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Day One........
Bissonette Bridge Put-In to Ledges campsite; Umsaskis Lake
5.9 Miles
Joanne, Dick, Doug, Dougs wife, Donna, daughter Eva (9 years old), father John (86 years old) and myself arrived at the Hidden Springs Campground in Millinocket, Maine Friday evening, after a tour of every highway construction site in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. I’ll let Doug or Dick post the mileage to and from since I was a passenger, not a driver.
First a few words about Hidden Springs Campground, Don’t go there! This is the nosiest, rowdiest place I have ever been in. People screaming and talking loud until the wee hours of the morning without any policing from the management at all. We got very little sleep.
Saturday morning we were up early, ate, broke camp and met Jeff from Katahdin Outfitters at the entrance to the campgrounds. We loaded the trailer with out gear, parked the cars which were to be shuttled to where we would take out in Allagash, and climbed in to begin our adventure.
It is about 70 miles from Millinocket to where we were putting in, most on logging roads in the North Maine Woods. We had decided to avoid the Chase rapids because of our inexperience of paddling any white water and the ages of two of our party. It was a bumpy but enjoyable ride through the woods and on the trip in we saw three moose, one cow and calf, and another lone cow, on the road. We were driving through some beautiful uninhabited country.
Our driver Paul, told us that the last part of the road to the put in was going to be a “buggerâ€, that he hoped it was fixed, but doubted it. When we got there I looked and sure enough it was a “bugger†, real grit your teeth, four wheel drive, bump your head, road. And then he said “They fixed itâ€. Sure am glad we didn’t get there before that.
As we drove down the final patch of road to the put in at Bissonette Bridge near the bottom of Chase Rapids, the ranger was coming out, having dropped off gear for a group that was shooting the rapids. According to her, the river was low and might be more difficult downstream with a lot of walking. This is the first trip I was ever on that I was hoping for a at least a day of downpour.
We got to the put in and unloaded the canoes and gear and prepared to begin. We had a nice flow of water here ad just a few obstructions in the river. We had rented the canoes, Old Town Discovery 17 footers and I have to say I was impressed with these babies as we did our trip. They took a licking and just kept on going with hardly any indication of the abuse we subject them to. We gad three canoes, Dick and Joanne an one, Doug, Donna and Eva in a second, and John and I in the third.
We put in and began our journey along this marvelous, wildlife rich, wilderness river. Our goal for the first night was “The ledges†campsite on the northeast shore of Lake Umsaskis just before it runs into Lost Lake, a distance of 5.9 miles. It was immediately evident that our decision to not put in at Churchill Dam and run the rapids was a wise one. I am not that experienced in a canoe, especially with another person and so I chose the bow. John who is an experienced paddler has had recent eye surgery for cataracts and is due for a similar operation on the other eye, often sees double so we had difficulties the whole trip “being on the same page†and going in the direction that I wanted the canoe to go.
We had an “interesting†trip the first leg of the journey and in about 3 hours we reached the campsite That we had planned on. There were actually two sites there, the other was used by a couple who had been paddling since Chamberlain lake. The guy was from Lewiston, Maine and had done the trip before and said that the river from the five fingers deadwater to Allagash Falls and from the falls to Allagash would be pretty “scratchy†and that they were having their outfitters meet them at the Ranger Station at Michaud Farm. Based on that information and the possibility that we might have to do a lot of carrying because of low water, we all decided that we should revise our schedule to allow for the possibility that the last part of the trip might be more difficult and take longer then we had planned.
We all set up camp and ate, I think we had my sausage and peppers and onions that first night on the river, I don’t remember what meals we ate what nights. I am always going to keep a daily journal, but in recent times I have failed to do so. Just about all of the sites on the river were fantastic, beautiful areas, table, ridgepole, firepit and outhouse. My only complaint would be that they are all in big clearings with no protection from he sun.
And while I’m at it, let me mention the weather…. HOT, Hot, Hot. We were in the nineties during the days, probably the seventies in the evenings and I don’t think anyone used their sleeping bags on any night at all. For the most part, I used my Hennesy Hammock, one night I used the Bivy because I hadn’t tied the hammock right and one night I used my little one man tent because of the $%^#@*& mosquito in the hammock.
Anyway, we had a nice view of the lake from the campsite. We all retired to bed right about dark since our overall plan was to be up and on the river early each day to avoid the wind. We all crawled into bed that first night, excited, well fed, and weary. Long Lake awaited us in the morning.
To be continued
Bissonette Bridge Put-In to Ledges campsite; Umsaskis Lake
5.9 Miles
Joanne, Dick, Doug, Dougs wife, Donna, daughter Eva (9 years old), father John (86 years old) and myself arrived at the Hidden Springs Campground in Millinocket, Maine Friday evening, after a tour of every highway construction site in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. I’ll let Doug or Dick post the mileage to and from since I was a passenger, not a driver.
First a few words about Hidden Springs Campground, Don’t go there! This is the nosiest, rowdiest place I have ever been in. People screaming and talking loud until the wee hours of the morning without any policing from the management at all. We got very little sleep.
Saturday morning we were up early, ate, broke camp and met Jeff from Katahdin Outfitters at the entrance to the campgrounds. We loaded the trailer with out gear, parked the cars which were to be shuttled to where we would take out in Allagash, and climbed in to begin our adventure.
It is about 70 miles from Millinocket to where we were putting in, most on logging roads in the North Maine Woods. We had decided to avoid the Chase rapids because of our inexperience of paddling any white water and the ages of two of our party. It was a bumpy but enjoyable ride through the woods and on the trip in we saw three moose, one cow and calf, and another lone cow, on the road. We were driving through some beautiful uninhabited country.
Our driver Paul, told us that the last part of the road to the put in was going to be a “buggerâ€, that he hoped it was fixed, but doubted it. When we got there I looked and sure enough it was a “bugger†, real grit your teeth, four wheel drive, bump your head, road. And then he said “They fixed itâ€. Sure am glad we didn’t get there before that.
As we drove down the final patch of road to the put in at Bissonette Bridge near the bottom of Chase Rapids, the ranger was coming out, having dropped off gear for a group that was shooting the rapids. According to her, the river was low and might be more difficult downstream with a lot of walking. This is the first trip I was ever on that I was hoping for a at least a day of downpour.
We got to the put in and unloaded the canoes and gear and prepared to begin. We had a nice flow of water here ad just a few obstructions in the river. We had rented the canoes, Old Town Discovery 17 footers and I have to say I was impressed with these babies as we did our trip. They took a licking and just kept on going with hardly any indication of the abuse we subject them to. We gad three canoes, Dick and Joanne an one, Doug, Donna and Eva in a second, and John and I in the third.
We put in and began our journey along this marvelous, wildlife rich, wilderness river. Our goal for the first night was “The ledges†campsite on the northeast shore of Lake Umsaskis just before it runs into Lost Lake, a distance of 5.9 miles. It was immediately evident that our decision to not put in at Churchill Dam and run the rapids was a wise one. I am not that experienced in a canoe, especially with another person and so I chose the bow. John who is an experienced paddler has had recent eye surgery for cataracts and is due for a similar operation on the other eye, often sees double so we had difficulties the whole trip “being on the same page†and going in the direction that I wanted the canoe to go.
We had an “interesting†trip the first leg of the journey and in about 3 hours we reached the campsite That we had planned on. There were actually two sites there, the other was used by a couple who had been paddling since Chamberlain lake. The guy was from Lewiston, Maine and had done the trip before and said that the river from the five fingers deadwater to Allagash Falls and from the falls to Allagash would be pretty “scratchy†and that they were having their outfitters meet them at the Ranger Station at Michaud Farm. Based on that information and the possibility that we might have to do a lot of carrying because of low water, we all decided that we should revise our schedule to allow for the possibility that the last part of the trip might be more difficult and take longer then we had planned.
We all set up camp and ate, I think we had my sausage and peppers and onions that first night on the river, I don’t remember what meals we ate what nights. I am always going to keep a daily journal, but in recent times I have failed to do so. Just about all of the sites on the river were fantastic, beautiful areas, table, ridgepole, firepit and outhouse. My only complaint would be that they are all in big clearings with no protection from he sun.
And while I’m at it, let me mention the weather…. HOT, Hot, Hot. We were in the nineties during the days, probably the seventies in the evenings and I don’t think anyone used their sleeping bags on any night at all. For the most part, I used my Hennesy Hammock, one night I used the Bivy because I hadn’t tied the hammock right and one night I used my little one man tent because of the $%^#@*& mosquito in the hammock.
Anyway, we had a nice view of the lake from the campsite. We all retired to bed right about dark since our overall plan was to be up and on the river early each day to avoid the wind. We all crawled into bed that first night, excited, well fed, and weary. Long Lake awaited us in the morning.
To be continued
There were no-seeums everywhere and these things that looked like giant mosquitoes
We also saw 6 moose and 4 calves. We got real close to one and her three(three???) babies, but she didn't care at all about us. 
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