West Branch Penobscot River: Canoe Trip

Welcome again to Half 4 of this multi-part piece I’m writing on my latest journey down the West Department Penobscot River. When you’ve got not already, I might extremely advocate studying Elements 1-3 earlier than diving into this one beneath. In Half One, I’ve coated the route we plan to take and a few information on the members on this journey. Half two coated the gear I introduced and the historical past of the river, and half 3 was all in regards to the first day.

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 cook dinner a number of my meals and make my espresso.

Canoe Protection on AllOutdoor

Morning at Roll Dam

As I used to be falling asleep the earlier evening, I bear in mind considering to myself how good it was to have the ability to hear the water speeding over the rocks of the river and the crackling of the fireplace. It was really enjoyable after a protracted work week. When Ridge and I arrange camp the earlier evening, it was clearly very darkish, however we might hear the river proper subsequent to us. I unzipped my tent and ventured out to the river to see if there was any wildlife getting a morning drink. There was no wildlife, however I used to be delighted to see the solar had not crested over the bushes but, and there was a small quantity of fog aloft the river. I stood there within the river for a couple of minutes and soaked within the calmness of this cool summer time morning. For a second, I felt at peace with the world after which realized I wanted to make some espresso and breakfast.

Breakfast

By the point I had come again from the river, Ridge was already awake we obtained began on some breakfast. Ridge and I took very totally different approaches to meals on this journey. I introduced simply what I wanted, whereas he introduced all the pieces he might slot in a 27-gallon plastic tote and a small cooler. Whereas I used to be attempting to deliver as little as doable in case we would have liked to conduct any sudden portages, Ridge knew we might not want to fret about weight and introduced all the great things to incorporate bacon. So what did we have now for breakfast that morning? Bacon, naturally. After breakfast, we packed up our campsites and loaded up the truck and headed to Lobster Stream.

Lobster Stream

As soon as we arrived at Lobster Stream, we have been stunned to see there have been a number of vehicles and extra canoes on the brink of put in on the stream. This was stunning as we had seen just about no one else since leaving Caribou Checkpoint the day past. As soon as we parked and commenced to dump our gear, one of many different guys got here as much as us and requested us how he was doing. We got here to seek out out that these guys have been in want of an air pump, as their truck already popped a tire, and their spare was wanting fairly slack. Clearly, we have been joyful to assist out, and Ridge hooked them up together with his pump.

After we obtained all our gear located and the canoes within the stream, we have been able to set off on this journey. As talked about earlier than, Ridge and I had been speaking about doing a visit like this for nearly 6 months at this level, and it felt nice to lastly be doing it. Lobster Stream leads proper into the Wes Department Penobscot, and these waters have been good and calm. Only for reference, beneath you possibly can see on the map the place we put the canoes in on the underside middle of the map.

After getting on the river, I began monitoring our journey with my Garmin watch to see what our tempo was going to be like and if we would wish to try to paddle any sooner in the course of the day. The flows from the river have been very quick at first, as have been clocked our first mile in simply over quarter-hour. This meant that if we stored this tempo, we might be accomplished with the complete journey in 5 hours, and that will put us method forward of schedule. However as you possibly can think about, that positively didn’t occur. This can conclude half 4 of the West Department Penobscot River journey sequence. In the event you loved this, please be looking out for half 5, the place we go to notable camp websites and see many critters alongside the way in which.

Patrik Orcutt

Patrik is a contract photographer who has been fortunate sufficient to see a number 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 at present engaged on changing into a Blackhawk Pilot for the Military whereas being an avid gear junky and outside fanatic.