2015 Hike to Baxter State Park

August 10, 2015 Home to Wilderness Edge Campground in Millinocket

Up early and packed for the hike. Left mid afternoon to make it to Millinocket at 6PM. We bought Subway and sat in the McDonald’s parking lot to use Wi-Fi. We stayed in tent site 49 for $10 at Wilderness Edge Campground because it was close to the bath house but not too close. We took our showers and got a flint and steel campfire started. We checked the gear and were ready for bed at 8:15.

August 11, 2015 Wilderness Edge Campground to Russell Pond Shelters

We packed and checked our gear and put packs in the car. After a quick shower, we headed to McDonalds for a quick breakfast and a trip to Hannaford for last minute essentials: trash bags and bug spray. We headed to the gate at Baxter State Park and made a rest stop at the Rum Brook Campsite on the way in. We parked at Roaring Brook and hit the trail at 8:50AM. The Russell Brook Trail was fairly flat. We were able to use the rocks at the first river crossing and soon stopped for a quick exploration under a giant overhanging rock. At the second river crossing, we were able to go upstream a little and cross on rocks but still managed to get our feet a little wet. Just as 7 miles started to feel like a long way, we arrived at Russell Brook campsite at 12 noon. The ranger was out so we couldn’t check in. We ate PBJ bagels with banana and took a 90-minute nap in our lean to. Sometime during the nap, it had started to rain.

We filtered and UV treated the water from the pond, sorted out our food items, and played half a game of cribbage. We met the folks in the shelter next to us from Springfield, MA. We made chicken tacos (in soft burrito wraps) for dinner and then did the dishes. We took advantage of a bear pole and hung up our food items for the night in a trash bag. We finished the game of cribbage and brushed our teeth. My youngest son who had been fiddling with his cell phone, somehow managed to get a couple text messages out to his girlfriend.

August 12, 2015 Russell Pond Shelters to Davis Pond Shelter

Up at 6AM and my oldest used the stove to boil hot water for instant oatmeal. We went to purify water and the UV treatment has already stopped working giving us a red blinking light. It is a good thing we have the filter and enough fuel to boil our water. I will return the UV Treatment to LL Bean and wait for a better design. We packed up and hit the trail.

Once we crossed Annis Brook, we found a bunch of cool iron relics from the past when this part of the world was a town before time moved on. Now we were in the wilderness and would likely not see anyone all day. We were walking up what seemed to be an old road or railroad bed. There were lots of fir trees and a gentle grade until we came to a river crossing.

We took our time and tried to pile rocks before giving up and taking off our boots. My oldest shuttled all the packs across the river jumping rock to rock while my youngest and I picked our way through the rushing river.

We left the river at 10:15 and headed up a much steeper grade. The boys kept fantasizing about riding the natural water slides. As we came into views of Lake Cowles, mother nature was urgently calling my youngest and he literally was running for the shelter and the outhouse. I went to get water for lunch and slipped, completely soaking my right boot. I set my boot out to dry while my oldest boiled water for rice. My oldest and I ate rice and cheese tacos for lunch. My youngest ate another PBJ and banana bagel. We napped at 1PM only to have my youngest wake us up at 1:45. We played cards until my oldest won 4 hands of Crazy 8s in a row. A lot of our gear was damp, so we hang it up around the shelter. We went exploring and I made it to the top of the hill in the middle of the lake under the cliff walls. What an amazing place.

We sorted through our food and saved 5 power bars, 6 breakfast bars, a bag of bacon noodles, plus a breakfast and a lunch bag. We decided to feast on the rest and cooked and ate the remaining 3 bags of cheesy noodles with broccoli, 1 can of chicken, 1 tomato, and a bag of cheesy noodles with bacon.  We even followed that up by splitting a power bar for dessert. We had to take turns eating since I only brought one pot and no plates.

First, the bag of cheesy noodles with bacon went to my youngest. Second, my oldest ate the first bag of cheesy noodles with broccoli. Third, it was my turn to eat a bag of cheesy noodles with broccoli. It was so good, my oldest had a second bag of cheesy noodles with broccoli. The chicken and tomato went into leftover burrito wraps to eat with our noodles. We ate very well. We cleaned up and then went up to explore the hill in the middle of the lake. The boys fiddled with their cell phone and thought they got a text message out. The weather is still unsettled, and we watched the clouds as they moved quickly across the sky. Back at camp we got another bottle of water sterilized. The UV Pen works intermittently, and we get a bottle sterilized every hour or so. I boiled a pot of water so we could pour it into our bottles in the morning. We put up a bear bag for the food, more to keep the mice away than the bears. We tucked ourselves in about 8:30. Unfortunately there were too many clouds to see the meteor shower. Besides, we had a long day planned the next day.

August 13, 2015 Davis Pond Shelter to Baxter Peak to Knife Edge

We were up at 5AM to a red squirrel who we called Genghis Khan because he was so full of rage and anger. We refilled the water bottles from the boiled pot and got ready for breakfast. My oldest managed to treat another bottle of water with the UV pen before it failed again. I ate oatmeal first, then my oldest, then my youngest. We washed down our oatmeal plus additional raisins with coffee and cocoa. We packed our gear, put away the ladder and shovel, swept the shelter and the outhouse, and picked up other people’s trash. We were ready to go by 7:20.

Immediately the trail was almost vertical to the tablelands. The fog and clouds came and went teasing us with fantastic views. We pushed on to caribou springs and then on to the saddle. There we net a group from camp Keoka from Keene NH.  They were heading to Russell Pond after having stayed at Chimney Pond the previous night.

We pushed on to the summit and made it to the top about 10:30. There were 20 people there all celebrating completion of the AT. Someone in the group was smoking so we left as soon as possible and headed across the knife edge. After complete isolation the day before, we were shocked at how many people we met. We met a high school girl on the knife edge from Lincoln, ME who was hiking solo on the knife edge in the opposite direction. Once up to Pamola Peak we decided to go down Dudley and worked our way down slowly. We found some rocks to scramble up and got some great pictures. It was after 1 when we finally arrived exhausted at Chimney Pond. It started to sprinkle and we jumped into vacant shelter 4 to eat our lunch. We got going again at 1:15.

We got faster as the trail got better. The girl from the knife edge who was from Lincoln, ME caught up to us and the boys chatted away with her as we went even faster down the trail to Roaring Brook parking lot. We made it out about 2:40 and headed to McDonalds for WIFI and a snack. We fueled up and made it home by 7PM. This was a fantastic trip.

In Review, Things that Worked Well:

Slowing down to a Leisure Itinerary

Cribbage and Cards

Including Plastic Knives in the lunch bags

Reading Trail Descriptions to the Kids the night before

LOTS of Clif Bars

Lots of water

Extra fuel canisters

Extra Noodles

Fresh Bananas and Tomatoes

Cheese

Using my hat for a cozy for the hot cookpot/coffee cup

Wrapping headlamp around thermarest pad

What didn’t work well:

Not easy to share one pot

Need Ropes on Pack tarp

Need metal not plastic sporks

Need metal coffee cup with insulation

Steripen was not reliable

Forgot sour cream

We carried a large can of bug spray and only used it once

We needed a cutting board

The cribbage board is heavy

July 15, 2015 Loon Lodge to Home

Up at 4AM to a heavy downpour on the roof. We were snug, dry, and warm in our bunks in the cabin. That wind from the South yesterday was blowing in the storm. We made coffee and reluctantly packed up. We took hot showers and made another huge breakfast of banana pancakes and bacon.

We did our dishes and cleaned up the cabin. Once we got everything packed in the truck, we got a tour of the lodge and officially checked out. The boys threw a ball for the dog a few more times and we climbed into the truck and got rolling around 11. We all knew this would be an especially tough reentry. We stopped and picked off a few more geocaches on the way out of the North Maine Wilderness.

We met an SUV with some ladies in it at the Telos gate. Though they had left 2 hours before us, they had had a flat tire and had to stop and change it. They were being very careful and slow after that because they only had one spare tire. We followed them slowly to be sure they made it out. I was a bit worried because we hadn’t even checked our spare before we left. Fortunately we had 10 ply tires and didn’t need to find out if the spare was good or not. We stopped for a few geocaches along the way and ate lunch at McDonald's in Millinocket. Home by 7PM.

Though I made it back to Baxter State Park again, regretfully this was my last trip to the Allagash at least for a while. I got a new job that has taken me all over the world. My kids have grown up and headed off to college. I'm escaping a cold winter day 4 years later but typing this journal entry in so that hopefully our trip can help someone else plan an adventure this Summer.

I'm going to reach out to Loon Lodge and make sure they are still helping the adventurous canoe tripper on the Northern Forest Canoe Trail. I can't recommend them enough. Please go and visit them. They are a friendly oasis in the middle of the wilderness and not enough people visit anymore.

July 14, 2015 Canvas Dam Campsite up through Caucomgomoc to Round Pond and Loon Lodge

We slept until 5:45AM and had coffee and oatmeal. We packed up everything and hit the river early at 7:30. There was a nice tailwind that pushed us upstream to the first riffles of the horserace of Caucomgomoc stream. At one point, moving at full speed, a bumble bee cruised past my head buzzed around, and moved on. It seemed effortless for him to cruise a bit faster than 5mph. We began to push and pull the canoes upstream through ever increasing rapids. It was very slow progress and we had hoped to stop for lunch at the dam.

We never saw the horserace campsite. (four years later as this is typed, I notice that horserace campsite is no longer on the map) As a note if you attempt to traverse Caucomgomoc stream wear river shoes with ankle support. Our ankles were all beat up in the water shoes.

We hoped to eat lunch at the campsite or the dam. Eventually, we came to a ledge falls where a portage was necessary. We ate a quick snack and went for a walk to assess the portage. The portage was NOT desirable. We worked together to move the gear 20' and lifted the canoe over that section of ledge. We poled and paddled the remaining stream up to the dam at Caucomgomoc Lake. We didn’t make it to the dam until 2:30.

There was a group of kids swimming in the outflow from the dam. They watched as we landed and carried our gear, and then the canoes, up and over the dam. A quick geocache and we headed out onto Caucomgomoc Lake and into Ciss Stream. The waves were quite defined and there were white caps. We didn't have to paddle as the wind pushed the canoe at 3mph and it was difficult to steer. We were pushed over grass sand bars and it was difficult to stay in the channels. As we progressed, we saw a moose cow and her calf. My son's sail was working great and he was making more than 5mph sometimes. We crossed under a bridge so I knew we were close to round pond. The channel opened up and the waves increased to full white caps. My youngest and I were surfing the canoe and I was catching it on video when my son and Gramp sailed by at high speed. We quickly crossed the pond and arrived at Loon Lodge at 4:30pm. Folks saw us coming and there was a group of folks on the dock admiring the sail as we arrived.

We unloaded and were rewarded for our hard work with popsicles and then a pie. Our hosts were so appreciated by the kids we decided to stay an extra night and head for home the next day. While a huge chicken and stuffing meal cooked on the stove, we took hot showers and cleaned up. I

really thought everyone would pass out asleep but they threw the ball for the dog and played crazy 8s. By 9PM we couldn't keep our eyes open. The cabin was heaven on earth.

July 13, 2015 Thoroughfare to Chesuncook to Canvas Dam Campsite

Woke up at 6 and got the fire going from a coal that was left from last night with birch bark, twigs, and some well placed bad breath. Pancakes, eggs, and bacon for breakfast this morning. We are all set with food for 2 more days. We cooked and ate all of a 1qt container of eggs, half a box of pancake mix, and a whole box of precooked bacon. As were were almost all packed up, a couple of guys showed up from Winterport eager to move into the site. We helped them unpack. In return, they gave my youngest a bunch of flies while we were down to Chamberlain Bridge. My boys discussed the best way to catch a salmon on Chesuncook with Bernie Thibedeau. We unloaded at the bridge and waited for our shuttle. Gramp headed for a geocache a couple miles away inland, the boys napped on the lawn, and I connected to wireless at the ranger station and checked in on the homefront to let them know we were safe.

The guide from Loon Lodge arrived at 11:30 and shuttled us to Umbazooksus West campsite.In addition, he brought us a couple bottles of fresh ice for the cooler. We managed to hit the water again at 1:30 and paddled down to Longley site at 2. It was further down that the map led us to believe and we could actually see Chesuncook from there. It was the messiest campsite we saw on the whole trip and full of trash. After lunch, we decided it would be worth the trip to Chesuncook Lake House for fudge at root beer, even though there was a head wind. We landed at the cemetery point boat launch and walked past the "Freedom Bus" only to find the Chesuncook House store closed. Next time I will call ahead and make sure they know we are coming.

We paddled out with a nice tail wind and wound our way through a dead water. It was hard to find the right channel. One guide book described it as hugging the right shore- which is correct. It is the only shore that doesn't change year to year. There were many dead end deep channels. We arrived at Canas Dam site a little after 5pm. We set up the hammocks and the tarp and I made chicken tacos. We cooked blueberry muffins in the reflector oven for dessert. My youngest son fished a bit and I wrote in the journal. My oldest son did dishes and I calculated distances. We have less than 13 miles back to the lodge. We were all in bed by 9. I had pitched my hammock on a point with a beautiful view of the sunset looking straight down towards Chesuncook. I woke up to a strong wind blowing up from the lake straight to the North. I made sure all the flaps on the hammocks were tight and headed back to bed.

July 12, 2015 Mud Pond to Boy Scout to Thoroughfare Campsite

Last night I got a little damp but slept very well. Sometime in the middle of the night I went to the bathroom and something shifted in my hammock. I went right back to sleep. I woke up at 4AM with cold feet as they stuck out of the hole in the top of the upside down hammock.

Fortunately, I was dry. Unfortunately, no one was awake to help me out and I ripped the fly screen as I wallowed around trying to climb up and out of an upside down hammock because I desperately had to go to the bathroom. Since it was dark and I didn't want to further damage my hammock, I put on a head net and tried to sleep vertically at the picnic table. When that didn't work, I made coffee. The coffee bag broke and I got grounds in the cup. I decided to go fishing and the lure snapped off the line. I decided to go back to the campsite and count myself lucky to have seen the moon and sunrise and the lake was a mirror. Dad was already making berry pancakes. I would have suggested we leave early to cross the big bay while it was a mirror but he was already cooking.

We ate a ton of banana, strawberry, blueberry pancakes and bacon, had seconds, and then packed up camp while doing dishes while we dried tents and tarps in the sun. By the time we left, the wind picked up, and there were huge waves. We paddled over to gravel beach site and tied in all of our gear. We filtered a bunch of water while we waited for the wind and waves to die down. They didn't. My oldest son and Gramp passed rope through his ground cloth to make a sail. We pushed off in what we hoped was a lull and made progress down the shore with the wind.

The sail worked quite well and my oldest son quickly tired of holding it. He kept refining his design. While cruising along with the wind and waves, we met a couple from Washington paddling hard straight into the wind. It looked completely exhausting.

We pulled into Rocky Cove while Gramp and my oldest son literally sailed by. We pulled out to chase them. Fortunately, they pulled into the cove just beyond the cliff and we pulled into the shore and climbed up on the cliff. We could see North up the West Side of the lake and over toward the island with all the seagulls on it. We pulled out and headed South for a lunch place and I noticed a little island where I had lunch in 2006 (the GPS waypoint) but we decided to pull into Ledge Point for lunch. PBJ on English muffins and then we went for a swim. I jumped off the rocks and lost my hat.

We looked for my hat a bit and then sailed down the west shore to Boy Scout and Thoroughfare campsite. We liked Thoroughfare campsite best so we made camp there. We first set up the tarp and then the hammocks and then napped until 4:30. A fox kept pestering us at the campsite. We made a lot of noise and threw things at it. We assumed people had been feeding it. It left so we made dinner.

We fried the frozen mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, and cream corn. It was good enough that we all had seconds. After cleanup we sat by the campfire playing cards, wildlife trivia, and I sorted through gear trying to determine what could be left at the portage the next day. We freed up a crate and 2 coolers. while I wrote in the journal, the fox reappeared. This time we left it alone and it came right into camp near the fire.

It was after the giant pile of bear skat. One mouthful at a time it carried all of the bear skat away. We repaired the rips in the mosquito netting in my hammock with duct tape. Everyone went to bed at 9PM. I packed up a lot of gear in case animals came that night. I punched a bunch of estimated way points in my GPS from the map for tomorrow. We could hear the fox yipping in the distance in the middle of the night. I used a milk jug so didn't have to get up in the middle of the night.

July 11, 2015 Lost Spring to Donnely Point to Mud Pond Carry

Up and started the campfire at 5:30 to put water on to boil. We all agreed the water I boiled last night tasted like smoke and bug spray. So I filled a pot with lake water and used my tube and filter siphon system. It seemed to work very well. Although we tried to get an early start, we didn't get going until 9AM.
I had been fishing and only managed to catch one whitefish on a large lure. My youngest was trolling that lure while we paddled and managed to snag it and snap the line instantly. On a whim, we back paddled and easily found the lure floating on the mirror surface of the lake. There were no other fish caught the rest of the day.
We checked out Ellis Brook campsite which was in a nice secluded cove.  Shady campsite was very remote. We ate our lunch at Donnely Point in the hot sun and contemplated a nice nap but the boys were bickering so we pushed on to Mud Brook. The sun turned to clouds and we quickly set up camp. Just as we finished setting up the tarp, the sun came back out. Gramp and my oldest son napped while my youngest and I looked for a "Jesus Rock" and swam in the warm channel.
While my oldest stayed to fish, my youngest son, Gramp, and I paddled up the channel into the Mud Pond carry. Mud Pond channel is quite a rise over rocks and we paddled up a chute made of rocks. It would have been very difficult in a freighted canoe. The pond was all grown in with thick lily pads and weeds which made paddling difficult. We had a hard time getting to the shore to the carry.  It was much faster going back down the channel.
Back by 7PM, we cooked hotdogs and ate pistachio pudding. The cooler with ice on top and the cubes from Loon Lodge is the clear winner. After dinner, we rolled the canoes over, did the dishes with the boiled water, and played "UNO" with a modified deck of cards. Everyone went to bed and was instantly asleep while I wrote in the journal and watched an invasion of giant Bullfrogs. Just as I was getting ready to finally turn in about 10PM, it started to rain so I went through the camp making sure everyone's gear was under cover and then went to bed to the sound of raindrops on my hammock. Just as I was about to get to sleep, there was a violent thunderstorm and downpour. Despite being a little damp, I went right to sleep.

July 10, 2015 Allagash Lake to Tramway to Lost Spring Campsite

I was up at 2AM and again at 4AM. I am convinced that salty camp food is directly related to how often I get up at night regardless of my state of hydration. Up again at 5:45 and started the coffee. I woke my youngest up so he could get in some early morning fishing. We came back for coffee and decided to try our luck in the canoe. We were back into camp by 7 to make egg and cheese and bacon sandwiches. As always we did our dishes and packed before cleaning the campsite. We hit were out on the water about 9:30. We bumped, dragged, and scraped our way down Allagash stream. My father and oldest son had to line their old fiberglass canoe at one point. My youngest and I were able to push and prod the Tripper. It was hot and sunny. We fished a bit in the pond before Little Allagash Falls. We portaged river left half of the way and stopped for lunch of PBJ and bananas. I managed to find the spring but it was pretty dirty. Many times on this trip I wished I had a pair of small binoculars so I could better see the wildlife. I resigned myself to just enjoy the peace of the river as we worked along about a quarter mile where we had to go over a ledge on river right after a small island. About .4 miles after the portage we had to line over a ledge. At the bridge, I poled the tripper down a quick drop and we lined the old fiberglass barge through the same. The kids found a massive fish skeleton here. With quick water and a tailwind we quickly made it down to the tramway. Rounding the point we headed for Tramway Carry. We changed course around gull rock to the right and saw a massive bull moose. The GPS coordinates from the NFCT map took us right to the tramway. It was very interesting to revisit the locomotives from this side. Gramp was able to find the geocache with the kids who climbed all over the locomotives again. The bugs were eating us alive so hurried back to the tramway and the canoes. We pulled out about 6pm and stopped into Crowes Nest at 6:30 and Lost Spring at 6:45 having a very good tailwind. I really wished my GPS had campsite waypoints loaded into it. My oldest son and father set up tents and hammocks while I got dinner cooking. We boiled lake water for 10 minutes and then cooked the noodles in it.  By this point we're rationing our water and there is NO SPRING at Lost Spring site. I believe we found where it used to be. We plan to boil our water and then filter it in the morning. We made Boy Scout noodles and it was just delicious. It consisted of two beef patties, a can of cream of mushroom soup,  a can of tomato soup, fat ribbon noodles, and a bunch of cheddar cheese on top. After dinner, the boys fished. They brought in some massive white fish (20+ inches was the biggest). We set up the tarp and did the dishes. It was getting really dark and everyone hit the sack. I tended the fire and boiled a bunch of water and wrote in the journal and checked out the guide books.