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.
I have fished the St. John's River in Ft Kent and in Madawaska. Caught several LARGE Large Mouth Bass
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