Mileage: 14 miles paddling
Weather: Sunny, warm, slightly buggy
Wildlife: Eagle, moose, mergansers, heron, snake in the river
Portages: 1
1.9 miles, wheelable along an established road, except for last .5 miles north of Lobster Trip Rd., which had a lot of beaver activity and was water-filled and boggy. We used the (somewhat-pricey-for-the-distance) shuttle instead from Raymonds Country Store, which we had arranged for the night before. In hindsight, we could have portaged without any assistance, being much fresher first thing in the morning, but that last section was pretty wet, so it was nice to be able to drive instead of walk through it. Ed, the owner of the store and our shuttle driver suggested that this put-in may not be maintained in the future and he will need to use the Lobster Trip boat launch instead of Penobscot Farm for shuttles.
This was also one of the more buggier sections of the NFCT to date. The no-see-ums/ankle biters seemed to stay with us even as we started paddling on the river.
Set the phone for 6 a.m. to make sure we were ready for the 7:30 a.m. shuttle. I have no idea where the time goes. I thought we had plenty of time for making skillet bread for breakfast, but just as I'm ready to put the dough in the pan, Ed showed up with his truck. Camp was more or less packed up, so I left the dough in the ziplock bag and Kay and I decided to finish "brunch" at Thoreau Island.
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| Brunch break |
Winds were still blowing strong off of Moosehead--which was great. Kept the bugs away. My ankles were a mess and now showing signs of yesterday's no-see-um feasting.
Since our interrupted breakfast also meant the coffee wasn't ready, we made a stop at his store for real coffee and more hydrocortizone for those bug bites. Ed's wife Linda was there and chatted about the trip. They were interested in the map – they didn’t know the store was mentioned.
Kay also reports (from her journal):
Ed seems to have a great memory, great stories and runs a tight ship. (KD: Including wanting to sell us water vs. allowing us to fill our water bottles from his tap and his $25 shuttle fee for a 1.9 mile one way trip.)
There is no electricity at the store. The nearest source is more than 30 miles away. Ed runs a generator 24/7. They have satellite and internet. Ed uses and iPad and Linda uses a Nook. He said she gets up in the morning, downloads a book and his credit card bill goes up. He said she read 89 books in three months and wore out a switch on the side of her Nook.
After 8:00 we climbed into his big Chevy truck and headed up the Northeast Carry. He stopped the truck partway there and we filled our water bottles from a fresh water spring. The end of the portage is narrow, we are muddy. Beavers have built a dam which is causing the area to flood.
He dropped us off, we unloaded our gear, he turned the truck around and there we were at the West Branch Penobscot River.
The put-in was mud. Katina handed the gear down, I loaded the boat, got in the stern and she sat in the bow with dry feet.
The river is deep today, running at 1300cfs. Linda had checked for us on Ed’s iPad. It was an easy paddle. In no time at all we were at Thoreau’s Island. We stopped, Katina made breakfast (scrambled eggs and scones) and we enjoyed the site and the sun. We joked about having “shat where Thoreau shat.”
It was a beautiful day. At one point, we just drifted in silence for a while. I took a video, which I later accidentally erased. Stopped at the Big Ragmuff campsites to look at the small waterfall. Back on the river, we came upon our second moose. This time we cared and took some photos. Two previous thru paddlers (Morrigan and Masha) had reported that the Pines was a nice campsite. It was. Beautiful stone steps, a nice swimming hole. So we stopped there even though it was still early. Good thing too, because as we were setting up the tent, the repaired pole snapped again. Same place, just working it's way down. This time we removed the 1" of jagged, ripped aluminum (carefully keeping the shock cord from also getting cut), duct taped around the broken edge and reclamped it. It need only work for six more nights...
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| Big Ragmuff Falls |
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| Penobscot moose sighting |
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| The Pines campsite and the tent is still standing |
Haven't seen anyone except Ed and Linda this morning. They thought we might see people fishing--especially once we hit Big Ragmuff, but we had the river to ourselves. Went swimming. Made dinner. Hung out until the sunset and watched the bats come out. Mosquitos aren't as big of a bother as those little flies, that still swarmed around our heads during daylight. Kay is feeling better about the mileage goals I have set out for us.
Dinner: Tomato sauce and pasta, spice walnut cake
