Goal Distance: 15 - 20 miles
Actual Mileage: 11 miles
Wildlife: Loons, herons, eagle, barred owls, moose footprints
Portages: 1
.75 mile Tramway between Chamberlain and Eagle Lakes
Carried everything in two trips. Path had been improved by an NFCT work crew a week or two before, but was still muddy in places. Easier to carry than to wheel for us.
Shady campsite on Chamberlain Lake was relatively bug-free and dry, so we left the vestibule open all night. Woke up by the rising sun shining through the mosquito netting of our front door. The tent was condensation-free. Drank coffee sitting on the beach boulders watching the sun rise into the cloud cover. Wind created ripples on the water surface that changed from south to north and back again, but remained calm and at times, completely smooth.
Because of that, we decided to head across the lake to check out Lock Dam. Still no sign of any other people as we passed by more empty campsites. Lock Dam is an interesting piece of engineering--the lake is literally draining out. We saw two kayaks by the Ranger cabin, but all the campsites here were empty too.
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| Lock Dam "drain" |
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| Leftovers from the logging era |
We continued on toward the Tramway Carry and finally saw a group of five or six canoes coming from the direction of Allagash Lake/Little Allagash Falls. Near the east point at the end of Chamberlain, but before the last bay, we spotted a red board without any words that we at first thought meant something. This was located on the northeast point just BEFORE the northeast bay of Chamberlain Lake. This IS NOT a marker. The biggest problem for locating the take-out, I think, is the map and the current water levels? The mouth of the bay is illustrated to be wider than we found it to be. A western point (with some several-year old trees) juts out much farther and closer to the eastern one through which you pass. Maybe more of the points were exposed due to the water level. Like Fish Pond, this bay also was choked with lots of reeds/weeds. We did find a channel that heads slightly westward (left) and located the take-out easily from there. Bottom line is that the Tramway Carry is tucked into the northwestern corner of the most northeasterly bay of the lake.
The carry trail had recently been greatly improved and I just read a blog documenting some of the hard work that went into its maintenance, now that I'm writing a month after I returned. The moose seem to appreciate it too!
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| Tramway Mooseway |
Perhaps because it was overcast or due to the recent rain, this portage was much buggier than yesterday's Mud Pond Carry. Deer flies and mosquitoes. They seemed to not be bothering Kay as much. Didn't mess around with the softer stuff and instead liberally applied the DEET.
The Tramway is another interesting piece of logging history and we checked out the trains and other rusting flotsam and jetsam. Even more so when we saw that Eagle Lake. Unlike it's calmer cousin to the south, the water on Eagle Lake was just a-roaring into the put-in. Where did that wind come from in the time it took us to transport our gear? So, we explored some more, ate lunch, took a nap and waited it out. The kayak(ers) we'd seen parked at Lock Dam paddled over to see the trains while we were hanging out. A couple of hours later, it seemed like the wind had died down enough for us to venture out, but just as we left the cove, we heard thunder. Paddled like crazy to Farm Island where there were three very nice campsites. The clouds with the associated thunder seemed to be running parallel behind us. With an abundance of campsites along the way, we decided to keep hop-scotching while keeping an eye on the weather. Headed to Priestly Point, then Pump Handle still staying ahead of the storm. It was a little frustrating to be slowed down by the weather today. The plan was to make up some miles today and the day had started out pretty well on Chamberlain.
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| Tramway Engines |
With several more hours of daylight left and at least two, if not three more campsite options ahead of us, we decided to stop in at the nearby Eagle Lake Ranger station to see if we could learn about the current forecast in order to determine how much farther we might be able to go today. Were these just fast moving and passing storms like our day on Chesunkook? Bad/good decision. No one was there. And now the thunder and rain WAS fast approaching. There is a second Maine guide cabin adjacent to the Ranger Station, so we turned over the canoe on the beach and headed up to the cabin to wait out the rain under the protection of the porch. The storm was coming from the southwest, behind us, so we couldn't see if it was breaking up. Heated up some water to make some instant soup to warm us up. Then decided to make dinner intending to wait for a break in order to paddle across to the Little Eagle campsite. The break never came. Wave upon wave of thunderstorms continued to roll over us. So...we ended up blowing up the thermorests and sleeping out in the open on the porch that night. Stayed really dry afterall and fell asleep listening to barred owls. Yet another unofficial campsite for Kay.
Dinner: Beef stroganoff, cup-of-soup, triple berry cobbler
