Day 4 – Hosea B to campsite McKeen Brook
A chattering red
squirrel provided a wake-up call and we were up at 6:00, and repeated the same
wonderful breakfast. On the river at 7:45.
Just after
breakfast I happened to look upstream and saw a moose crossing the river. She
was a few hundred yards away, but still a wonderful sight.
Moose at Hosea B
campsite
Steady paddling
for several hours ensued. We’ve now figured out our best canoe positions, that
is, I figured out my canoe position, having performed somewhat poorly in the
single-person boat and at the stern of the double. The bow it was for me. No
doubt with more practice, and general acclimation to the confounding confusion
of left vs right, paddle vs direction movements, I would have figured it out,
say in a week or two. After all the 26-year-olds, male and female respectively,
did brilliantly in those positions, considering they had never been river-canoeing
before.
Lunch at Michaud Farm
We saw three
canoes up ahead, also 6 guys, and the Dance of the Six-Packs started in earnest.
We stopped at the Michaud Farm ranger station for lunch and discovered on
check-in that the pack ahead of us, which was leaving the station as we
arrived, was from North Carolina and which, judging by the day of their first put-in,
was very speedy. The pack behind us of course arrived at the station just as we
were finishing lunch. One of the men, quite old, walked up to where we were
sitting in the shade (it was a perfect day, by the way, just hot in the sun)
and clearly wanted to tell their story. After the obligatory questions (where
are you from, etc – they were from Rochester, NY), he said they had started out
from Churchill Dam several days before, and in the difficult rapids just below
the dam, crashed one of the canoes. It took hours to retrieve it in the fast
water, and they had to go back for repairs (lots of duct tape), and were a day
late on their schedule, thus accounting, perhaps, for their co-habitation at
Croque Brook. They may have been too tired to get to the next site 6 miles away.
We generated some sympathy.
After lunch, we
paddled an hour to Allagash Falls through a beautiful stretch of what we
guessed were silver maples. The sound of their leaves in the breeze rivaled the
sound of the stream. The falls are not passable and the portage was a third of
a mile. We each made three round-trips and I was beat. But the falls viewed
from downstream were amazing: a forty-foot drop over several hundred yards
resulting in a thick, twisting muscular braid of white water.
Allagash Falls from land
Allagash Falls from
the water
We thought we had
a deal with the Rochester six-pack that they would stay at the first site past
the falls and we would stay at the second, McKeen Brook. But of course, who
showed up about an hour after we unloaded at McKeen Brook? We couldn’t believe
they would be so rude as to kick us out twice. But E was brilliant. She went
down to the water as they were discussing what to do (they said they missed the
first site, and actually we didn’t see it either), and said the other cell at
this site is really small and really close to ours, do you really want to stay
here, all in the nicest possible way. It worked. They moved on; we rejoiced.
McKeen Brook campsite
As I said, I was
beat from the portage, and E/M let me have a magnificent hour in the hammock
when they cooked dinner (still and always guilt-free with hot dogs, beans, and
carrots).
Serving dinner at
McKeen Brook
We stayed up very
late night staring at the fire – 8:30 to bed!
Distance: about
20 miles
Wildlife: lots of
eagles, geese flying north (!), plus beaver
Next: day 5
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