Lawrence Kansas

 7/31/22.  Day 2 of my cross country drive.  I don't like driving through Chicago so I'm trying a route through St Louis and Kansas City,  KA.

I'm boondocking in a Walmart parking lot in Lawrence, KA tonight.  Stayed in last night near Toledo, OH.  No problems and it was free of course. 

My sister Chris taught at Baker U here for a while decades ago.

Tomorrow I should be in reach of Denver but am not sure where I'll camp.  Have to look at a map. 

Colorado Here I Come

 7/30/22:  Headed for Alta Lakes, Colorado for the wedding of my son Brian to his beloved Lindsay.  Likely 3.5 days of hard driving.  

First night likely in Toledo, OH.  I'm going to try "boondocking" where you can stay in your camper overnight in a Walmart parking lot free.  I like free.

Allagash: Last Day

 We awoke to cool, dry conditions.  Mist hung over the river, not a cloud in the sky.

Mist on the water above the falls.

The weather gods favored us with low humidity and clear skies.  We'd need it to haul all of our gear, including the canoes about 600 yards over a rocky path to bypass the falls.  Everyone pitched in carrying backpacks, dry bags etc.  It was an exercise in shear persistence but we got it done.  Lew's cough a little better but still persistent.

Loaded up the canoes for the final leg of the trip knowing that we had a full day's paddling through intermittent rapids ahead.  Taking a break mid-morning, we watched in disbelief as a man and his 9 year old son motored upstream in a canoe, stopping occasionally to fish while sliding backward downstream.

Around 12:30 we rounded the final bend and found our takeout spot! AWW conquered, everyone one intact, no gear lost.

The Thrill of Victory! (Lew, Christine, Steve)

From my adolescent days at Camp Beech Cliff on Mt. Desert Island in Maine when only the big kids got to do the Allagash trip, I've long had the Allagash River as a bucket list item.  What an honor to be included in the Canon's family trip and how very satisfying to put a great big checkmark next to this item!

Epilogue:  We drove into Fort Kent to pig out at a restaurant.  Lew's cough still was not improving so we bought a COVID test...  Confirmed, Lew had it but the rest of tested negative.  Imagine the grit it took for him to paddle for days and even grind through the portage all the while feeling like crap.  He seems to be doing well under the circumstances and do not antic pate his condition worsening. 

Allagash Day 4

 

Thunderstorms gone!  A "Maine Day" followed.

Day 4:  River was picked up pace with numerous short runs of rapids.  By now, I had learned to follow Steve's lead in picking a line through the rocks.  He would point out subtle rocks for us to avoid - it was almost like being give the answers to a test ahead of time.  

Nonetheless, he had a couple of close calls.  Only a few minutes downstream and both canoes got suckered by the same set of rocks causing us to take on a bunch of water.  We had to pull over and pump them out.  Later on, Lew and I snagged a boulder and it started to push us over downstream.  We quickly leaned upstream and miraculously slid free.  Whew!  That was nearly a disaster.

By the end of the afternoon, we knew we were getting near the takeout point for the portage above Allagash Falls.  If you miss it, the river sucks you over the falls to near certain death.

We unloaded our gear, chose a campsite and prepared for the next day's portage.  Supper was spaghetti but Christine had cold gruel and apple slices.  After supper, darkness approaching Steve and Lew took the leap of faith into the bottom of Allagash Falls.  Crazy.  We had a nice warm fire but Lew's cough continued to get worse.

Allagash Adventure Days 2-3

 

Lunch break, hot-humid

Days 2-4:

Temps were in the 90's with very high humidity and the wind against us on Lake Umsaskis.  We dug our paddles in and arrived at the Ledges campsite, a favorite of Steve's from his days as an Eagle Scout.  Lew, Steve, and I enjoyed steaks cooked over a campfire on cast iron pans that night and Christine, being a vegetarian, had cold gruel, baked potato and salad.

The bug situation was quite tolerable but climbing into our tents at day's end felt like getting into a closed plastic bag.  Hot and mega-humid, the last thing we needed were puffy sleeping bags.

The next morning Steve made scrambled eggs and homemade bacon that he had cured, smoked and sliced himself.  Orgasmic.  It was bacon heaven on earth.  Christine had cold gruel, apple slices and water.  We loaded up our gear, which poked up about close to 2 ft above the gunnels.  No worries.  

We settled on Steve and Christine in one canoe with me and Lew in the other for the rest of the trip.  Another day of  flat water lake and river canoeing (i.e. no rapids).  Now, we were seeing eagles, frequently and osprey plunging into the water to.  One moose watched us from the shore of Long Lake but retreated into the woods when we got close.  Mergansers and King Fishers were everywhere and we had no trouble catching inedible chub (aka Fall Fish) by the bucket load.  As we gently paddled the miles, the wind was at our backs, an endless parade of white pine, birch, hemlock and cedar passed by.  

The river seemed swollen from the first day's thunderstorm but it was not to the point of creating whitewater conditions.   We all went for a swim at the end of the day.  Steve caught a 9 inch sucker fish with his bare hands!  It just hung out right in front of him and he was able to grab it.  Most impressive.  Of course, the first attempt he nearly got it but it jumped out of his hands smacking him right in the face.  

Day 3: Lew had a runny nose and cough that seemed to be worsening and the weather was clearly taking a turn for the worse.  We decided to quit a bit early to prep for the coming storm.  Steve put a tarp over the picnic table, I gathered firewood and we encouraged Lew to take a nap in his tent.   A few hours later, our tents pitched, tarps secured,  distant rumbling of thunder grew louder and closer.  Three separate waves of monsoon-like  rain pounded down while we waited at the table.  The winds ripped the stakes holding a tarp over the fireplace and created a large puddle in Christine's tent.  

Lew to the rescue - he had brought a spare tent!  We quickly set it up, got Christine into dry clothes and situated for the night.  Chef Steve made mac & cheese which really hit the spot but Christine had cold gruel and water as all vegetarians do. 

My tent night 3

Allagash Adventure! Day 1

Allagash River in near perfect weather

July 21 -26, 2022 

My lifelong friend Lew Cannon and his two adult children, Christine and Steve, met up at Lew's place in Welles, Maine on the evening of 7/20/22, packed an impossibly large amount of gear into Lew's 2004 Ford Exploder and got a good night's sleep.  We set off the next morning for the seven-hour drive to Fort Kent, right across the St John River from Canada.  No sooner did we arrive out our rented cabin then a rip roaring thunderstorm pounded the area for an hour or so.  

Next morning we met up with our outfitter who told us that for every inch of rain, the Allagash typically rises 6-12 inches and that the evening's deluge brought down several inches.  As she helped us load our gear into the back of her pickup truck. she noted "you guys have a lot of gear, it shouldn't rise much above the walls of the truck bed" but umm, it did.  This trip was a Father's Day gift from Lew's children and the aim was to make sure the group would enjoy certain comforts.

The complete Allagash Wilderness Waterway (AWW) is about 100 miles long, the first half consisting largely of chain lakes.  About 30 or so miles in, at Churchill Dam it turns into alternating chain lakes and conventional river.  Steve and I had some canoeing experience and we opted to shoot the initial rapids below the dam, sans gear, while the outfitter took Christine and Lew on ahead with our stuff.  Steve (in the stern) and I (in the bow).  We had different styles of how to maneuver through whitewater but quickly settled on one after some spirited discussion.  We did it!  We were through the rapids, unscathed with Christine and Lew waiting just around the next bend.  Just then, we got snagged onto a boulder that was just below the surface and it spun us around.  Try as we might to lean against the current, over we went!  Dumped in less than 2ft deep calm water.  Doh!  The water was surprisingly warm and we easily moved the canoe to the shore, emptied the water and continued on.

At the pickup point, no less than seven other canoes were queued up, waiting to load their gear.  We quickly loaded up ours and headed downstream.

 

Farmington Humility

 July 13, 2022.

I intended to go fishing just ahead of predicted rain last night to further test the lore about trout being especially vulnerable in crummy weather but as I readied to go nasty thunderstorms were popping up on radar.  I decided to wait until morning.  Good choice.  A nasty front swept by with lightning, hail and heavy rain.  

I was on the river by 7:15 the next morning at Satan's Kingdom about a half mile below the Rt 44 bridge.  No one there.  Bright blue skies. Water was still low despite previous night's storm.  We've had very little rain over the past month.  Algae turned parts of the river bed bright green.  Wading was relatively easy and the low water made it obvious where the best pools were.  Not many bugs hatching, even fewer rises.

After about 20 minutes I had a 7-8 inch fish on a foam Caddis of my own making however, he slipped off the barbless hook after just a few seconds.  Over the next 2 hours I fished riffles and slow, deep pools getting 6-7 strikes but but only one fish on.   I hunted a specific, albeit infrequent riser only to see him too slip off the hook within a few seconds after getting him to pounce on an elk hair.

That makes it 0 for my last 4 or 5 outings.  Very discouraging.  I've tried early in the AM, dusk, and in the middle of the day.  There have been heavy hatches, no hatches, fast water and slow.  Time to let the Farmington be for now.  Allagash river trip begins in a week.  Forecast predicts ample opportunity to test the good-fishing-in-bad-weather idea a bit further.

Hubbard Bushwhack Mini Adventure

 July 4, 2022:  Taking some inspiration from Looknfishy on Youtube I decided to do some bushwhacking to a smallish stream in search of wild trout in places where very few people ever go.

I selected the confluence of Pond Brook and the Hubbard River which feeds into the north end of the Barkhamstead reservoir in Hartland, CT.  A trail near the reservoir hugs the Hubbard for a half mile or so but wanders away, only to return to it and follow it north for several miles.  I began bushwhacking and the wandering away part and followed some very old logging trails.  One often finds scattered stone walls in theses woods but I was surprised by a cluster of stone walls that looked like some sort of small settlement once upon a time.  Certain that I was in a place where nobody ventures, I immediately stumbled upon a fire ring which had clearly been used within a few days.  Doh!  No matter, it was right next to the river.

Video of Hubbard River above confluence.

The upper stretches flow over granite bedrock outcroppings which often create somewhat flat tiers that cascade from one to the next.  The lower stretches suddenly become all boulders, no more outcroppings.  Surely, it has looked this way for many thousands of years.

The water was quite low due to dry conditions of late.  Given the very steep banks which are lined with mountain laurel, trying to fish this river in the spring would be extremely difficult.  It was largely a matter of scrambling over rocks and boulders, looking for pockets and pools.  While I did find some beauties, the tiny trout in them would only bump my flies rather than eat them.  I did find one kettle-shaped pocket which had a bunch of fish in it but the GoPro was aimed to high to capture it properly.  After dozens of bumps from itty bitty brookies, I finally hooked one but it came flying clear out of the water and past my head.

Flying Fish Video.

The conflluence, it turned out was a bust as Pond Brook was nearly dry.  Time to bushwack back out to the road which was only a hundred yards or so away.  Beautiful day.

Popcorn Humiliation

Video of popcorn in near darkness (watch full screen, look for white flashes). 

 June 30, 2022. After the previous outing in which trout were feasting on a Sulphur hatch just before dark (and I couldn't catch ANY of them) I decided to make a first attempt at designing my own fly just for this type of hatch because I didn't have anything in my box that looked like what they were snarfing down. I made a pair of size 18 flies, using mallard feathers for the wings, white thread and white hackle feathers. Time to go back to the Farmington for redemption. 

 I arrived around 6:30 PM to find 8 other fishermen in the spot where only a 2-3 others have constituted a crowd on prior visits. They were yucking it up and even had a yellow lab swimming around having the time of his life. Looked like fun but "a Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind." I chose a spot further downstream where the water was a bit faster and several splashy rises had occurred regularly. As the evening wore on and dusk settled, the feeding frenzy kicked in and there were very splashy rises everywhere. These fish weren't just eating, they were pigging out! Up close, my new flies looked every bit of a first attempt but from a distance, on the water, they looked fairly convincing. Turns out, I was the only one so convinced; the trout ignored them completely. I also tried hopper-dropper with a couple of different nymphs, size 20 Sulphur spinner, size 18 blue winged olive spinner, even good old elk hair caddis. Nuttin, not even one strike. 

 You'd think with all that gorging they'd get a little sloppy and hit on one my flies. No sir. Holy dry spell Batman. That's 0 for the last 3 outings. I slunk back to the truck, my tail between my legs.