Archive for the ‘Canoeing’ Category

Allagash Lake & Johnson Pond

Those cool August nights under a northern Maine sky lit by a breath-taking array of glittering stars had captivated us. The people of the North Country have a secret. They live in a magical place of tall trees, deep green forests, fickle crystal clear lakes and fast flowing rivers.

In 2008 Chris and I returned to the Allagash in August. This time we had found a place with no roads, a place accessible only by air, canoe or a long portage and again, a place where for the duration of our trip we knew we’d encounter more moose than people.

On a Monday morning we climbed into Katahdin Air’s Cessna 206 float plane on Ambajejus Lake eight miles northwest of Millinocket for our trip into Johnson Pond; a small body of water that offers a shallow, overgrown stream that leads to Allagash Stream and from there to Allagash Lake.

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A Ride On Eagle Lake

In August of 2007 my son Chris and I set off to canoe the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. We put in at Indian Stream; electing to bypass Chamberlain Lake for fear that we would begin our trip wind bound.

Chamberlain is the third largest lake in Maine and with a strong wind out of the northwest; the swells can reach a point that make canoe travel impossible. Some had been recorded as high as 15 feet on the lake. We were eager to get going and I didn’t want to sit out our first days stuck on shore.

I knew there was a very good possibility that we’d run into some big water as the lakes at the southern end of the waterway are big. Having skipped Telos and Chamberlain, we would only have Eagle, Churchill, Umsaskis and Long Lakes to deal with and planning early morning and evening paddles, I figured we’d be fine. We had spent a week on Lake Umbagog the year before dealing with rough water in preparation for Maine’s big lakes.

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