A few weeks ago, I posted a preview of my trip through the Allagash Wilderness Waterway in Northern Maine. Today, you get a photographic tour of the seven-day, six-night, 112-mile paddle made by 10 intrepid extended family members.
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| After a night spent at Pelletier's Campground in St. Francis, ME, we took two vans deep into the wilderness on logging roads to get to the put-in on Chamberlain Lake |
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| We had 15-20 mph winds on our first two days on the lake, which put us well behind schedule. But it meant that we got this sunset from Gravel Beach: |
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| We busted our humps on the third day, making 31 miles and finally getting onto the Allagash River proper. |
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| On the fourth night, my cousin and I paddled out to see an enormous moon, and our photog shot this one. Might see this framed somewhere in my house the next time you come over. |
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| We unloaded our canoes for the six-mile run down Chase Rapids. The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry State Parks and Public Lands charges $10/group to shuttle gear. We'd have paid 100x that to avoid a six-mile portage. |
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| We did, however, have to portage about 1/3 mile to get around Allagash Falls. Which features a 40-foot drop, and looks like this. |
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| We ran about two dozen rapids, most like this one. Fun, and not really all that dangerous |
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| We saw a ton of wildlife on the trip, from six moose (one from really close - those are enormous beasts), dozens of eagles, a friendly bunny, lots of mergansers, a bunch of chipmunks, an osprey, terns, and too many really tiny chub. |
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| A lot of stuff going on here on the fifth night. Some tired dudes drinking beer, a little bit of river pickin' and singin', a bit of cooking, possibly my cousin taking a leak in the background. |
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| Late in the week, a tailwind strong enough to move the boats under sail power. For about 10 minutes. It was fun while it lasted. |
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| We finished where we started, in St. Francis, and then we headed into town, where we crushed a bunch of greasy food and some big beers. Best meal ever. It included poutine. |
You can see all 181 pictures our trip photographer took at this link. Hard for me to find words to do the week justice. Great group of guys, including my 69 year-old uncle and his 75 year-old brother. They first did this trip 53 years ago. Circle of life, and such. Seven days without cell service in an epically beautiful setting, working my muscles to soreness each day, eating heartily, going to bed early and getting up with the sun. I love my creature comforts, but there something simple and pure to be said for ditching them for a bit.
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14 comments:
Follow up on TR’s last comment from the previous post:
Nashville is huge for bachelorette parties as well from my understanding. Tough to go wrong with either of those towns for a weekend of revelry.
I do care about you BBQ reviews, TR. I’ll still likely hit both when I visit Charleston but nice to know what to choose if I have to make a a choice.
Greg is having his bachelor party in Austin in early September (weekend of Texas-LSU). I plan to consume very unhealthy amounts of bbq. My friend Schmitt and I have already committed to waking up early on Friday morning and sitting in line at Franklin.
I’m by no means an outdoorsman and I actiodislike camping but this is really cool, Rob. Consider me jealous.
That’s a bucket list kinda trip, Rob. Happy for you and am a wee bit jealous.
Rob told me a bit about the trip over beers last night, and I agree with TR. I will almost assuredly never do such an adventure. My extended family enjoys card playing, beach lounging, and whiskeys rather than the outdoors. As do I, but this sounded pretty great.
Also, I will be in Charleston tomorrow and Monday. Barbecue will be consumed.
Whit, get me some Columbia, South Cack recs if you can. I have a Gator Football related trip there semi scheduled in the next few years. Second on my SEC road trip list after Oxford.
Random thing I just asked myself: How many Gheorghies are on Instagram?
My guess would be less than 50%...
I’m watching a 48 Hours about Casey Kasem being murdered by his trophy wife or, maybe, his kids. Did anyone know this was a thing?
looks like a great trip but could you replace the picture of "gravel beach" with one of a moose? i'd like to see a picture of a big moose.
Kasem’s second wife was the actress who played Nick Tortelli’s second wife in Cheers. She was a trophy a long, long time ago.
And I do remember hearing he was senile and she had kidnapped him or something like that. Maybe I can do that to Martha Stewart.
mental picture is the best i can do, dave:
we're paddling towards allagash falls, about half a mile from the takeout point for our portage. i'm in the bow of the first boat. there's a little island to my left. as our boat clears the island, i look left. on the shore, maybe 20 yards away, an adult female moose stands on the shore, grazing and drinking (i'm guessing she was average-sized, which would make her ~5 1/2 feet tall at the shoulder and 650-700 pounds). i gasp and say, 'holy shit', almost involuntarily. i try to get the guys in the boats behind me to stop talking so as not to spook her. i fail. she looks at me, twists her head like a dog trying to figure out what she's looking at, slowly turns and walks back into the trees. my cousin and i were the only members of our party to see her, and it all happened so fast that i didn't have time to get my phone out of its dry bag to snap a photo.
Nice one Roberto.
Yes on the insta Mark.
no insta here
forgot one weird and fun trip detail. the restaurant in fort kent, me where we ate on the night before we got on the water and the night we returned to civilization is called the swamp buck. fort kent is on the u.s./canada border - there's a border crossing in town. it's also the northernmost terminus of the fabled route 1. so it's up there geographically, as far as u.s. towns go. at the swamp buck, prominently featured, is a photo of scottie pippen and two of the restaurant's chefs, taken in the joint's bar. seems pippen was in town to host the world biathlon championship earlier this decade and stopped in for a meal. there are a lot of random things aligning in that story.
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