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Christmas ECard

Wind bound on Long Lake

Sally and i paddled the first section of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail. We became wind bound on Long Lake, unable to paddle due to the strength and direction of the wind.

https://vimeo.com/44692978

Umbazooksus Stream/Allagash Lake/Chamberlain Bridge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZnm_aEmz6E


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPglgy4P6rw

Patty and I spent three days paddling the Northern Forest Canoe Trail alternate route from Chesuncook Lake North to Allagash Lake and then down Allagash Stream to Chamberlain Lake eventually taking out at Chamberlain Bridge.

The videos pretty much sum up the trip. Day one was rainy but the paddling was very pleasant. I kind of bonked at the up stream section of Caucomgomoc Stream so Patty did most of the work. It would be possible to take out before the worst section of the up stream slog, there's a campsite with a trail that  eventually leads to a logging road that will bring you to Caucomgomoc Dam. Unfortunately beavers have made the trail almost non-passable.

The winds on day two were very strong so we accepted a ride from some fisherman to the portage from Round Pond to Allagash Lake. There's new logging on this road, the turn off on the secondary road  is less of a fork and more of a left turn, its a two track road that leads toward the ridge line that is prominent on  the topo maps. We saw deer, spruce and ruffed grouse, and a pine martin on this section. A ways after the gate the trail forks, the right hand fork leads to a campsite by the lake and the left fork is wheel-able all the way to the put in at the ranger's cabin.

Allagash lake is beautiful but we once again encountered high winds that prevented us from paddling all the way to the Allagash stream outlet. We spent the night at Island Campsite halfway down the lake.

Day three was spectacular. The lake was like glass when we woke up so we packed up quickly and headed out. The first mile of so of Allagash stream was steady Class I which was made very exciting because the sun was rising directly into our eyes and because of the glare we could see very little. The Stream was full but not flooded so we were traveling very quickly, fortunately we didn't encounter any sweepers on this section. It was only later when we reached calmer waters that we had to deal with a tree across the stream.

We had breakfast at Little Allagash Falls and continued on down stream. The guide warns of three obstacles. The first is a ledge that you can avoid by going right around an island, we missed the right and paddled the ledge which wasn't to bad due to the high water. The second ledge we portaged left although river right looked easier. The third rapid under the bridge we portaged although it looked very run-able, neither Patty nor I wanted to go swimming.

Easy paddling led to the North end of Chamberlain Lake, the wind picked up and we were able to sail all the  way to the Mud Stream outlet by 12:30. At that point we had to make a half mile crossing to Gravel Campsite, the wind and waves were too dangerous so we ate lunch and waited. The ranger came by on his rounds and offered us a ride explaining that he didn't think the wind would abate and the weather was supposed to deteriorate that night. We accepted the boat ride rationalizing that I had already done that final section twice before.

kids and portaging

Lower Nulhegan Wenlock Crossing to Connecticut river

Patty knows when I need to get out on an adventure and I finally had the time last weekend. It’s not that I don’t enjoy little league games, graduation parties, piano recitals, musicals at the Jewish Community Center, and Girl Scout parades but I like to get out once and awhile and have a good adventure. Patty encourages me and fully supports my need to get out and do stuff so after showing myself at a neighborhood party for a respectable length of time I got into the preloaded car and headed north to Island Pond.

I had contact my friend Russ earlier in the week knowing that he had done most of the section previously. I was looking for any information that he might have, he basically agreed with the NFCT maps and guide, he gave me a little more detailed info on where take-outs were for the portages and some useful information about some tricky bits of whitewater. He than subtly mentioned that he might be available for the day.

We finalized plans on places and times to meet, the convenience store across from the Clyde River Hotel at about 9:00. There is no cell reception in Island Pond or anywhere near it as far as I can tell. We met right on time, Russ brought his two boys ent(10) and Sterling (12), his friend Remi, his dog Millie, a small tandem, a solo canoe and a solo decked canoe.

We set out for the put in, unloaded the canoes and shuttled a car to the beginning of the one mile Old Stone Dam portage that bypasses some class III-IV rapids. Russ is a much more experienced and smarter paddler than I am. I had thought we would leave a car at the take-out and it would be smart to leave a cart at the portage so I could wheel my canoe and not carry it. Russ pointed out that we might as well just use our cars for the shuttle and save a lot of energy. Duh!

The weather was perfect, I really mean perfect. High 60s and clear with a breeze form the northwest. The Nulhegan has no USGS gauge but the Clyde River gauge in Newport was about 270cfs. The Clyde and Nulhegan both originate near Island Pond, the Clyde flows west and the Nulhegan flows east. I figure the Clyde gauge will give a paddler an idea of what the levels are on the Nulhegan. The gauge showed the Clyde slightly higher than normal for the time of year. I would say that this is the absolute minimum you will need in order to paddle the Nulhegan, higher water would be better. We ended up lining and dragging over several sections and did a lot of bumping scrapping, and grinding as well.

The first several miles of the river are very pretty and similar to the section from Nulhegan Pond to Wenlock Crossing. Immediately after the put-in a branch stream enters adding water to the main stem. The current is steady and the river meanders a great deal. Four canoes and five people are not ideal for seeing wildlife but we did manage to see plenty of birds and lots of tracks in the sand including moose and bear tracks. Occasionally you could hear a truck or herd of motorcycles on Vt 105.

When you see a few big boulders in the stream you have reached the beginning of the whitewater section. It would be great if the NFCT could get a walk in access point here, it’s only 100 yards from the road and would enable paddlers and fisherman access to this beautiful section of water without having to commit to the much more serious whitewater below.

The next section started out with a few easy and short sections of white water leading to a longer section that grows more difficult as you near the RR bridge mentioned in the guide book and map. The water was low enough that we all did some serious bumping and grinding through this section. I chose to take the right side around an island which was a definite mistake. I ended up lining down to the RR bridge pool. The rest of the crew had a little more success on the left side of the island. The take-out for the Upper Gorge Portage is at the very tail end of the pool below the RR bridge, I think you would be sad if you missed it especially in high water. The carry is short and ends at a nice pool full of brook trout; Sterling had good success fishing here.

We met up with through paddlers Justine Jarvis, TK and Moxie the dog at the take out. I have exchanged emails with Justine on several occasions. It was unbelievable that we met up with them. Throughout the rest of the day we played leapfrog as we passed each other on carries and rest stops. They are paddling and Old Town Tripper and used a much more aggressive ramming technique on the bony rapids, it seemed to work quite well.

After another short set of rapids we stopped on a sand beach and had lunch with Team Moxie and swapped trail stories. The dogs played in the sand and water and the humans enjoyed the sunshine and cool breeze.

Almost immediately the rapids began again and we had various degrees of success paddling them. Russ and Ent were in the tandem and did very well as did 12 year old Sterling in the decked canoe. Remi and I had a bit more difficulty. I did OK for awhile but eventually got hung up on a rock while upstream Remi broached his canoe and it slowly filled with water. I stopped and headed upstream to help. I’m still not sure how he did it but he managed to get the boat unpinned by himself, he’s awfully strong for a small guy. He passed me as I returned to my canoe. He collected his dumped gear as he went. I started out and only made it a short way before taking on about 4” of water. I had to stop and dump out the boat. I ended up lining the rest of the way down to the end of the rapid.

I’m not sure if he was trying to make me feel better but Russ has done this section before and said it was easier with more water. After this long section of rapids there is a mile and a half of flat water leading to the take-out at the Old Stone Dam and Rte 105 bridge. We shuttled the 1 mile using our cars. Them NFCT map says to put-in by a bridge over a feeder stream that leads .5 miles back to the Nulhegan below the Class IV lower gorge. Russ had learned that if you go another 200 yards past the bridge there’s a new trail that leads to a picnic site that avoids some of the shallow stream. We put-in, paddled, and scraped down to the confluence with the Nulhegan.

The next 2 ½ miles of river were some of the finest I’ve ever paddled. The weather was perfect, the company was great, the water is crystal clear and the paddling is fantastic. The river is a bit bigger here and flowed along at a nice steady pace with occasional riffles and easy rapids, the banks are forested and the river meanders enough so you get new views every few minutes. Near the end there is a very nice RR bridge to pass under and the take-out is close to the cars and a short walk to a general store that sells ice cream. Anyone who plans on paddling the Connecticut River section of the NFCT should consider doing the last section of the Nulhegan as well.

Canoe Abuse

Mud Pond Portage by Sally Gill

This was written by Sally, my 8 year old daughter, for her third grade writing class. I have added some pictures.

When I awoke at 7:00 it was a bitter cold morning. I walked to the picnic table with sleep in my eyes. The sun warmed me enough. My hot chocolate was as warm as a fireplace. I was on day five on a canoe trip with my Mom, my Dad and brother Brad who is ten years old. The early morning bird songs and silence brought small but happy smile to my face. The water was glistening and the sound of our paddles was soothing. Then the wind picked up and my Dad said “sweep on the left draw on the right”. We got to our first portage and ate lunch. After the portage on Umbazooksus Lake that’s when in all happened.

When I first stepped on that tail I know it was not going to be good. I was going to portage the Mud Pond Carry. The first time I stepped in mud it was cold, wet and thigh deep. Then I heard a crinkle and my shoe fell off. I didn’t think I would get it back on my foot. Splitter splatter help! False alarm just a frog no a toad. Maybe if I sing I’ll have more fun than being alone 100 bottles of milk on the wall 100 bottles of milk so on. Maybe that won’t work. Yes, I got another frog for my frog count. I wonder how long…

“Oh no what have I gotten myself into now.” It was raining cats and dogs. Not another mud puddle! How about I go around it like my brother? But it’s to big I thought. I didn’t like this I just wanted to go home. I got really grumpy and bored. “Mom do you have a snack?” I asked. The mud was so very cold even my thighs were buried in it. This was hard for an eight year old. “Is that what I think it is?” I wondered. Land. One giant step for me one small step for earth!

Hiking all that was hard but I survived my big journey. I still had one day left and I was kind of glad about it. After all I will admit I did have a good time. My moments alone were full of silence and thoughts, not the regular kind of silence, the kind that helps you think good thoughts. But I did have a good time. By the time I was done I felt pretty good about myself, another small but happy smile.

Sally Gill

Dead River and Grand Falls Hut

Over the Columbus Day weekend I took my last NFCT trip for the season and headed up North to Dead River Township to paddle the Dead River from below Long Falls Dam to Spencer Stream. Until reading about this trip at Trash Paddlers site http://www.trashpaddler.com/2010/09/nfct-stratton-me-to-grand-falls-return.html
I didn’t know it was possible to do this section as a down and back trip.

After a nice stay at my sister’s house outside Lewiston I drove the remaining two plus hours to the put in at Big Eddy. It was cool and windy Sunday morning as I headed out, I passed a couple of late season fishermen who looked cold standing in the water.
The first ½ mile goes through some easy rapids and soon passes an alternative put-in at Spring Lake Landing. It’s possible to avoid the rapids by putting in here, this could be advisable in high water, during a dam release, or if you don’t want to line or pole back up the rapids to Big Eddy.
The paddling is very pleasant along the tree lined banks with occasional views of the surrounding mountains. This section of the trail heads generally northwest which means you’re paddling into the prevailing wind. By hugging the shore I was usually able to avoid the worst of the wind but occasionally I had to fight pretty hard to keep the boat going straight into some pretty strong gusts. At about half way to the carry around Grand Falls I passed Half Way Brook. This is a very pleasing looking brook so I followed it up stream for awhile until I came to a beaver dam. There are great views of the Bigelow Range in the distance. From Halfway Brook to the take-out the river begins to meander a bit so the wind can come at you from any direction. The scenery gets better especially at this time of year as you get views of the foliage on the surrounding hills. Five or six miles from the put-in you come to the NFCT carry on river left, it’s reasonably obvious and well marked to the left of the island in mid river. On river right, hidden just around the bend where the right hand channel goes around the island, is the dock and take-out for the Maine Huts and Trails trail. They told me there would be a canoe rack here but they haven’t built it yet.

I got the boat out of the water, up into the woods, and stored my paddles and PFD underneath the overturned canoe. I packed up my gear and headed along river right on the new Maine Huts and Trails trail which soon leads to the Tom & Kate Chapell Footbridge bridge across the river. The bridge is located just down stream of the old dam shown on the NFCT map. The trail follows the left shore to an outlook with beautiful views of the falls. After some pictures I continued on down some beautiful new stone stairs and was soon on the dirt road that follows the river up to the gated bridge over Spencer Stream.

A right turn after the bridge leads to the rafter put-in where the trail continues down river for about ¾ of a mile. This is fantastic walking, next time I come I plan on bringing my rod so I can do some fishing, and there are also a couple of nice beaches for swimming. About a quarter mile from the hut the trail heads uphill on an old skidder road. I soon arrived at the new Grand Falls Hut.

This was the first night the hut was open to the public, the previous night it was only open to invited guests and VIPs for the grand opening. I checked in with the staff and went to my room to do a little reading and take a short nap. Sometime during my siesta one of the other guests took some pictures of a big bull moose just behind the bunk house. Dinner was great and so was the conversation with the other guests. The hut was half full with 16 out of 32 beds taken.

The sunrise on Monday morning was excellent as was a breakfast of scrambled eggs and sausage with hot coffee and juice. After cleaning my room and packing I headed back to my canoe. My GPS says its 2.1 miles from the hut to the take-out. It’s mostly flat with a couple of short hills, one at the hut and another at the falls.

The return paddle was wonderful, both the sun and wind were at my back. The sun lit the foliage beautifully and the wind made the paddling quick and easy. There was enough wind to form whitecaps on the river in the final stretch up to the rapids. A fellow camper was at the Spring Lake Landing take-out and I accepted a ride to my car rather that working my way up the rapids back to Big Eddy.

Day 6 and 7 Mud Pond Carry to Chamberlain Bridge

At about 7:00am I looked at Patty who said “I’m not going anywhere until the rain stops”. I’m not sure if it was raining or whether the water was dripping heavily off the trees but we got up about an hour later and began our day. We ate, got everything packed up and organized into efficient loads, put on our wet clothes from the day before, and all headed out with a load, no need to get another set of clothes wet. We each carried a pack including Sally who was determined to contribute her fair share.

We were back at the east end in about 45 minutes and with only 2 loads left we dicided that the girls would stay, get the boats in the water, and boil some water for a mid morning cup of soup. Brad and I returned for the last two packs. We were back in an hour and a half, got everything into the canoes and set off across Mud Pond after first post-holing through knee deep mire getting to water deep enough to paddle. The sun came out right about now.

Soon we were at the opposite shore and it was immediately and painfully obvious we could not float down Mud Brook and would have to portage over to Chamberlain Lake. We double carried this one but it was difficult and Patty and I were very tired. The trail is quite rough and you need to concentrate to avoid any mistakes. The water in Chamberlain was low so the portage was .45 mile long. With higher water you would be able to shorten the carry significantly and in high water you can float the brook.
A ¾ mile paddle leads to a nice campsite but Brad insisted we do another ¾ miles to cross over to Gravel Beach in case the wind picked up over night. This turned out to be a wise decision on his part and I’m glad he convinced us to do it. It would have been easy to stop early and we would have paid for it the following morning. Gravel Beach was very nice and we set up a clothes line, swam to get clean, admired the brand new outhouse and generally relaxed in the sunlight with dry clothes on.
The next morning it was cloudy again with a strong wind out of the north, thankfully we would have a tail wind for the day. We cooked our final meal and headed out. Unfortunately Patty and I had to get into the water and line the boats around the point before we could get in and paddle. Patty and Brad practiced surfing in the waves. Sally and I watched the water crash onto the rocky islands and we enjoyed easy paddling for a couple of hours. We stopped at an island to go to the bathroom and found a broken loon egg and carcass of a loon chick. We watched the whitecaps out in the middle of the lake and observed a few powerboats trying to make headway into the wind. All too soon we arrived at Chamberlain Bridge got the car packed and headed south.

Day 5 The Mud Pond Carry

Day 5 Boom House to Mud Pond Carry

We had learned the day before that the water in Chesuncook was down 12 feet and was going to be lowered another 5 feet so that the dam at the south end could be worked on. This explained the extremely low water levels in the lake. We woke to nice calm weather and had a pleasant breakfast and un hurredly broke down camp, loaded the boats, and started out for the day. I was, of course, aware of the weather approaching from the east, it was to grow steadily worse all day.

The initial paddling was windless and pleasant, not unlike low tide in a marsh. As soon as we passed around the point and onto the North end of Chesuncook Lake we were greeted with a strong southerly wind which hit us broadside and made the paddling difficult. We both were blown onto the beach on more than one occasion and Patty and I had to fight hard to make decent headway. Gradually we progressed into the lee side of Gero Island and the traveling became much easier. We were sheltered from the wind until well into Umbazooksus Stream where we had a tail wind to help us forward.

At the northeast end of Umbazooksus Stream one can normally paddle under a bridge and work their way up do the decommissioned dam at Umbazooksus Lake. Due to the low water levels we were forced to disembark well below the Longley Stream Bridge and then portage east on the road until we could turn north on an obvious side road and re-enter the water on Umbazooksus Lake. We had lunch at the start of the portage. The South end of Umbazooksus Lake is shallow and filled with long abandoned pulp logs. After a short paddle through the reeds we reached the west end of the fabled Mud Pond Carry. Both Brad and I were excited to see what this was all about, Patty and Sally, not so much. It began to rain, how appropriate. Time to make some decisions, we reasoned that we could camp here if needed and would look for better options as we started the carry. On our first trip we would bring the canoes and everything paddling related and leave the sleeping gear, food and cooking gear for later trips reasoning that we could return and camp for the night if needed. So, up with the big green umbrellas and off we went. The first section up to the road is rocky and dry(ish), about 250 yards in there’s a good campsite on either side of the trail by some old 55 gallon drums. Once you get to the road the water and mud begin. From here to the height of land there are sections of water and mud, some worse than others. In some places you can walk on the side of the trail and stay out of the worst bits but in other places you have no choice but to walk knee deep in the mire and muck.

These wet sections are not continuous, there are also sections of better and drier trail to walk on. When carrying the canoes it is probably best to just walk in the middle of the trail and not waste energy trying to avoid the nasty stuff, the trail is often very narrow so you'll have no choice. Once you near the height of land the trail dries out to a beautiful gravel path through a lovely mature forest, enjoy this section. This is the half way mark so when you start down and the water flows east toward the Allagash you will know you’re more that half way done. When you reach a clearing on your left you have about half a mile to go, the worst water is just before the end.

There are no steep sections on the trail; it's gradually up and then downhill. There are occasional blow downs but only one or two are at an inconvenient height. At the east end there are two overhead blow downs that are a real pain in the ass. The trail is really to narrow and the water section to short to make floating the boat an option. I don’t think it would be worth the effort to get the canoe off your shoulders and then back on just float the canoe a few feet, your opinion may be different.
You're going to get muddy and wet so accept it and don’t waste energy trying to avoid it. Wear shoes that are snug on your feet, some of the mud will try and suck your shoes off, don’t even think about wearing Crocs. If you have a bow saw you could clear some trees for huge karma points. Once you reach the end you'll still need to post hole through the muck in Mud Pond in order to reach water deep enough to paddle so don't change clothes right away.

It took Patty and I an hour and 15 minutes to do the carry with the boats, we took our time and rested as needed. The rest of the trips took about 45 minutes.There's a very nice, small, grass clearing on the eastern end to leave equipment at, it would also make an adequate camping spot if necessary.

We were all soaked to the skin when we arrived at the east end and Sally was starting to show some signs of hypothermia so we headed back right away, Brad and I took about 40 minutes for the return. By this time there was a hard and steady rain so we quickly set up the tarp and then the tent. We stripped the kids and Patty put them into warm dry clothes and then into sleeping bags while I boiled water and made soup and then dinner. The kids were warm and happy especially because they got to eat inside the tent, something I never let them do. We read how Thoreau got lost on the carry and discussed how similar the conditions still are 150 later.

If you are into fungus and amphibians of northern Maine this is the trail for you. We saw several different frogs and toads as well as three Spruce Grouse. There are lots of different ferns, mosses and lichens growing as well. I must have seen a dozen different types of mushrooms.