North Woods Canoe Final Post

This summer, North Woods Canoe followed an unprecedented itinerary with an unparalleled group of participants. Rain, high water, and the high resilience of the participants made this summer's North Woods Canoe trip unlike any before it.


We began our trip on the West Branch of the Penobscot River. After a couple days on this river, we fought headwinds across Chesuncook Lake and spent a night on the beautiful Gero Island, watching storms roll in from the south. In order to get up to the renowned Allagash Wilderness Waterway, we dragged our boats for a day up Caucomogomoc Stream, pulling the boats through knee-deep water, and spent a day carrying all of our gear and our boats across a three mile portage into Allagash Lake. The hardiness with which the group tackled this portage assured us that we could weather any challenges this trip had in store.

We relaxed on Allagash Lake for a few days, hiking up Allagash Mtn. and visiting the famous ice caves. Thereafter, we got plenty of excitement on Allagash Stream, a narrow, curvy stream of constant Class I/II whitewater. Then we wound our way through Chamberlain, Eagle, and Churchill Lakes to Churchill Dam towards the beginning of Allagash River.

A deluge of rain followed by atypically high water on the River led us to depart from our intended itinerary. The rain we had seen thus far had brough the river levels to 25 times the normal level!!!! With the river unsafe at this level we opted to transfer our group to another river system. We finished on the lower reaches of the West Branch of the Penobscot and had a wonderful final few days.

As leaders we're confident that a trip such as this, with so much rain and so many unusual circumstances would have suffered a great deal more if it were not for our group. Their flexibility, high-spirited'ness, and overall optimism created a recipe for success regardless of the challenges.

It was a REMARKABLE trip by all accounts.