T.W.T check-in after Resupply #2

The sun has finally come out in Northern Maine in force and TWT is loving it! We had an accidental sleep-in morning our first fully sunny day of the trip becuase the rain(our standard alarm clock, the pitter-patter usually starts when it is really time to get up) never fell! The best part is that amidst all of this sunshine we've been polling, pulling and paddling our way up the Allagash. We thought at our last resupply that our most challenging poling days were behind us; we were wrong. With high water after all the rain from the previous weeks, we've become intimately familiar with the alders & fallen birches & cedars that tangle together to form the banks. We stick close to shore to avoid the strongest current and wage battles against and within these wild banks for hours each day. One particularly challenging day, we pulled into camp exhausted and hurriedly cooked dinner and set up tents and tarps. Fed, we reflected on the absurdity of fighting gravity, laughed at a few of the more memorable moments of the day then were stunned to silence when a moose and her calf ferried into the eddy in front of our campsite and ambled into the woods just downstream. We are almost three weeks into the trip and this was our first moose sighting. Aaron and I were starting to believe that the mega-fauna of the north woods were conspiring against us and banding together to avoid being seen by us. Fortunately our mega-fauna drought is over and we've since seen 13 moose in the last four days. Some have been very cooperative and given us an extended viewing, some we've even had to politely ask them to move on so that we could continue our upsteam progress. As the moose sighting have increased so to have the human sightings. We are regularly crossing paths with groups coming downstream. We've received lots of questions and comments about our mode of travel and our reasoning for going "the wrong way", but mostly we've received high praise and approval for our commitment to a traditional method of river travel. It feels great to be recognized by the "river elders" for doing it the hard way.

So now, nearing the headwaters our days are punctuated by moose, loon, and eagle sightings, and we are not punctured by bugs, which have mostly disappeared. As for the group, we continue to be in high spirits, to laugh well and often at ourselves, and to immerse ourselves in this experience. We were delighted to pass both the Girls Allagash trip, as well as the North Woods Canoe group - both heading downstream as we poled up. As their trips near an end, we come to almost the middle of our experience. Despite, or perhaps because of the very different personalities in this group, we work, travel, and live together in fine fashion. Oohh,, and we play too :) today we had a group swim in front of our campsite - what fun!!. TWT 09 is taking this epic journey one day at a time, looking forward to more wildlife sightings, and lake paddling in the next little bit.

We'll be sure to keep you posted......