West Branch Penobscot River: Canoe Trip

Welcome again to Half 3 of this Multi-part piece I’m writing on my current journey down the West Department Penobscot River. When you have not already, I’d extremely advocate studying Half 1-2 earlier than diving into this one under. In Half One, I’ve coated the route we plan to take and a few information on the contributors on this journey. Half two coated the gear I introduced and the historical past of the river.

This journey was not sponsored by anybody, however I wish to thank Old Town Canoe for getting me a Discovery 158 I used for this journey and Jetboil for hooking me up with Flash 1.0 Fast boil system to prepare dinner quite a lot of my meals and make my espresso.

Canoe Protection on AllOutdoor

The Journey Begins

After assembly up round 3 PM in Bangor, Ridge and myself acquired all our stuff loaded up and hit the highway. We knew we had an extended journey forward of us to get to Roll Dam Campground and wished to attempt to get our tents up earlier than darkish( That was wishful pondering). The highway all the way in which to the West facet of Millinoket is your regular paved freeway, however when you hit the Golden Road, that’s the place the pavement ends. The Golden Street is a 96-mile non-public highway constructed by the Nice Northern Paper Firm that stretches from the St. Zacharie Border Crossing to its former mill at Millinocket, Maine. It’s nonetheless closely traveled by logging vehicles and other people trying to recreate in Baxter State Park. Whereas it’s largely a dust highway, it’s often in surprisingly fine condition contemplating the quantity of site visitors it sees per day. One of many largest causes individuals love to come back as much as this space of Maine is the pure magnificence the landscapes present. Whereas driving over the Abol Bridge, it’s customary to tug off to the facet of the highway and soak up the fantastic thing about the large Mt Katahdin.

After driving for about an hour, we acquired to our first cease at Caribou Checkpoint to pay our highway and campsite charges for the North Maine Woods. The North Maine Woods (NMW) spans 3.5 million acres of economic forest land in northern Maine, characterised by a fancy possession construction stemming from historic land gross sales within the late 18th and nineteenth centuries, now involving non-public people, industrial entities, and public pursuits throughout 155 townships. The NMW group, evolving from a Sixties landowner committee right into a non-profit company by 1981, manages leisure entry by way of uniform rules and costs, sustaining checkpoints, lowering inside gates, and coordinating with state businesses to facilitate actions like tenting, fishing, and searching whereas supporting conservation and financial objectives for the area.

After passing by way of the checkpoint, we began making our option to Graveyard Point. The purpose is a part of the Village of Chesuncook, that was established in 1849 by Ansel A. Smith as a logging settlement. Initially an Abenaki encampment, it grew within the 1840s right into a frontier logging village after dams on the West Department Penobscot River, constructed in 1835, 1903, and 1916, enlarged the lake to facilitate log drives. In the end with the ultimate drive in 1970 and a cleanup in 1971, marked the tip of conventional logging operations within the space. As we speak, Chesuncook Village is a small, primarily seasonal settlement segmented by outside lovers and is accessible by boat, floatplane, snowmobile, and truck. Talking of attending to Graveyard Level, this proved to be a really time-consuming course of.

Whereas the Golden Street was actually not good, you might nonetheless handle to drive 30-50 miles per hour in and make good time, whereas the highway into Graveyard Level proved to be rather more tough to move. Whereas taking the Pine Stream Street is simply 13.7 miles on paper, it takes about an hour to journey these 13 miles after which one other hour to journey again. This highway was so tough with all its washouts and pot-holes, it appeared ironic that the tip of the highway was known as Graveyard Level.

As soon as we made it by way of the highway to Graveyard Level, we indifferent my Canoe and strapped it on high of Ridge’s truck whereas transferring all of my essential gear for the subsequent few days into the mattress. We wished to go away my SUV on the level, to make use of later as a shuttle, as a result of as with most river journeys, this was going to be a method, and we didn’t actually really feel like strolling twenty-something miles again to get the automobiles. Whereas we had been actually making an attempt to get all of the gear moved as shortly as attainable, it was inconceivable to not benefit from the golden mild cascading upon us at that time.

With my SUV staged, it was time to drive again out to the Golden Street and make our option to the Roll Rattling Campground, the place we hoped to have a late Meal and get some relaxation. On our manner out, we’d encounter our first Moose of the journey. Naturally, I had the fallacious lens on my digicam get the most effective shot of the moose.

Lastly, we reached Roll Rattling Campground an hour or so after the solar had set and started establishing camp for the night time. Each Ridge and myself had been fairly drained at this level and wished nothing greater than a scorching meal and a few sleep. After making a fireplace, we arrange our tents, and Ridge found he had forgotten his tent stakes and pole at his home. Fortunately, there was a lean-to on the campground and he was capable of sleep underneath it that night time.

After establishing my tent and consuming a meal, I snapped a couple of footage of our campground, crawled into my tent, and dozed off for the night. That is the tip of Half 3 of the West Department Penobscot River journey collection. In case you loved this, please be looking out for half 4, the place we get on the river and canoe practically 20 miles in sooner or later.

Patrik Orcutt

Patrik is a contract photographer who has been fortunate sufficient to see quite a lot of the world and doc his travels together with his digicam. He has labored for the U.S. authorities as a Public Affairs Officer documenting Multi-Nationwide Particular Forces Coaching across the World. He’s presently engaged on turning into a Blackhawk Pilot for the Military whereas being an avid gear junky and outside fanatic.