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!
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.
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.
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.
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