Day 10
We got up at around 8:30, had a quick oatmeal breakfast and some coffee. We left the campsite at around 10:20 am and made it to Round Pond by noon.
We did pass another cow moose in the river, but she must have been having a bad hair day and went running into the woods.
On the way to round pond, Dana trolling as usual, lost one of his fishing poles. The stream was moving quickly in the area where it went overboard and we quickly pulled the canoe over to shore. Dana walked back and forth like a caged lion scouring the water with his eyes trying to get a glimpse of it if it floated by. After about 10 to 15 angry minutes, Dana said let go and we got back into the canoe and headed off.
At the entry to Round Pond, there are three forks you can take through some marshlands. We took the right fork, as we thought we would head to the Squirrel Pocket site on the far shore. However, when we got to the lake, the Inlet Site was empty and we decided we would likely see more wildlife by the marshland.
The Inlet site was beautiful, and almost seemed like a manicured backyard. Our only worry was that another group would come by and stay at the other cell. We decided we would chance it for the night and move to the outlet campsite for tomorrow, which has only one cell. Ranger Eric had said that both the Inlet and Outlet sites were good.
We set up camp, and I started taking photos. When I went to take a picture of the sign, there was a beautiful Gardner Snake coiled on the rock beside the sign.
Dana came back from collecting firewood and made some Dinty Moore beef stew for lunch. We were both hungry.
After lunch, Dana went fishing… off in the canoe again. I stayed at camp and looked through the miscellaneous books and maps we had brought. A group of three canoes was disappointed we had snagged the Inlet campsite. They said they always stayed there, but Outlet was their backup. They were planning on leaving early for Allagash falls, so they wouldn’t mess with our plans.
Dana came back from fishing and we both took an afternoon nap.
When we woke up, we got back in the canoe and paddled back up river through the islands, this time in the left fork. It was quite a workout, but Dana said it was worth it since he caught a small brook trout on our way back into the lake. No moose sightings, though plenty of Bald Eagles Round Pond though.
I made red beans and rice with kielbasa for dinner. We did the dishes, played some more solitaire and watched another bat over the fire.
We went to bed with a frog’s rendition of "A Chorus Line."
Day 9
We woke up at around 8:30 and got up at 9 PM. As we packed up camp we decided to have snack crackers for breakfast and move on.
Two rangers showed up to check the cells and check the privy, so we had a nice little chat with them. They left with there motorboat and we were off shortly thereafter. It didn’t take long for me to have a crummy mood. The weather was overcast and dreary, and no wildlife was out. I think we saw 2-3 loons all day. The birds in the forest also must have bummed because we hardly heard a sound. This certainly didn’t make the long paddle across Umasaskis lake, the thoroughfare, and Long Lake a fun one. Even the name Long Lake was irritating me.
We made it to Long Lake Dam (or what’s left of it) and pulled over to left to check things out like the ranger had suggested. We knew we didn’t want to run it, with all our belongings, and we talked about going to the other side and staying at the Long Lake Dam campsite. Suddenly another canoe came into view and our decision was made. We were going to rope the canoe through the old dam. Metal spikes were still in place from the dam, so even roping it down with our gear was sketchy in places. It turned out fine.
We had a fun river run after the dam, and then more of a meander. As we got closer to our camp target, Sweeny Brook, we came across another cow moose feeding in the middle of the river. She was unimpressed, and we got a couple pictures while drifting by.
We made it to Sweeney Brook campsite. It had been trashed. Likely, humans did the damage, but possibly fallen trees were the culprits. The post above the picnic table had been smashed, rocks from the firepit had been scattered, and it was not a pretty sight. However I was tired and grumpy and ready to stop.
My mood began to change quickly. First I spotted a pretty little spruce grouse on the edge of the campsite. Then both Dana and I spotted some snakes. After setting up camp, Dana went to collect firewood, and I found the snake’s hideout…an old fallen tree that had become a gardner snake condo.
There were moose footprints all over and around our campsite, and they looked fresh.
Dana got some sticks for cooking hotdogs over the fire, we ate, and he went fishing behind some islands in the middle of the river. When he got back we played a few more rounds of solitaire and I crawled into the tent. Dana was finishing boiling some drinking water and was also on his way to bed when he heard a noise. I could hear him whispering something, so I sat up and said, "What?", "moose" he whispered.
As I looked out of the tent I saw Dana backing up towards the tent and a large cow moose came out of the woods and into our small campsite. She looked right at Dana and paused for a moment, and turned and walked down to the river. I handed Dana the camera and he tried to get a couple of shots, but it was dark and the camera flashed so you can only see her silhouette.
We went to bed even though Dana was whinny about having to sleep standing up….since we had our tent on a slight slant. There just weren’t any flat spots for a tent at Sweeney Brook.
Day 8
Well I guess the paddling finally caught up to us. We really slept in! We woke up and went outside to pee and watch the moose feeding in the stream again. Probably one of the cows from yesterday. We went back to sleep and got up to have oatmeal at around noon.
We talked about the awesome nighttime noises, again especially all the birds in the marsh. Other than that we read and we slept. We did wake up to see two groups’ go by. One of them stopped at the third cell. Boy were we happy when they left. Human beings are noisy!
Just as the group was arriving I saw a moose run into the bushes on the opposite shore. Not 15 minutes after they had left, a Bull Moose came out of the bushes to feed in the river. We got some pictures of him, too. I guess he disliked human noise as well.
It drizzled off and on all day. In the mid afternoon the sun tried to poke through and we treated to a wonderful rainbaw. Actually for a short time it was a double rainbow, very cool!
We spent the afternoon and early evening enjoying the wildlife. A Bufflehead was there with her one duckling. She was very tiny, but had a spunky personality. She was diving for food as her duckling hid on the shore. Suddenly, a merganser swam toward her from the opposite downriver. I thought I saw a duckling with her, but then…..No duckling? When she got close to the little Bufflehead we saw one, two, three, four, five, six… little ducklings jump off her back. It was really cool.
The two mommas had a spat, and the Bufflehead moved aside, to let thew merganser family pass. She then began to feed and dive again. About five minutes later, another merganser mom with four ducklings came by and the same thing happened again.
We made a dinner of Top Ramen and Dana also had a sandwich. We played solitaire for a bit (Dana score –535, mine –315… so far)
We went to sleep listening to the many different bird and frog noises, including what we determined to be an insect that sounded like Curly from the three stooges. We told some moose jokes (you can’t see me, while holding up a finger to hide yourself) and went off to bed. Good lazy day.
Day 7
Woke up at 7 am but didn’t leave camp until 10 am. Both of us commented on the incredible nighttime noises. There were bullfrogs, numerous birds and bugs, and a goose that was crazy mad at something. Dana made some roast beef hash for breakfast and I made some eggbeaters to go with mine. It was a good breakfast.
We had two visitors before we left. The first was Ranger Patrick checking in on how we were doing. We had a conversation about Chamberlain Lake where he had worked as an intern years before. Dana told Patrick about the time he found all the belongings from the men who had drowned in Chamberlain Lake. Patrick told us he had been working at the lake at that time and helped in the search for the men. Dana went on to mention an item he found (sexual) in the wreckage and how the warden who took all the other belongings back to the family, wouldn’t return this item. Patrick’s face turned red and he had heard of Dana finding the items and of that item in particular. It was very funny. Patrick wished us well and went on his way.
The second visitor was a dragonfly who had just emerged from the rocks to dry his wings. We took him with us on out canoe ride until his wings were dry and then off he flew. Very cool!
We were off headed up Churchill Lake; Dana was trolling as usual. He had already caught two brook trout before we hit the High Bank Campsite.
Moving closer to Churchill Dam we saw a moose feeding in the opening of McClusky Brook. Just around the corner much closer to the dam, we saw another moose, a cow, feeding in the middle of the lake. Dana spotted her calf hiding in the bushes on shore. Again hiding it’s face not its immense body. Dana and I were getting a kick out of this silly Allagash moose behavior by this point.
When we pulled into the dock at Churchill Dam, the 2 couples that had been staying at Scofeild Point were there restocking their supplies they had in their truck. One of the couples had done Chase Rapids a few hours before and said it wasn’t too bad. They also commented on the noises in the cove the night before, including the angry goose.
Even though we arrived at noon (and to get portage service you were suppose to be there by 11:30), the couples encouraged us to check in with the ranger, as they were sure he would take our stuff past the rapids.
We walked across the dam to past the Allagash historical museum to get to the ranger station. There was our friendly ranger Patrick eating lunch with dam portage ranger Eric. Sure enough he said he would portage our belongings, but to give him a half-hour so he could finish lunch. We went and checked out the museum and signed the guestbook of those who did Chase Rapids (even though we hadn’t yet).
Then we waited at the dock, watching a momma moose feed, a brand new dragonfly dry it’s wings, and Dana remove a 3rd leach from his foot. This was a horse leach but nowhere as big as the one we saw at Smith Brook. We had already visited the privy, unloaded our things and moved the canoe across the road to the launching area.
Ranger Eric came across the bridge in his truck saw how much stuff we had and said he would be right back. I think he had to unload some things from the back of the truck.
When he came back he took our paperwork and the 10$ for the portage and gave us some tips on campsites and the rapids. He was another nice young fellow.
Eric took off with our things to drop off at Bissonette Bridge (after the rapids), and we went to scout out the first corner. It looked pretty exciting, and we felt pretty good not having to worry about our things getting wet. We donned our life jackets and pushed off. I think we were both pretty nervous at the beginning, but after we went through the first drop, we both laughed and said, "this is fun". We actually did better on the class II rapids than we did on the class I, which just seemed shallow not necessarily fun.
It took us a little less than an hour to paddle the 4 miles to Bissonette Bridge, but we made it, and without tipping. Our things were there waiting for us, and we even gained a bungee that someone had left on the ground.
Since we still had 5 more miles of class I and II rapids before hitting Chisolm Brook we strapped all our belongings down tightly.
The next 5 miles weren’t bad at all. Dana didn’t even believe me when I said I thought we had already finished the class II rapids. Suddenly there was Meadows Campsite, so we knew ours Chisolm Brook was coming right up. Around the corner and SWEET, there was a young cow moose feeding in the river. She wasn’t concerned by our presence and kept eating as we passed by.
Our campsite was within view of the moose. We pulled in and looked things over. There were 3 cells at the Chisolm Brook site. We took the first. It had a better area for the tent and an awsome view of the river, the marsh across the river, and the moose best of all.
Chisolm Brook was a small brook and was right beside our campsite so we had the wonderful sounds of a bubbling brook.
After setting up camp we had an extremely satisfying dinner of canned chili and Naan bread for supper, and played some solitaire.
Soon after dinner we saw a moose in the river again. I was pretty sure this was not the same moose as earlier, so I watched. Sure enough, this was another cow moose. The younger one from earlier had moved to the other side of the island. A Little while later, we heard a strange noise and went for a look. We saw a large dark head swimming across the river…a bear? The larger cow moose was grunting and honking profanity as she chased it. We watched and the cow soon came out of the marsh with a calf. Yup, it must have been a bear. In fact all evening we could hear birds swuaking in a path across the marsh. The bear may have lost out having a moose calf dinner, but I bet he had plenty of eggs and baby birds. We watched two bats fly around the campsite catching their dinner. Then we headed off to bed. We were planning on spending two days at Chisolm brook and hopefully we could both sleep in.
Day 6
As it turned out Dana’s side of the bed was OK and mine was outrageous! I hardly slept. When we got up in the morning, Dana went for a canoe ride in Snare Brook, and I slept on his side of the tent.
When he returned he told me of a nice chat he had with a moose while he was out. Not much of a fishing day though…. A small brook trout and a few chubs. We made our coffee/ GFIC (or plastic coffee as my father called it) and got back into the canoe to explore Snare Brook further. The moose was gone, but it was still a beautiful, serene morning. There was some low-lying fog, but it was really more of a haze.
As we paddled up Snare Brook, it opened into a large pond area (not shone on the map). We didn’t see any wildlife, other than birds, but their sounds were amazing. On the way back to camp it sounded like an orchestra of birds, or a rainforest. So many different sounds were commingling. It was an awesome morning.
I for got to mention that Dana went for a canoe ride the evening before, as well. I sat at the picnic table to write in my journal and study the maps. Suddenly I heard something crashing towards me through the bush! A large snowshoe hare came straight for me and stopped about 8ft from where I sat. I heard something continue running through the woods and assumed it was the fox I saw near the privy earlier. The rabbit quickly decided I was not a threat and began eating the clover and greenery at the end of the picnic table. He/She stayed for awhile and then hopped into the woods again. Hours later it was still browsing close to camp..Safely.
Back to day 6. After our canoe ride with hot drinks, we decided we weren’t hungry for breakfast. So, we packed up camp and left at around 9 a.m.
It was an easy day of paddling with the wind at our backs. As we left Eagle Lake we entered the Throughfare. It is a narrow throughfare on the map but is actually more like another pond. The wind wasn’t bad and we made good time.
Churchill Lake was gorgeous. The weather had been in the mid 70’s and sunny all day, and there was just enough of a breeze to keep us comfortable. Dana had been hoping to stay at Scofeild Point or Scofeild Cove, so we headed along the west shore of the lake. We saw a tarp up at Scofeild Point, so we aimed for the Scofeild Cove campsite. It was almost 12:30 p.m.
WOW! This was my favorite site so far, with Smith Brook as a close second. There were actually two cells at the cove, and we took the southern campsite the one with the rocks out front. The other cell had a small gravel beach, but I preferred the view from the rocky site, plus we could put our tent up by the water.
There was another neat bench at this site. It had been cut out of a large tree. Just south of the cell there was a small sandy point that formed a small peninsula between a stream inlet and the lake. I thought about swimming and went in up to my navel, but decided against it instead. I washed a pair of my pants and both Dana and I hung our wet cloths from the rainy day before on tarplines to dry.
I went down to the big rocks to sit and journal awhile. After a few minutes I noticed a gigantic bullfrog sitting 6ft in front of me on another large rock. He looked like a rock himself.
Taking a break from writing, I started playing with the solar charger. The batteries weren’t quite charged, but it didn’t take long. Then I plugged in my phone. It kept saying "unable to charge" but I left it plugged in for a little while and it did charge.
During my writing and fiddling Dana went…fishing! You guessed it! He also was collecting driftwood to use for firewood.
When Dana came back from fishing and driftwooding we both got a kick out of the butterflies. These were black and white (I can’t remember their names now) but these butterflies really loved our shoes. Between the two of us we had five pairs of shoes out one being wading shoes and they went back and forth checking them all out. Even the ones I was wearing,
Dana made chicken fajita meat and camp style Mac and cheese with real cheese and evaporated milk. Yummy!
Just before calling it a night Dana was cutting wood for the fire. The bow saw jumped and cut his pointer knuckle on his left hand. It was a pretty deep cut, so we got out the Neosporin and bandages and hooked him up.
Earlier in the evening, Dana had walked down the peninsula at the brook. He terrified a rabbit in the process, and the rabbit darted out of the woods a foot from Dana.
It was a beautiful day and a gorgeous night.
Day 5
We woke up late, at 9 a.m. An earned morning of sleeping in after our 12 mile paddle the day before. Dana said he wanted to make strawberry pancakes for breakfast, so I went with him to pick the berries. The rabbits must have picked through the patch the night before, but there were still plenty for us.
So we went back to camp and Dana made Bacon and wonderful strawberry pancakes! We packed up camp and were ready to leave when Dana noticed a giant Horse Leach swimming by shore. It had to be 8 inches long swimming. Dana poked and played with it for a bit before he let it swim off. An off we went at around noon.
Not far from shore, Dana trolling as we paddled across the lake, he caught the first trout of the day a 14-inch brookie. It made Dana’s day. He had a goal of catching a trout or salmon in every lake we paddled through and this took the pressure off for the day.
Our first stop was to see the famous trains of the Umbazookus Railroad (sounds like it should be a Dr. Seuss book)
.
Luckily, a group was portaging over from Chamberlain, so we noticed the brightly colored gear near a beaver dam. The locomotives use to be visible from the lake, but the woods have now grown over and make them invisible.
The trains were GIGANTIC! Certainly not something you would expect to find in the North Maine woods, and you would never know they were there if you were just paddling through unguided.
As we paddled from Smith Brook to the tramway, we were being followed by a horrendously loud and obnoxious group of kids. They were now coming up on the tramway. The man who was with the group portaging from Chamberlain asked if we were with them. "No Way" was the quick reply.
The Portage group was planning to camp at Farm Island and the noisy kids were also planning on camping there but their leader said they might also camp at Priestly Point. So we knew where we would not be staying. Dana did have a conversation with the leader; they were both excited about the brook trout they had been catching just before the trains. Fish were rising everywhere!
We took off quickly trying to gain some distance between both groups and us. We passed Hog Island and made our way to Farm Island. Ranger Patrick came around the far side of Farm Island in his Boston Whaler, and came to check in with us. He told us about open campsites ahead, and we told him of what we knew of the groups. We also mentioned we would likely aim for the Fred King site. He said no one was at Fred King, but that, if we wanted to stay at the Zeigler site, there was an older quit couple there that would make good neighbors.
We passed Farm Island and headed toward the north shore of the lake, looking for a place to stop for lunch and stretch our legs. Another boat, a canoe with a motor was making its way east from the western cove.
As we got close, a motorized boat came around the corner. The weather was getting crummy, and we were paddling hard for shore. The warden’s boat stopped at the other boat first. and by the time he was on to us we had already hit shore. We actually stopped at a very large rock that was rather difficult to step onto.
We talked to the warden, stretched, and we figured we would eat somewhere it was easier to get into our food/ clothes boxes.
Ax we continued parallel to shore, passing Pine and stopping at priestly point campsites for a quick lunch. The next site was pump Handle, and we had seen the group of obnoxious kid’s paddle that way while we went the long way around farm island. Sure enough they were at Pump Handle.
The poor fellow guiding the group should get paid double for that trip. As we passed camp, 4 or 5 boys had their knives out and were talking about aiming and throwing their knives at other things and us. The man saw what was happing and went over to teach the boys some safe and necessary things about knives. As we rounded the corner, Dana heard one of the boy’s say, "that’s why the ranger is here he is right around the corner". That was a response to what would happen if you got hurt real bad out here. WOW!
We entered the cove at Snare Brook. The rangers cabin was on the left a short distance around the corner. Fred King was on the far end of the cove, and since we saw no one that was where we were headed. About halfway across we saw the wardens boat coming again. He pulled alongside and smiled. "I don’t know you will find anything out this way, but the Zeigler site has a nice spot open about a hundred yards from the other Zeigler site". We told him we were headed for Fred King and he still looked skeptical.
"Thanks but we’ll try for Fred King" and the warden was off. Fred King was a long paddle in, but it was a nice site and certainly was secluded. Snare Brook entered the cove just north of our campsite. Some dark clouds were rolling in as we arrived at Fred King. The first thing I did was find the privy. On my way I scared a fox from his hiding place in the rain. I went straight to setting up camp. Right after I had the rain fly attached to the tent (Dana was fetching firewood) the rain began. `I quickly put the lids back on the toes, they them and the sleeping gear in the tent, and stuffed miscellaneous items into bags. Dana came rushing back with some wood and we quickly put our large tarp over the campsite. When we got situated we each showered in the water pouring off the corners of our tarp. It was nice to be clean.
Before we set up camp, we had been looking for a good spot to put the tent. There were roots and lumps all over the ground, so we were bad and did some fir tipping and collected fir boughs in hopes of evening out the ground. We had a nice fire ate supper and went to bed at around 9:30.
