Fish Pond Marks 500 Miles Today
Weather: Cloudy, sprinkled only once, clearing by night
Wildlife: Herons, bald eagle, beaver, mergansers, loon
Portages: 2
#1: 3 miles on Spencer Road (see details below)
#2: Carry around Attean Falls
We took the left portage instead of running the shallow rips, which leads you to the shorter right portage through the campsites above the falls. Lots of moose tracks. After carrying our gear a short distance, we put back on the water, just below the rips and crossed over to the river right where we took out by the campsite we ended up staying at that night. The rips may have been runnable, but looked scratchy and boulder-strewn. The boy scouts we met up with, did run them in their Royalex canoes.
 |
| Longer (river left) portage before the rips at Attean Falls |
Probably no surprise that we slept very well last night, cradled by the sand. Woke up to sunshine. Had a hearty breakfast of scrambled dehydrated eggs, hashbrowns, beef jerky, and dried fruit to fortify us for the long walk ahead of us today. Launched with a slight head wind and cloud cover moving in.
Paddled through the narrows into Fish Pond, past a camp where I saw a red truck and momentarily even considered stopping to ask if we could get a shuttle to Spencer Rips. But no, much too early to be whimping out this soon. Headed north toward the presumed outlet and the canoe access point to Hardscrabble Road and "the Walk."
We saw the (empty) Fish Pond campsites along the west shore, but here's where it got confusing for us--whereas the map illustrates Fish Pond as a blue body of water, in seems like the north half is swampy, choked full of reeds and rushes. The campground appears to be shown in the correct location, but there wasn't a whole lot of open water beyond that, that I could determine.
We followed what looked to be a channel through the reeds and alder thickets which did course north. After an increasingly narrowing stream, going over four beaver dams (most incomplete, but not appearing as if anyone else had passed through them previously, no telltale canoe coloring on the sticks or rocks) and blow downs, we decided to turn back after approaching yet another -- and even more solid looking -- beaver dam. The map didn't seem to indicate that we would be paddling on this narrow of a stream, even though we were definitely still headed north. (I would have expected what we were on to be illustrated with a blue line if we were on the right water.) So, we retraced our strokes and tried starting from the east shore, working our way north. Still no sign of any opening. Now I DID wish I had stopped at that camp.
 |
| We thought we were going in the right direction. (North out of Fish Pond.) |
 |
| Walking from the boat landing still got us to Hardscrabble Road |
Since we knew we were in for a walk and knew the boat landing by the campsite would connect with the portage roads, we decided to take out there instead, presumably adding several more miles to our day's portaging. Got everything loaded and started wheeling. We had just emerged onto Hardscrabble Road when a truck with two fishermen and three boys arrived pulling their very large boat. Told them what we were doing. Of course I'd wouldn't turn down an offer for a ride... We slid the canoe into their boat as far as it would fit, the second fisherman sat in back--sort of holding it, while Kacia got in the back with the boys and I sat in front with the driver. They were going to spend the weekend on Spencer Lake fishing and camping in the boat (it was that big.) He wasn't sure of all of the logging roads in the area and didn't want to get stuck, so he dropped us off at the Spencer Rips Road intersection just south of Whipple Pond--which was still fantastic to me. Ultimately, I think they saved us 3 or so miles of additional walking.
 |
| Ready to wheel again |
I think we could have popped in and paddled the length of Whipple Pond, but Kacia is a runner and wanted to keep walking, and since I wasn't positive where we'd be able to get out on the other end, we ended up walking the entire Spencer Rips Road north of Hardscrabble Road to the put-in on the Moose River. (Turns out paddling Whipple Pond probably would have been easy enough. There appeared to be a campsite on the near southeast side--a path/driveway/opening made the lake visible from the road--and it was accessible on the far north end by a culvert. No need to bushwack. Just not certain how deep the water was.)
We felt pretty good after our 1.5 hour walk. Both of us carried a gear bag and we wheeled the third bag and remaining gear in the canoe the whole time. Arrived at Spencer Rips at the same time a group of surly New Jersey boyscouts were making their way around the rapids on their Attean Pond/Moose River loop trip. While the leader had a nice light-weight Kevlar canoe, most of the others appeared burdensome. We all had lunch at the campsite there and then Kacia and I took off.
 |
| The Moose River, a little way past the Spencer Rips put-in |
The Moose River was another beautiful stretch of water. Just beyond the rips after launching from the put-in are huge, VW-sized boulders. We paddled another 7 miles along the deep and smooth water to Attean Falls where the boy scout troop caught up to us, in a better mood, having just run the rips. Another party was already camped at the third site, so we had plenty of room. Our campsite came with the beaver entertainment. One was swimming in the pool by the site all night. These campsites appear to be well-loved and the single outhouse showed signs of heavy usage.
Had a nice chat with the other party--one of whom is planning on paddling the NCFT next year. (If you are reading this--good luck on your trip!) One of their canoes was a salvaged Wenonah Adirondack Kevlar purchased for only $75. It had been so neglected, holes had been worn straight through the hull but they had done a great job repairing it and is now completely functional. I had them (sorry I forgot your names), take a look at my patched Plattsburg's hole and in general let me know how they thought my own increasingly battered Wenonah was holding up. It passed inspection. Kay (Leg 6) will be relieved.
