7-Day Canoe Trip in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway
The Allagash. Just the name evokes exotic mystery and adventure, shaded with primitive overtones. Like an enticing movie title….
The Allagash Wilderness Waterway promises an undisturbed 98-mile chain of rivers and lakes in a protected wilderness setting for those who want to shed the encroaching layers of modern living, if only for a week. We have known about it for years, but were always too busy with the usual important things (kids, business, obligations) to answer its call. I set out on a canoe trip there over 50 years ago – never completed – and have wanted to return there ever since. (see A 50-year Wait: Prelude to the Allagash).
On September 18, Jani and I drove 7 hours to Maine’s North Woods town of Greenville to join a canoe trip guided by Allagash Canoe Trips, a third-generation outfitting business, owned by Lani Love and her husband, Chip Cochrane. Lani, with her assistant, Chris, were our guides on an unparalleled week of canoeing and camping in this wondrous place. In one short week, the promise of The Allagash unfolded in ways we had hoped and, in many ways, exceeded those dreams.
Early Days: Questions Answered & Doubts Relieved
We had lots of questions as we arrived for our 7:00 (a.m.) meetup on Day 1, Sunday September 19. The outfitter’s web site was informative , but saying hello to a group of strangers, then loading up into a van for a 3-hour drive on corn-cob rough logging roads raises more questions than answers. What had we gotten ourselves into?
We had few doubts about our own canoeing or camping skills, but we were a bit concerned teaming up with people we had never met, an outfitter we had never used, and camping in a wilderness area with which we had no real experience.
As it turned out, the immersion of the first days put all of our doubts to rest and answered our most pressing questions. You could not ask for a better group of campers, a more prepared outfitter, nor a better system of campsites.
The Group
All of the 10 paddlers in our group were retirees, many with military and/or public health backgrounds and two of the men had been on previous trips with this outfitter. There were no weak links to this team; everyone was ready to pitch in when needed and eagerly packed up every morning so that we could get an early start on the water. The only complaints we heard from our group were about the number of rocks in the river….
The Guides
The real work of camping is setting up a campsite, finding and cutting up firewood, preparing the meals and doing the dishes. Our guides, Lani and Chris, pampered us; they performed all these chores, leaving us to merely care for our own gear, setting up and breaking down our tents. Along with planning the trip and leading us through the rapids and shallow spots, they performed all their tasks with the aplomb of journeymen who had done this a thousand time before.
The meals were nothing short of terrific. Every dinner featured a hearty main dish (steak, Caribbean grilled Chicken, Ham steaks, as examples), a fresh salad, and a delicious dessert baked in a reflector oven. They included banana bread, brownies, dinner rolls, corn bread and strawberry shortcake. Every meal was fresh with no freeze-dried or canned components.
We came to expect that we would start each day with an equally full breakfast menu. Typical were eggs, french toast, pancakes, cinnamon rolls, bacon, hash browns, and plenty of strong coffee. There was a different kind of oatmeal served every day. We were never hurting for food or snacks in camp or when we stopped along our route.
They taught canoeing and camping skills for those who needed a refresher and brought new skills, like canoe poling, to those of us who had never tried them before. In short, they took the chaos of wilderness camping and made it look easy.
The Trip
By the outfitter’s design, we paddled only 65 miles of the 98-mile Allagash Waterway. While Jani and I might have preferred a longer trip, this was probably a wise decision since it omitted the headwater lakes (Chamberlain and Eagle) that often delay trips due to their notorious winds. Rest assured, there were still plenty of challenges. There was heavy gear to move, load and unload, shallows to navigate around, rapids to survive and hours to paddle.
We were blessed with good weather and temperatures that were moderate for September this far north. The water temperature was such that some of us managed to swim 2 or 3 times during the trip, including a brisk plunge beneath a waterfall.
The seven days went quickly, yet there was still plenty of “down time” where one could read a book, explore our newest campsite or simply sit back and admire the amazing surroundings we were so privileged to share. And we can not say enough about those surroundings; there are few adjectives that can do justice to the sylvan beauty we experienced on this trip. (For a more detailed account, maps and videos, check out the links at the bottom of this post)
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