Hey folks,
I'm new to the forum and, due to a massive influx of poor personal choices and divine castigation, I have it in my mind to go to the great buggy North for a few months and do the NFCT this summer. Generally I lack either the time, the money, or the inclination to do a long trip, but this year I have all three, so no reason not to try it. I have a good background of camping, canoeing and backpacking, but I've never canoed such a distance through unfamiliar territory before.
Having said that, I will be taking Robert Perkins's advice to heart: "We're not always here to succeed, but we are here to try." Worst that happens is that I bail.
I've read the guidebook and have studied the maps, but I still have a few questions, if local paddlers would be kind enough to lend a word of advice. I'm not out to micro-plan my route, because I think that takes some of the adventure out of it, but logistical questions are at the top of my mind. (For example - where's the closest stove fuel? Where do I leave my truck? etc.) The single biggest hurdle to planning in real time is that I don't have a smartphone - no internet access, no weather reports, etc. I still have a flip phone, which I will bring with a list of emergency numbers. I typically pack for 30 degree nights, even in summer, and expect everything to get wet.
-Is it absolute suicide to think about doing this in a forty-pound skin-on-frame canoe? I can either buy a decent synthetic boat, or afford this trip, but not both; I'm too old to lug an affordable 80-pound canoe down a rocky trail. I ran Old Forge to Saranac in a SOF last September with no issues, but there are zero rocks on that stretch. I've also done 220 continuous river miles in another SOF I built, and that ended happily, despite a few small leaks. I don't have any issues lining or portaging rapids that would endanger the boat. A low-water, slippery riverbed, though, or a mile of dri-ki, would be all-day obstacles, since I couldn't just drag the boat over it.
-Is it advisable to mail myself supplies to post offices, as I would do on a long-distance backpacking trip, or are supply stops frequent enough I can resupply every week or so on the fly? I've done the Allagash river, so I know most of northern Maine would be a desert in terms of resupply, and that the first few hundred miles of the NFCT are relatively urban, but don't have any more specific data than that.
-I am very scared of crossing Champlain in a 14.5 foot canoe. I got caught in the middle of Upper Saranac in high winds once and it was miserable - and you can see both sides of that lake. I know there are a few people who volunteer to paddle it with NFCTers, which I plan to take advantage of.
-I know crossing into Canada requires paperwork and a passport, which I have, and that some sections of Maine trail require permits and fees. Apart from the Canada crossing, is there any section where I would have to fill out paperwork or apply for a permit before I actually show up in a boat?
-Should I take some bug spray? (Kidding, kidding!)
I'll talk myself out of a great opportunity in a heartbeat, if I have the chance, so the more I know the more likely I am to give it a try.
Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated. I'm happy to buy a round, or meet up for dinner if anyone is up for chewing the fat, come this summer.
-MKH
I'm new to the forum and, due to a massive influx of poor personal choices and divine castigation, I have it in my mind to go to the great buggy North for a few months and do the NFCT this summer. Generally I lack either the time, the money, or the inclination to do a long trip, but this year I have all three, so no reason not to try it. I have a good background of camping, canoeing and backpacking, but I've never canoed such a distance through unfamiliar territory before.
Having said that, I will be taking Robert Perkins's advice to heart: "We're not always here to succeed, but we are here to try." Worst that happens is that I bail.
I've read the guidebook and have studied the maps, but I still have a few questions, if local paddlers would be kind enough to lend a word of advice. I'm not out to micro-plan my route, because I think that takes some of the adventure out of it, but logistical questions are at the top of my mind. (For example - where's the closest stove fuel? Where do I leave my truck? etc.) The single biggest hurdle to planning in real time is that I don't have a smartphone - no internet access, no weather reports, etc. I still have a flip phone, which I will bring with a list of emergency numbers. I typically pack for 30 degree nights, even in summer, and expect everything to get wet.
-Is it absolute suicide to think about doing this in a forty-pound skin-on-frame canoe? I can either buy a decent synthetic boat, or afford this trip, but not both; I'm too old to lug an affordable 80-pound canoe down a rocky trail. I ran Old Forge to Saranac in a SOF last September with no issues, but there are zero rocks on that stretch. I've also done 220 continuous river miles in another SOF I built, and that ended happily, despite a few small leaks. I don't have any issues lining or portaging rapids that would endanger the boat. A low-water, slippery riverbed, though, or a mile of dri-ki, would be all-day obstacles, since I couldn't just drag the boat over it.
-Is it advisable to mail myself supplies to post offices, as I would do on a long-distance backpacking trip, or are supply stops frequent enough I can resupply every week or so on the fly? I've done the Allagash river, so I know most of northern Maine would be a desert in terms of resupply, and that the first few hundred miles of the NFCT are relatively urban, but don't have any more specific data than that.
-I am very scared of crossing Champlain in a 14.5 foot canoe. I got caught in the middle of Upper Saranac in high winds once and it was miserable - and you can see both sides of that lake. I know there are a few people who volunteer to paddle it with NFCTers, which I plan to take advantage of.
-I know crossing into Canada requires paperwork and a passport, which I have, and that some sections of Maine trail require permits and fees. Apart from the Canada crossing, is there any section where I would have to fill out paperwork or apply for a permit before I actually show up in a boat?
-Should I take some bug spray? (Kidding, kidding!)
I'll talk myself out of a great opportunity in a heartbeat, if I have the chance, so the more I know the more likely I am to give it a try.
Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated. I'm happy to buy a round, or meet up for dinner if anyone is up for chewing the fat, come this summer.
-MKH
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