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Greetings!

Located in a remote northern part of Maine lies the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. It is a collection of lakes, ponds, streams and rivers that flow north to south into the St. John's River. The waterway is managed by Tim Caverly and a fine group of rangers employed by the Maine Department of Conservation. Their goal is to preserve the wilderness quality of the waterway for present and future generations. Although the state budget limits the ranger staff, the rangers, in conjunction with theAllagash Alliance volunteers do a superb job of maintaining the waterway. An example of their hard work and dedication is evident at each designated campsite found along the waterway. Each campsite comes with a picnic table, level tent sites, a clean outhouse, wooden frame over the picnic table to put a dining shelter and a large fire ring with a grill. Another example is the lack of trash and pollution. This is by far the cleanest waterway we have experienced on the tour thus far. Nice job guys!

Our nine day odyssey started with a wild three hour ride through the logging roads of the North Maine Woods with our shuttle driver, Crazy Eddie. We were dropped off at Allagash Stream. Allagash Stream flowed into the Northwest corner of Allagash Lake, a pristine wilderness lake where only canoes are allowed. We camped on the lake at the Ledge Point campsite. The next day we continued down Allagash Stream, portaged Little Allagash Falls and entered Chamberlain Lake. We camped that night at the McCarren campsite. We then portaged Lock Dam and entered Eagle Lake and camped at the Farm Island campsite. We continued on Eagle Lake into Churchill Lake and camped at the Scofield Cove campsite. After portaging the Churchill Dam, we ran Chase Rapids and stopped to camp at the Chisholm Brook campsite near the head of the Umsaskis Lake. The next camp was The Ledges campsite on Umsaskis Lake. Our seventh campsite was at the end of Long Lake at the Long Lake Dam campsite. Our final stop was at the Five Finger Brook East campsite on the Allagash River. We took out on our ninth day in the Town of Allagash about a quarter of a mile from the confluence of the St. John River.

The weather on our journey was variable. We encountered rain and sun, hot and cold temperature, and windy and calm days and nights. No matter the weather, it couldn't diminish the beauty of the waterway and the experience we had on it.

The shorelines were heavily forested with Pine, Spruce, Fir and Tamarack trees dominating the scene. There were also fine stands of Birch and other hardwoods. The hardwoods came more abundant downstream. Due to logging in the past, much of the virgin forest is gone. However, stands of virgin trees can still be found at various places along the waterway. Mountains surround the waterway. The beauty of the Allagash could be experienced out of the canoe as well, for there were opportunities to view the waterway from higher elevations. We took advantage of these opportunities on two separate occasions. First, we hiked the Pump Handle Nature Trail, accessible from the Pump Handle campsite, to a rocky outcrop that gave us a great view of the sandy beach at the mouth of Smith Brook . Views of Eagle Lake and the surrounding mountains could also be seen. The second hike was a seven mile round trip from Umsaskis Lake to the Priestly Mountain Lookout tower. The tower provided us with spectacular 360 degree views of the surrounding area. Some scenic highlights along the river included Little Allagash Falls on Allagash Stream, the virgin pines at the Ziegler campsite, the abandoned locomotives, railroad and tramway on Eagle Lake and the massive Allagash Falls just downstream from the Michaud Farm Ranger Station.

The abundance of wildlife on the Allagash was incredible. We knew we would see moose, but had no idea we would encounter over sixty of them. One afternoon as we fished the Thoroughfare Brook area, there were nine moose in view at one time, including a giant bull who allowed us to paddle within ten yards of him. He almost appeared happy to be performing for us. Words cannot describe what it was like to see this giant completely disappear underwater and then, all of a sudden, explode through the surface with weeds hanging from his mouth and huge antlers. Another memorable moose encounter happened as we were fishing in the Umsaskis Meadows. A calf suddenly appeared in the tall grass not more than ten feet in front of us. We couldn't believe how lucky we were to be so close to a baby moose until we heard the call of mommy moose from behind us. The last place we wanted to be was between a cow and her calf. Luckily, she wasn't hostile and as we backed away. The calf swam across the channel back to it's mother.

Here's a list of some of the other animals we sighted along the waterway: River Otters, Red Squirrels, Eastern Chipmunks, Little Brown Bats, Eastern Cottontail Rabbits, Eastern Coyote (heard), Bald Eagles, Osprey, Common Nighthawk and a variety of different hawks, Common Loons, Common and Red-Breasted Mergansers, Mallards, Black Ducks, Canada Geese, Great Blue Heron, Pileated Woodpecker, Flicker, White and Rose-Breasted Nuthatch, Cedar Waxwing, American Robin, Blue Jay, Belted Kingfish, Chimney Swift, Barn and Tree Swallows, Common Crows, many small woodland songbirds, American Toads, Bull Frogs, and Eastern Garter Snakes.

If there's one downside to the Allagash it's the bugs. The bugs were absolutely ferocious. If you weren't having the blood sucked out of you by mosquitoes or the carnivorous black flies, you were being dive-bombed by moose flies and deer flies. Even though we had an ample supply of insect repellent and wore our Bugshirts on a regular basis, we feel we still lost the war on bugs.

We've met many wonderful and interesting people on the tour and the Allagash was no exception. On our hike to the Priestly Mountain Lookout Tower, we didn't anticipate seeing other humans in this remote area. Much to our surprise we found a cabin full of people on Priestly Lake. We ended up spending most of the afternoon with David Granier and his extended family exchanging stories about our tour and their life in the North Maine Woods. They provided us with many cold carbonated beverages for which we are most grateful.

On the ninth day of our journey we met up with Ed and Margaret Arsenault from Stow, MA. Eddie told of a great breakfast they had at a local diner in the Town of Allagash and recommended we try it out. After the graphic description of the meal, our mouths were watering. It then dawned on us that we had no cash on hand, just credit cards. We brought this to Eddie's attention and he thought that they didn't accept credit cards. He offered to lend us twenty dollars on the spot. The meal was fantastic. Thanks Eddie and Margaret! We would also like to thank Tim Caverly for taking the time out of his busy schedule to share his insights on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.

We found the Allagash Wilderness Waterway to be a wonderful trip and highly recommend it to any experienced canoe camper. Our next stop is Voyageurs National Park.

See You in the Outback!

Kevin and Steve