A fantastic 7 day trip canoeing the Allagash Wilderness Waterway ran by Chip and Lani Cochrane of Allagash Canoe Trips (www.allagashcanoetrips.com). We gave our legs a rest and let our arms and upper bodies have a bit of a workout instead!
The Allagash Wilderness Waterway is a 92 mile long ribbon of lakes, ponds, rivers and streams winding through the heart of northern Maine's forests. Only canoes/kayaks are allowed on the waterway. The Allagash River eventually joins the St John River close to the Canadian border.
We started our trip in Greenville, a lovely small tourist town nestled besides the large Moosehead Lake. We met our guilde, Chip, his assistant, Lani (prounouced Layni) not to be confused with Chips wife also Lani (prounouced Larni) plus our canoeing comrades for the week at Allagash Canoe Trips base camp. Introductions were made, canoe trailer and mini van loaded with gear and a traditional starting group photo taken. It was then a two and a half hour drive, down forest dirt roads, to get to our trip start at Indian Stream.
Canoes were unloaded and packed with everyone's gear plus camping food and cooking supplies packed in traditional, very heavy, 'Wannigan' boxes. The water level was quite low in Indian Stream so we had to walk our canoes down the stream a few hundred yards to reach Eagle Lake then after a bit of canoe instruction from Chip the paddling began. We paddled almost the length of Eagle Lake, luckily with a bit of a tail wind, to Priestly Point where we camped for the night. A sunny start but as we hit camp the heavens opened just as we were putting tents up. The whole Waterway has basic campsites with fire rings, picnic tables and privies dotted along the way.
Chip and Lani prepared us delicious food every day. Breakfast there was always a type of hot oatmeal plus another dish e.g. pancakes or bacon, eggs etc. Lunch we'd have pitta/wraps with a choice of fillings plus fruit and some amazing dinners in the evening, steak, gammon, chicken etc. Chip cooked everything on the wood fire. He had a reflector oven for use in the open fire and produced delicious bread and cakes every morning and evening.
We were lucky and had a great bunch of people with us on the trip, fourteen of us in total plus Chip and Lani. Emily, Duff and there lovely and extremely well behaved kids Kate and Mathew. Nancy and John, an amazingly active retired couple in their mid seventies. Kathy and Scott, Dana and Barabara and Moe and Benj two separate groups of old college friends. Everyone was lovely. We had fantastic musical entertainment on the couple of dry afternoons we had from Emily, a talented singer/songwriter. We'd mention a song and she'd play her guitar and sing it, she had an amazing memory for song lyrics.
Day two we travelled from Eagle Lake through Round Pond and across Churchill Lake to Jaws campsite on the north shore. Just before reaching camp we spotted a moose happily munching away on the grass in the water. We saw moose from a distance on a couple more occasions. We also saw lots of birds; Bald Eagles, Loons, Kingfishers and Swallows. It was another dry day but with rain in the afternoon/evening, this time though we had time to get our tents up before it rained.
Day three we hit our first class II rapids, Chase Rapids. We had a short paddle to Churchill Dam where we unloaded our canoes (the rangers portage peoples gear through this section) and loaded our gear in the rangers truck and carried our canoes around the dam. After all the rain we'd had the water levels were quite high so made for an easier ride - less rocks to avoid! We reloaded our canoes with our gear then continued through the calmer Umsaskie Lake to the south end of Long Lake stopping at Grey Brook campsite early afternoon. We had plenty of time each afternoon for relaxing and afternoon snoozes.
Day four we awoke to a beautiful misty morning, very atmospheric. We were up early, breakfast at six, paddling for just after seven to beat the crowds. It was a busy week on the Waterway so we had early starts to get ahead of everyone else to ensure a good campsite spot was available when we arrived early afternoon. The mist eventually cleared and we had a sunny day. We paddled the length of Long Lake to Long Lake Dam, an old log dam. Usually canoes have to be carried or walked around but high water levels meant we could paddle through the water shoot. We then continued along the Allagash River, the current on the river helping make for faster progress than on the lakes to Round Pond and Inlet 2 campsite. We had torrential rain in the evening, our picnic table was flooded, end I g up in a pool of water.
Day five was another gorgeous misty start then sunshine. We continued through Round Pond and Round Pond Rips along the Allagash River stopping just before Allagash Falls, forty foot falls we had to portage around. We stopped the night at the campsite here. We had more rain in the evening!
Day six we continued down the Allagash River to Allagash village, the official end of the waterway. We had made good time on our trip so continued a further few miles to join the St John River and continue down the St John river a few miles to St Francis village campsite, a beautiful grassy campsite , perfect for the last night. We had sunshine all day, no rain! There was also a village shop selling ice cream and beer!
Day seven there was no canoeing as we'd already got ahead so we had a leisurely start before a long five hour drive back to Greenville. We had a couple of rest/ lunch stops on the way.
A fantastic week canoeing around one hundred miles through Maine's wilderness with a great group of people and great service from Chip and Lani. The weather could have been better but it didn't stop us doing anything and the high water levels made for easier paddling. There's loads of photos, some borrowed from Moe who had a better camera with a big zoom lens, thanks Moe, who got plenty of shots of us canoeing. If I can't upload all the photos under this blog post I'll add some separate photo posts.
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