agriculture is more typical in the lower valley.

Seasonal ice
The river’s surface is usually frozen from early December to late March, except for rapids. Safe ice travel is generally from mid-December to mid-March.

Mouth and downstream path
The Bear River empties into the Ashuapmushuan River just southwest of a peninsula on the south bank. From there, the water flows southeast along the Ashuapmushuan River for about 7.3 kilometres, then travels through Lac Saint-Jean, continues into the Saguenay River via the Petite Décharge, and finally reaches the estuary of the Saint Lawrence at Tadoussac.

Elevation and drop
The river descends from about 416 metres at its source to about 101 metres at its mouth, for a total drop of roughly 315 metres.

Name origin
The name Rivière à l’Ours was officially adopted on December 5, 1968.