Monday, August 9 – Saturday, August 14, 2021
Length: 6 days, 5 nights
Route: Bissonette Bridge to Allagash Village
Day 1:
- Bissonette Bridge to Long Lake
- Sam’s campsite
Day 2:
- Long Lake to Round Pond, portage around Long Lake Dam
- Squirrel Pocket campsite
Day 3: layover day, stayed on Round Pond
Day 4:
- Round Pond to Allagash River
- Cunliffe Depot campsite
Day 5:
- Allagash River, stop at Michaud Farm, portage around Allagash Falls
- Big Brook North Campsite
Day 6:
- Allagash River to Allagash village, takeout at Debbie’s house
~60 total miles paddled, 2 portages
Allagash Falls portage = 1/3 mile, or ~100 rods
Participants: 6 adults (5 women, 1 man), aged 35-78
- Katie (veteran)
- Jessamine (veteran)
- John (veteran)
- Sue (veteran)
- Taylor (3rd year)
- Maryam (rookie)
Canoes: (3) 17’ Old Town Discovery 169s (91 lbs. each)
Packs:
- (1) CCS Hybrid Guide
- (1) CCS Hybrid Pioneer
- (1) CCS Deluxe Food Pack
- (3) Large Duluth Style Portage Packs
- (1) YETI Hopper Backflip 24 Cooler backpack
- (1) YETI Hopper M30 Soft Cooler shoulder bag
- (1) IceMule Pro Cooler backpack
Years ago, Katie and I dreamed of doing a through-paddle of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, a 740-mile journey from upstate New York to Northern Maine. Such an endeavor would have taken 6-8 weeks, and we never had the luxury of taking that much time off work. So when a job opportunity arose in Maine, I jumped at the chance. We might at least do the last sections of the NFCT, especially where it ends on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. We were in the middle of planning such a trip for the summer of 2020, enlisting friends from all over the country to join us. And as with everything else, the pandemic foiled our plans. One year and full vaccination shots later, we finally made our way to the northern Maine woods.
We owe our love of canoeing to John and Sue, Katie’s parents, who took the family on annual trips to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area wilderness in Northern Minnesota. They are longtime veterans of these weeklong+ canoe-camping trips, amassing decades of experience between them. John and Sue were interested in paddling the Allagash, and thought to sign up for a group trip with the Sierra Club. When we heard that, we thought it would be better if we could share this experience with them. And so we invited John and Sue, along with two of our friends, Taylor and Maryam. Taylor has been on two BWCA trips with us before, and this was to be Maryam’s first canoe trip with us. But Maryam has extensive wilderness experience from her days as a Girl Scout.
We set our sights on a ~60-mile route at the end of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. The big question was whether or not we would run Chase Rapids, a 9-mile stretch of Class II rapids at the very beginning of the route. If we were to do this, the ranger would portage all of our supplies to the other side of the rapids, while we ran the whitewater on empty canoes. We have extensive experience on big lakes, but not as much on rivers, let alone rapids. So no one was interested in running Chase Rapids, except for me. And in hindsight, I probably wouldn’t have been prepared to do it either. With the experience that this summer afforded, perhaps we can do it next time. And there will be a next time!
We used our house in Waterville as a base to do all our grocery shopping and packing. Then on Sunday morning, we made the 5-hour drive up to St. Francis to stay the night at Pelletier’s Campground. And since Maine is so “small,” I of course ran into someone I knew. One of my college’s students was in the adjacent campsite! He and his buddies were doing the same route as us, but planned to do it faster and get out one full day before our own planned exit.
At Pelletier’s, we checked in with Norm L’Italien (our outfitter), and set up camp. We then had a delicious “last supper” at Forget Me Not Diner, just a short walk away from the campground. That evening, we spent a little bit of time sitting by the St. John River, looking across at Canada. We didn’t stay up too late because we had a scheduled shuttle ride at 6:00 am the next morning.
On Monday morning, we got up dark and early for a really quick breakfast of coffee and “Uffda” muffins (Kodiak protein muffins). A nice guy named Earl herded us into the van shuttle and off we went to the ranger’s station to check in and pay our permit fees. Within moments, I immediately knew it would be a nauseating ride, and I was thankful for Sue offering me a Dramamine. Alas, it was insufficient (I’ll leave you to read between the lines about that!). But thankfully, I sat in the front seat for most of the remaining 3-hour drive. Another of our party was not as fortunate, and we had to make an emergency stop so someone could blow chunks by the side of the road. Yikes!
A few words about these logging roads: Earl was on the radio reporting and listening to movement on the roads. “Close the windows,” he said, and we eventually learned why. Periodically, massive 18-wheeler logging trucks would come barreling down the narrow roads, stirring up clouds of dust around our little van that pulled over to the side of the road in the nick of time. It took several moments for the dust to literally settle. If you’ve seen Mad Max: Fury Road, you can imagine what this experience was like. A hot tip for future paddlers: take a Dramamine well before you get in the van, especially if you are prone to nausea like half of us were.
We put in at Bissonette Bridge, where the current from Chase Rapids was still quickly moving. Taylor and Maryam had an inauspicious start, as the current swept them to the side of the river and trapped Maryam under a massive tree limb. The rest of us couldn’t stop to render aid, as the river transported us downstream. If Maryam climbed over the tree limb, that would have freed the canoe but it would have taken the boat – and Taylor – immediately downstream. So Maryam somehow freed herself, thanks to adrenaline, by lifting the limb and flattening herself under it. Mere moments on the Allagash, and those two were immediately “out on a limb!”
The group paddled past Usmaskis Lake and into Long Lake, where we stopped at Sam’s, a campsite at the northern end. Each campsite has a sizable picnic table with a shelter rod (good for hanging tarps), a fire ring with movable grate, and an outhouse (of varying cleanliness). We set up camp and enjoyed a dinner (courtesy of chefs Taylor and Maryam) of grilled cilantro lime chicken over a bed of arugula, spinach, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, and cilantro lime ranch dressing. A Travel Tip from previous excursions was clear – we needed to eat more vegetables on these canoe trips!
After dinner, Taylor (a.k.a. Madam Lagana) treated us to a reading of our horoscopes from three years ago. In a rush to bring tinder for fires, Taylor just grabbed a bunch of old newspapers. What were we up to in the summer of 2018? Half of us were writing our dissertations, which seems like a lifetime ago. But the horror-scope readings got us thinking about what it means to “settle” for something vs. “put up” with a hardship. Whatever the case, the bugs were practically nonexistent so we enjoyed a little bit of thoughtful stargazing that night.
The next morning, we ate some habanero eggs prepared by John and Maryam, and then paddled out of Long Lake. We reached Long Lake Dam, our first of two portages on this trip. It was a short portage, probably something like 30 rods, but the beginning and ending were steep passages. And this was our first opportunity to see what it was like to portage three 91-lb. canoes. Lake canoes are much lighter, at under 40 lbs., and people can individually carry them on their shoulders. These beasts were another matter. It took three or four of us at a time to lift and carry these river canoes!
We were motivated to paddle on to reach Round Pond, where we would have a “layover day.” This meant staying at the same campsite for two nights, and having one luxurious day without the need to break camp, travel, and set up camp again. The group passed over and rejected the Back Channel campsite – no good for swimming, and would we really want to “settle” for such a site on a layover day? – and wound up at Squirrel Pocket on the southeastern side of Round Pond. The minnows, accompanied by a bullhead, were active on the shore. Nevertheless, it was a good site for swimming and relaxing.
The day was so tiring, and Sue and I had the dubious honor of making grilled cheeseburgers for the group. It was a delicious meal, with leftover salad fixings and Pringles on the side. Again the bugs were tolerable, so we spent the evening sitting along the shore to enjoy the sights and sounds of the lake. It was a cloudy night, no stars or moon to be seen. The darkness enveloped the lake in black and blue, while the loons serenaded us with their haunting calls.
Since it was a layover day, we assigned the elaborate breakfast of pancakes and bacon to Sue and Taylor. We will never do this again. It took hours to make, probably because we didn’t want to bring a big, heavy griddle. And so they had to make each individual pancake in a little pan. Anyway, it was delicious, but it took a monumental effort.
We spent the layover day hanging out at camp, reading, playing cards, swimming, and exploring. Taylor and Maryam went out on a paddling excursion and came back with a big portage pack full of firewood. That evening, Katie and John were on dinner duty and prepared the classic flank steak (marinated in red wine, soy sauce, ginger and onion powder). Delicious with tortillas and sautéed veggies.
The next day was literally a drag. We were done with the lakes, and had to traverse the Allagash River. Since we were paddling so late in the season, and we were technically in a drought, the water levels were quite low in some parts. The flow rate for ideal paddling conditions is 600-800 CFS (cubic feet per second), but the river flowed in the low-300 CFS during our trip. Even if you can read the river to see where the water is flowing, the channels were often still too shallow to paddle. This meant running aground on rocks, stepping out of the canoe, and dragging the cursed thing to deeper water.
John composed a ditty about our river trip, sung to the tune of the Notre Dame fight song. It began with “Paddle, paddle, the Allagash/Looking for moose, hope we don’t crash!” But on this day, we modified the song to “Drag, drag, drag, the Allagash.” Hoping we don’t crash was applicable on all days.
On lakes, the bow paddler (me) is primarily responsible for generating power, functioning as the motor to the stern paddler’s steering. On the river, the bow paddler is the first to see the river’s obstacles. So for the first time, I became responsible for steering by using draw strokes. It was a new, challenging, and enjoyable experience. But it required a greater amount of coordination and communication. Katie and I used the clock system, barking out “one o’clock” and “eleven o’clock” to convey the degree to which we needed to steer right and left. And of course, I can’t tell time properly, so at one point I yelled out “one o’clock,” when I meant “eleven o’clock,” all while sticking my arm out to “nine o’clock.” Whoops! On this trip, we also learned how people can “wrap” their canoes (i.e., wind up sideways trapped between a boulder and a strong current). Suffice it to say, things got hairy between me and Katie here and there. But we survived as better communicators!
After this grueling day of increasing our river literacy, we finally stopped at Cunliffe Depot, a steep cliffside campsite that gave us a wonderful view of the river. The slow current made for great swimming. But we were out of fresh ingredients, and it was time to dig into our freeze-dried food. So we had Mexican-style chicken and rice, courtesy of Mountain House (only the best!). We were also slowly running out of food inventory for our “Paddler’s Choice” lunches of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Babybel cheese, dried fruit, beef jerky, and nuts. All the beer and wine was also long gone. (And to this day, we still haven’t solved the mystery of who ate two unaccounted packets of oatmeal, purposely or inadvertently???) It was such a difficult day, that we briefly considered ending the trip the next morning and taking out at the ranger station at Michaud Farm. But the group decided to push on.
We made it to Michaud Farm, where a ranger greeted us. “Might you have a vending machine for snacks,” I asked wistfully. Nope! Alright, a spoonful of peanut butter with some errant dried cranberries, and half a CLIF bar would just have to suffice for lunch. Next stop was Allagash Falls, the real portage test. The trail was only 1/3 of a mile, about 100 rods. The ranger said that it was mostly along a boardwalk (true, but misleading). So we lugged the damn canoes over the trail, sometimes using our new set of portage wheels on the even terrain. We also had to transport our packs across the trail, and thankfully we ate most of our food so were better able to redistribute the weight of our gear across all the packs.
Two hours after arriving at Allagash Falls, we managed to get all our boats and equipment to the other side. John suffered what looked to be a nasty fall while out exploring on the rocks to look at the waterfall. But we had our first aid kit handy, and he was patched up in no time. We ate our meager lunches under the noonday sun, then continued on. It was a tough day of navigating rapids and paddling long straightaways. But we were rewarded by a moose sighting!
We first sighted the moose upriver along the shore at about 100 yards away. At first I thought it was a boulder, but I eventually saw that it had four legs. It may have been a young moose, a little on the small end, with no antlers. The moose quickly disappeared into the foliage. But as we approached, it peeked out to look at us briefly, then melted away into the trees again. Aside from this moose, we saw plenty of wildlife, ranging from bald eagles and hawks, to loons, ducks, frogs, and chipmunks.
That evening, we stopped at Big Brook North, another cliffside campsite with a steep entry. We supped on freeze-dried fettuccine Alfredo with chicken, with a side of hashbrown potatoes. We also reached the end of our snacks of Twizzlers and cookies. It was the last night for stargazing, and for listening to Fleetwood Mac and Neil Young.
On our last morning, we woke up before the sunrise because we needed to get off the river early enough to drive to Bangor to pick up Taylor’s partner from the airport. We efficiently broke camp and had paddles in the water by about 7:00 am. So away we went on the last stretch, which included plenty of rapids. And then the ominous clouds produced a steady torrent of rain. So we paddled under wet conditions, and even standing at the bow didn’t really improve the low visibility. About three hours later and soaking wet, we finally got to Debbie’s house. After paying our car fees, lugging the canoes up to land one more time, and unabashedly changing out of our wet clothes at Debbie’s car field, we went to the Two Rivers Diner for a delicious “first meal” in civilization. Hot tip to Debbie: build a paddler’s changing station equipped with a hot shower, and I would pay $10-20 for that.
The Allagash River was challenging, invigorating, relaxing, magical. We will definitely come back, preferably earlier in the season when the water levels are higher. Chase Rapids await.
