ALLAGASH WILDERNESS WATERWAY

CANOE TRIP - 92 MILES

JULY 8 - 15, 2000

July 8, 2000

Six months ago, near the beginning of the new millennium, Tom had an idea to fulfill his father’s dream of a week-long canoe trip on the Allagash River. During the summer of 2000, the time to realize that dream for not only his Pop, but also his Mother and his wife was coming true.  This is the journal of that trip.

The first day of the trip, Saturday, July 8th, 2000 dawned bright and beautiful. It had been five months since Tom sent the deposit to Allagash Canoe Trips for the trip and truly realized this adventure would become a reality. The anxious times spent thinking about the trip were now past and the commitment to this wilderness trip seemed all encompassing. At eleven o'clock in the morning with the car packed, Tom, Shannon, Hank and Jean left Weston. They were on their way to Greenville, Maine to start a seven day canoe and camping drip down the 92 mile Allagash River!

Five and a half hours later, during a beautiful but uneventful day, they arrived at the Evergreen Lodge just outside of Greenville, a five-room bed and breakfast. That evening, the beautiful day turned to rain but the small group’s spirits remained high with the hope that the weather may lift by tomorrow's morning. Having settled into the Lodge, they drove around Greenville enjoying scenic Moosehead Lake and the cottages that lined the shoreline.

Early that evening, the expectant canoeists went to the home of the Maine Guide to collect the waterproof stuff sacks and life jackets. At the home were Warren Cochran, the principle of the guiding company, and Linda Koski, who had coordinated the trip with Tom. The people were nice but Jean was initially concerned since the house and surroundings appeared to be in disarray. Jean noticed canoes and equipment strewn the length of the driveway from the house to the barn as well as an overgrown garden threatened by weeds. To Tom, this was the perfect setting for the true Maine Guide not an Eddie Bauer type others might have envisioned.

Jean, Hank, Tom and Shannon were introduced to Warren, an outdoorsman with a very reserved personality, a typical stereotype for residents of this part of Maine. He would offer very little advice unless asked, and when he did have a contribution to make, it was brief and to the point. Fortunately, Linda was friendly and seemed to sense Jean needed some confidence and encouragement concerning the trip. She instilled a sense of adventure and excitement about the trip in a calm and friendly way so that Jean began thinking, “maybe we can do this”. With the stuff sacks in hand and life jackets properly fitted to each person, the group left Warren and Linda and headed for dinner at restaurant Kelly's Landing on the southwest shore of Moosehead Lake. The details of the trip were on their minds, but by now pangs of hunger were pushing them along a little too quickly for the comfort of the Greenville police. As they entered the parking lot of Kelly’s Landing, red lights flashed behind them indicating trouble. A polite but firm policeman issued Tom a $174.00 speeding ticket.

During dinner, very little was discussed that evening about the canoe trip that was about to begin at seven the next morning. Their thoughts seemed focused on eating, packing the stuff sacks and getting to bed early in order to be as rested as possible to begin the unknown adventure ahead of them.

The next morning, following a hardy pancake breakfast at six fifteen AM, Tom, Shannon, Hank and Jean left the Lodge to meet Chip Cochran, the guide for the next seven days, and the other members of the group. Spirits were again high since the weather cleared and the sun was shinning. They met Chip at the unoccupied home of his grandfather, founder of the present guide company. Chip is a robust thirtyish man with a friendly and confident personality, perfect qualifications for a Maine Guide. The other members of the group consisted of John Mead, a New York actor, Brendan Killeen, an owner of a marketing company, and Brendan’s ten-year old son, Patrick. Through a combined effort by all, the canoes, luggage, food, and water were loaded into a specially designed trailer that held eight canoes. The trailer was pulled by a full-sized van in which the entire group departed for Indian Creek, the starting point of the canoe trip. The sun was shinning, the weather was calm and the group was in high spirits as they began the adventure into the Maine Wilderness.

The trip to the put-in point at Indian Creek took took two and a half hours over unpaved Northwoods roads . The logging companies owned the majority of the roads that were well traveled, but were in remarkably good condition with the exception of a few potholes that Chip would easily weave around. The North Country of Maine was quite beautiful with the road often lined with multitudes of white-daisy wild flowers and other local fauna. Along the way the group encountered two moose; unfortunately, these were the only moose seen for the next seven days. John and Jean caught a glimpse of a bear sitting along a side road eating strawberries, a rare sight according to Chip. A stop was made at the Telos Gate House, the official entry into the North Maine Woods. Chip obtained navigation maps of the Allagash Waterway for everyone from the local ranger. The first of the outhouses used along the river were discovered at the gatehouse. After re-boarding the van, they continued the trip to Indian Creek.  Everyone quietly studied the maps and dealt with their own thoughts of what was in store for this adventure.

Late in the morning, the group arrived at Indian Creek and quickly unloaded the canoes and gear. The canoes were placed in the creek, loaded, teams for each canoe established and with little fuss, the intrepid canoeists were on their way. Jean and Hank took one canoe, Tom and Shannon another, Chip matched up with John, Brendan and his son were the final team. Indian Creek is a narrow, shallow stream – too shallow to allow anyone to actually ride in a loaded canoe. Each member had to walk his/her canoe down Indian Creek, which was full of slippery rocks and low-hanging branches. About a half-mile down Indian Creek and twenty minutes later, no worse for wear, they all reached the mouth of Indian Creek at Eagle Lake. The immediate area was a small, tidal-like area full of tall marsh grass and bugs – the first experience with the pesky Maine black flies! Here, in the marsh of the lake, Chip provided some basic canoe paddling instruction. Careful attention was made to this lesson since everyone, with the exception of John, were novices at the sport. Unfortunately, the weather was deteriorating and the black flies were getting worse so the lesson was cut short. Immediately upon entering the lake, Jean and Hank’s canoe got stuck in the shallows of the lake – a peat moss bog making it impassible and they had to get out of the canoe to push it out of the shallows. Here they learned a valuable lesson – don’t take your own path, follow the guide. Jean and Hank struggled for a few minutes to get off the shallows, but managed to work their way over to the rest of the group. Moving on to open water, a strong head wind was gathering momentum, creating high waves with white caps on the lake. This made canoeing difficult and for the very first time the group began to feel the real sense of adventure ahead of them. Undaunted by the wind, they all pushed north on this first of many lakes along the Allagash Waterway.

Eagle Lake, the second largest lake in the waterway, is one hundred twenty-four feet deep and twelve miles long. Two major islands, Pillsbury and Farm, add to the lake's complex pattern. According to Chip, wildlife is especially plentiful here – moose, deer, loons and ospreys, although moose were not to be seen on this canoe trip.

Following an hour or so of hard paddling, a brief stop was made on Pillsbury Island for lunch and a much needed rest. Lunch consisted of tuna salad on pita bread, chips, water, homemade chocolate chip cookies and refreshing watermelon. After a brief rest period, everyone climbed back into their canoes and followed Chip a short distance along Eagle Lake’s shore to the Tramway that was one of the more interesting stops providing a bit of Maine history.

The original Tramway was a small rope-tow type apparatus on tracks, built to move individual logs on carts between Eagle Lake to Chamberlain Lake, a distance of three-quarters of a mile. The original cable tramway was built in 1902-1903 to move logs over a ridge so they could be floated south toward Greenville instead of north into Canada. At peak production, a half-million board feet of logs were handled in a single day. The rusting remains of the chain link cable, gears and cogs remain just as they were when abandoned in 1926.

Not far from the abandoned tramway stand the hulks of two giant oil burning steam engines built in 1925-1926 by the Eagle Lake and Umbazooksus Railroad. The engines were assembled on-site after hauling the parts over the winter ice to the spot where they now stand. These engines hauled one hundred twenty-five thousand cords of pulpwood each year between Eagle Lake and Umbazooksus Lake, a distance of approximately twelve miles, making the trip between the lakes every three hours. Today, these two giant engines stand side by side rusting on the rails just as they were left on the day the engineers abandoned them. A short distance away, one can also find the wooden cars used for hauling the wood rotting on the same tracks as the engines. They are a startling sight to find in the middle of the North Woods on the shores of Eagle Lake with the nearest road or village many miles away.

There are dozens of established camping locations along the Allagash River Waterway that are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. The campsites are clearly marked and named with a triangular brown sign with yellow lettering. Each campsite is equipped with tables, a frame of wooden poles over the tables for tarps, a fire-pit, and an outhouse (some better than others).

Continuing across Eagle Lake, amid overcast skies and again battling stiff head winds, the canoeists had to stay near the lee of the shore whenever possible to make headway. The group was headed for Lone Pine Camp, the first campsite chosen by Chip along the waterway. Arrival time at Lone Pine Camp was about two o'clock. The daily routine was beginning to take shape. The first job was to unload the canoes.