As kids, my twin brother and I had done trips on the Saco, the Androscoggin, and the West Branch of the Penobscot twice. While we both do local day trips with our respective families, our haitus from tripping lasted decades. When an injury prevented me from hiking in the summer of 2019, I proposed a trip on the river section of the Allagash, which was a grand time. Since then it's been a trip each summer: the St. Croix in 2020 and the Bog River—Oswegatchie Traverse last summer. This summer my brother and I decided to tackle another Maine Classic, the Moose River Bow Trip. Typically we've tripped in June when hopefully, but not always, the water is higher and the bugs keep the hordes of other people away. Our schedules this summer didn't align until August, so we planned to drive up and put in on August 8, with an open-ended itinerary.
Heavy rain, however, was in the forecast for Sunday and Monday, with off and on showers through the week. We decided to postpone by a day, so that the worst of the wet would be over, and headed up on Tuesday, August 9. When we headed down the dirt road to Attean Landing we discovered that it was flooded.
We crossed the flooding only after seeing a vehicle with comparable clearance safely cross. The parking lot attendant at Attean Landing said that they had received over six inches of rain over the past two days and the water was still rising, flooding the parking lot. So we headed back—when the photo above was taken—parked in the pull-off just before the gate, and ferried our gear a couple hundred yards down to the Moose River just upstream of the railroad bridge and Wood Pond.
We hit the water at 1:57 p.m. and paddled upstream toward Attean Pond.
The lake was quiet and in just under two hours we made it to the West end and the portage to Holeb Pond.
We made the 1.25 mile portage in two trips, and ran into a father and young son duo on the return from the first trip. The portage was straight-forward, though the first half was pretty wet, and we made camp at Portage Campsite on Holeb Pond. My brother cooked up a tasty lamb goulash for dinner and we went to bed satisfied.
Heavy rain, however, was in the forecast for Sunday and Monday, with off and on showers through the week. We decided to postpone by a day, so that the worst of the wet would be over, and headed up on Tuesday, August 9. When we headed down the dirt road to Attean Landing we discovered that it was flooded.
We crossed the flooding only after seeing a vehicle with comparable clearance safely cross. The parking lot attendant at Attean Landing said that they had received over six inches of rain over the past two days and the water was still rising, flooding the parking lot. So we headed back—when the photo above was taken—parked in the pull-off just before the gate, and ferried our gear a couple hundred yards down to the Moose River just upstream of the railroad bridge and Wood Pond.
We hit the water at 1:57 p.m. and paddled upstream toward Attean Pond.
The lake was quiet and in just under two hours we made it to the West end and the portage to Holeb Pond.
We made the 1.25 mile portage in two trips, and ran into a father and young son duo on the return from the first trip. The portage was straight-forward, though the first half was pretty wet, and we made camp at Portage Campsite on Holeb Pond. My brother cooked up a tasty lamb goulash for dinner and we went to bed satisfied.
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