I finally made it to the Allagash – September 30, 2022 to October 5, 2022

Entering the Allagash

When I started paddling, I had two trips in Maine on my bucket list - the Dead and the Allagash. Both are classics - the Dead for its miles of whitewater, and the Allagash for its amazing river tripping. I did my first trip on the Dead in 2013, and have run it several times since. After two aborted attempts in the spring of 2020 and 2022, I have finally checked the Allagash off the list as well.

The State of Maine established the Allagash Wilderness Waterway in 1966 to preserve this unique section of the North Maine Woods. It is a 92.5-mile state park along the Allagash River that begins at Telos Lake and ends in Allagash Village. It is also one of the original "Wild and Scenic" rivers. While surrounded by commercial woodlands, logging is prohibited within 1-mile of the river. It can be reached only by traveling for miles on dirt logging roads.

Our campsite at The Jaws

I would be running the section from Churchill Dam to Michaud Farm with Jonathan, Conrad, Jules and Georgie (the dog). Jonathan called us the "dream team" - skill, enthusiasm, and a strong instinct to collect and chop firewood. We met at Jonathan’s house in Wiscasset on Thursday to load two of Jonathan’s Mad River Explorers and consolidate our gear. On Friday morning we were up early and heading north to Greenville where we started down miles of dirt logging roads. We registered at the Telos Checkpoint and continued on to Churchill Dam.

Visiting the trains/tramway

We put-in at the boat ramp at Churchill Dam and headed off to our first campsite – The Jaws. Jonathan’s 1-hp trolling motor seemed like cheating, but it made crossing Churchill Lake easy, as it would many times on this trip. We set up camp, foraged for firewood, cooked supper and settled in for the night.

On Saturday we decided to take a side trip down to Eagle Lake to see the abandoned railroad and tramway that are remnants of the Allagash’s logging past. It is a 10-mile trip each way through Churchill, Little Eagle and Eagle Lakes – probably more than we could handle without Jonathan’s trolling motor. We were surprised at the crowd visiting the train/tram site, which is now accessible by a nearby hiking trail. It got cloudy and windy for our trip back to Churchill, but Jonathan’s “putt-putt” motor pulled us through.

Conrad running Chase Rapid

On Sunday we began our trip down the river. We packed up camp and headed back to portage the Churchill Dam and run the Chase Rapids. We met the Ranger at the dam who shuttled our gear along with Jules and Georgie down to Bissonette Bridge. Chase Rapids is a 2-mile set of class I-II rapids just below the dam. Water level is controlled at the dam, and it generally runs around 500 cfs.

We met back-up with Jules and Georgie at Bissonette Bridge and re-loaded our boats for the trip down through Umsaskis Lake and into Long Lake. Our campsite for the evening was Grey Brook at the top of Long Lake. We would have camped at the Ledges on Umsaskis, but Carp beat us to it – one of the few times we saw other people on the trip.

View down Long Lake

On Monday, we made our way down Long Lake on our way to Round Pond. Jonathan’s “putt-putt” motor made easy work of Long Lake. As we approached the Long Lake Dam, we saw Carp poling through the broken dam. While it is recommended to line or portage this dam due to rebar, we decided to follow Carp’s line, and made it through fine. We continued down the river to our next campsite on Round Pond – Inlet.

We awoke on Tuesday morning to mist covering Round Pond. As usual, we got the fire started, cooked breakfast and packed up our gear for the trip down to Cunliffe Depot. This section of the river is a mix of shallow riffles and flatwater. The river was around 500 cfs, which meant that we would occasionally run aground in the shallows and have to drag our boats to deeper water.

End of the trip at Michaud Farm

After setting up camp at Cunliffe Depot, we took a walk to check out the Lombard Log Haulers abandoned in the woods nearby. These tracked vehicles, invented and built in Maine, allowed loggers to drag huge quantities of wood down to the river. They are the early precursors of the tracked bulldozers of today.

A heavy frost covered everything when we awoke on Wednesday morning for the last leg of our trip down to Michaud Farm. We had a light breakfast and did our best to pack up our frozen gear. Just a couple miles downstream we met Norm L’Italien from Pelletier's Campground for the shuttle back to our cars and the long drive home - it was so worth it!


I finally made it to the Allagash from Erik Eckilson on Vimeo. 

Links:

My Pictures

Allagash Wilderness Waterway from Maine.gov

Allagash Wilderness Waterway Brochure

Allagash National Wild and Scenic River

Gage at Allagash Village

North Maine Woods
Chase Rapids – American Whitewater
Pelletier's Campground and Shuttle