Canoeing Rangeley to Umbagog

Journal
Rangeley Lake to Umbagog Lake, Maine/New Hampshire
August 6-13, 2016
Gary and Christen


The route from Rangeley to Umbagog is part of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, and they offer some excellent maps, guidebook, and infrastructure to aid in planning and executing a trip like this.

We were supposed to be three, but my friend Laura had to cancel. Christen and I drove about three hours through northern New Hampshire to Erol where we checked in for one of our remote campsites, then to Cupsuptic Lake campground for another site and to finalize arrangements for a car shuttle from Rangeley State Park, Maine to Umbagog State Park, NH. Luckily they also had a remote campsite available for tonight. So it's back up the road a bit, launch, and paddle up the river to a nice remote site with a north view over the lake and Maine rolling hills. After Christen's dinner of farafelli with mushrooms and a white wine reduction. We'll be eating well.

After dinner and set-up the wind died and the stars came out. And so did the no-see-ums. Wow, what a star show. The air was very clear and with no light pollution the stars were brilliant. Later we paddled out onto the water for a full view unobstructed by spruce. Many constellations were easily identified and several shooting stars made their brief showing. We're a few days before the Perseid meteor shower and the moon is not interfering.

Sunday morning we pack up and return to the car. In a short drive we find the trailhead to Azicohos peak and ascend it. The forest here is spruce and hemlock. At the top it is spruce and hemlock. There's a great view from the top where there was once a fire tower. We can see our whole route of Rangeley, Cupsuptic, Mooselookmeguntic, Upper and Lower Richardson, and Umbagog.

Next we're off to Rangeley Lake State Park for car-camping and dinner of fettuccine with scallops. In the evening we paddle out for the sunset.

Monday and we're all packed up and ready when our shuttle from Cupsuptic campground arrives. The headwinds have already started as we begin our expedition. So we hug the shore, pull hard to an island, then another hard pull to the western shore. From here its a slalom around docks, rafts, and moored boats toward the town of Oquossoc. From the boat launch we portage through town in gusty winds to the boat launch on Mooselookmeguntic Lake. Before launch we lunch on soup of freeze-dried black beans, vegs and spices. A family nearby lunches out of styrofoam clamshells.

The wind is now quite strong and straight against us as we paddle to our campsite on Cupsuptic Lake. Clouds have been building all day and now we get some rain. Its brief and light, but it looks like it could get more serious. So we paddle hard, always hoping Smudge Cove campsite will be just around the next point. Finally we're here and none too soon. We get the dining fly rigged and all our gear under it when the rains begin in earnest. But they don't last long and soon we're out exploring a trail along the lake. Nearby there is a rocky knoll, and below that is a landscape of large jumbled boulders and rocks all heavily covered heavily in moss with spruce trees. We expect to see ewoks swinging down from the trees. Along the way we find a birch bark tube about four feet long and eight inches in diameter, where the wood has completely rotted away and left the bark. What fun! We bring it back to camp. Christen makes beef chili. She's really getting into cooking with freeze-dried ingredients.

Later we find a nice long spruce pole, and cut two holes in our birch tube big enough for the spruce. We rig the pole across the fire ring by lashing it to trees, with the tube hanging vertically. Once past dusk, we added some loose birch bark at the bottom, and lit it on fire. Very soon the loose bark is engulfed in flame and smoke is rising through the tube as air is drawn in the bottom. Within seconds flames are shooting about four feet out the top while the small holes in the bark glow bright orange. In less than a minute the tube is consuming itself and soon releases itself from the spruce pole and falls over in a great conflagration. In five minutes all the birch bark is consumed and the campsite returns to darkness.

Tuesday dawns chilly with bright sun and no wind. I find a quarter cup of wild blueberries and make a breakfast cake. Christen brings out powdered egg, cheese and dehydrated sausage which she mixes up to accompany the cake.

Out on the water the water the winds are negligible until late morning. Then we have either headwinds or quartering headwinds for the rest of the day no matter which way we turn. We have a short portage from Moosela to Upper Richardson Lake, with headwinds of course even though we've turned 180 degrees. Camp is on an island with four other campsites. Wilderness this is not. And the red squirrels are camp pests. Cirrostratus clouds have moved in so there will be no meteors tonight.

Wednesday dawns with high clouds and no wind. Our tent looks east so we watch the sun rise without getting up. The whole length of Upper Richardson Lake is calm with few other boats out. Lured by a bald eagle, we stop for second breakfast and find wild cranberries growing, not ripe yet. The lake narrows and feels more like a wide river, with the east shore one long sandy beach. We stop for lunch and find moose tracks and ponds in the woods.

It's a short day and we're soon at camp at the point where the narrows open onto Lower Richardson Lake. Our campsite is on a small lagoon with a narrow channel between a sandbar and a rock jetty for access. In a few decades the sandbar may close it off. Strong winds continue to blow into our lagoon until evening. After a quick swim I make pizza for dinner. We walk the bluffs and rocky and sandy beach. Loons call all night while Perseids streak toward Earth.

Thursday morning dawns bright and clear again. In about an hour we paddle to the take-out and portage near a rustic set of cabins. Three quarters of a mile on a dirt road brings us to the Pond in the River. Here Christen finds fresh water mussels in the shallows which become part of a lunch of couscous-mussel au gratin. This we cooked by the ruins of a logging era donkey engine slowly rusting away in the woods. This was once used to winch rafts of logs across the pond. Further along we encounter the remains of the steam tug 'Alligator' at the take-out for the next portage. Quite a bit of the old boat is still there including the boiler, the engine, much of the drive train, and some of the stanchions that once stood along her gunwales.

Here begins the longest portage of the journey, about two and a half miles along a dirt road. It takes us two trips -once for our backpacks then return for the canoe (46lbs) and smaller bags. Along the way we find the Forest Lodge, former home of Louise Dickenson Rich, author of 'We Took to the Woods.' The home is now a museum showing life in the Maine woods in the '30s.

Camp is finally reached about 5pm at Cedar Stump campsite, at the lower end of the portage trail. Its been a physically exhausting day but the campsite is nice as are the neighbors. Pesto over tortellini for dinner and brownies for dessert. While we've seen other paddlers in their campsites as we pass, this is the first we've actually met any. A group of college kids and two men are here to play in the rapids of the Rapid River (class III-IV) and three fishermen in canoes like ours. The dam has scheduled a release over the weekend which attracts kayakers.

Friday breaks humid and calm but there is rain in the forecast for the afternoon. So we break camp and begin paddling early across the mirror-like waters of Lake Umbagog. It's so calm that a hatch of midges pesters us while providing food for fishes.

We can see a line of rain approaching, so we take shelter on shore. But it misses us. In another hour we've made it to camp on the west end of Big Island, and none too soon. Rain begins as we unload the canoe and rig a tarp. This is the first campsite we've had without a picnic table, and there's no good place for a tent. And for a good reason. When the rain lets up we explore, and things don't look right. There's supposed to be a small island nearby. Upon consulting the map we realize that in our haste to find our campsite with rain threatening, we found an abandoned one. Returning to the canoe, we scout further along the island and across a bay. There we find a proper site with table, tent platform (which we deign to use) and landing site. So we strike the old camp, toss it all in the boat, and re-locate. Much better. Dinner is rice and dal with cinnamon tapioca for dessert. Light rains puncuate the evening.

Heavy rains in the night, and Saturday breaks overcast and threatening. It's a short paddle to the end, so we're not in a hurry to pack. The tarp and tent have kept us dry, but they of course are wet. The winds have started by the time we're on the water, and of course they are headwinds. Soon they are are very strong and pushing waves near the limit of our boat. Then it starts raining. No matter; the end is in sight so we push on to Umbagog Lake State Park where the car is waiting and we drive home.