Copy/Repost Hike

On Friday, May 27th, Sam, Brooks and I met up at the Concord Park-n-Ride around 1PM to carpool up to Errol for the trip. We arrived in Errol at the Northern Waters Outpost just before 5PM and checked-in. We were staying at their campgrounds which are behind the outpost along the Androscoggin River. We set up camp and then walked around. We could see that the river was pretty high with the gates on the Errol Dam wide open...with all the rain the spillway gates at the dam were dumping alot of water. Michael showed up at the camp a little before 9PM, when it began to rain heavily with some major thunder and lightning...Michael had had a frustrating drive up since some of the Conneticut River crossings from Vermont closed due to flooding. Part way through setting up his tent, he gave up and decided to head for a B&B in town. The rest of us retired to our tents about 9:30PM and hunkered down for a pretty violent night of storms.

When we finally awoke up on Saturday the rain had stopped. We had breakfast and met up with the outfitters to get our equipment and everything squared away. By this time, Michael had returned and we placed all of our equipment in the van and we were driven up to Wilson Mills in Maine, where we were to begin our trip down the Magalloway River. The normal "put in" had a very high current, so we were taken to an alternate "put in" just a few hundred yards down the road. We couldn't get put in there either since the road itself was flooded with a couple of feet of water...so we literally put in on the road. We packed our kayaks and set off heading into the major current. It was difficult to tell if we were in the river or in the flood plain for much of the initial portion of the trip. The current was swift and we didn't have to work too hard. We quickly reached the covered bridge between Bennett Road and Rt. 16...and it was just past this point that I got pinned against some flooded trees and went over. Luckily the water temperature wasn't too bad. After getting to shore and emptying out the water, we continued on. The outfitter had estimated that it would take us about 4 hours to get to the river camp site...it ended up taking only about 2 hours. We passed the point where the Dead Diamond River entered the Magalloway, but with all the flooding it didn't occur to me that this was the point where we had intended to get out and do a short hike up the gorge. Shortly after passing this point, I noticed what appeared to be some of our gear on the shore where the outfitter had placed it so we would see it. It was pretty amazing that we had gotten here so quickly. We went ashore only to find that the camp site here was totally flooded. We set up camp futher up the bank just below a grassy field, had lunch and figured we would try to paddle back upstream to the Dead Diamond River. The current was too strong and over I went again. This was a little scarier, since the river was really strong pushing me and the kayak through the water. We gave up and just headed back to the camp site. Brooks was going to just take a nap here, while Sam, Michael and I decided we would walk down Rt. 16 to the intersection with the Dead Diamond Road and walk into the Dead Diamond River Gorge...this was about a six mile flat walk into the Dartmouth Land Grant/Diamond Peaks area. Along the way we saw an osprey and its offspring up in a nest and we could see down the gorge from a number of outlooks. When we got back around 5PM, wefound Brooks (he had gone out paddling up the Dead Diamon River, while we were gone) and one of the outfitters who was checking on us and the flooded camp. He mentioned that the Aziscohos Lake Dam had increased their flow to about 7000-cu.ft./sec., this was more than double the flowrate he thought when we left in the morning. No wonder the trip was so short! We started a fire, got dinner and by about 10PM we had all turned in for the night.

On Sunday, we woke up, got something to eat and were on the river again by a little after 7AM...the bugs were driving us to get going! The river had dropped some, but the flowrate was still pretty good. It was once again mostly overcast. It continued to be a nice paddle and we were entering Lake Umbagog before we knew it...about 9:30AM. When I had been here before (with Mike B.) there were alot of swampy and grassy areas at the effluence of the Magalloway River...these were all underwater! We paddled into the lake and headed across to Molls Rock, where there were a number of cabins. Here we took a little break before heading back and into the Androscoggin River. We explored a little along the way and we were back to the "take out" by 11:30AM. He emptied our kayaks, packed up the cars and drove back to the base camp, stopping off at LL Cote (a very cool everything-in-one shop) to pick up a drink and snacks on the way back. Back at the camp we rested, cleaned up and set up camp again. In the afternoon we decided to do the short hike up to Table Rock at the top of Dixville Notch (Sam, Michael and I did the hike while Brooks drove down to check out the Balsams). This was along the Table Rock Climbing Trail at the top of the notch and it took about a little over an hour to ascend and descend this rather steep trail. At the top there were incredible views into the notch, down over the Balsams Resort and into the surrounding wilderness. Driving back we stopped below the notch at a roadside stop to see the Dixville Flume. Back at the camp we relaxed for a bit and cleaned up. Sometime after 5PM we headed to the Northern Exposure Diner for dinner. We had discovered that it was Michael's birthday and Sam had talked the waitress into singing "Happy Birthday" after dinner...which see and one other woman at the diner did very cheerfully! After dinner we took a drive to the lower beach on Lake Umbagog and back to the Balsams to check out the voting room. We timed everything so that we would return around dusk to see if we could spot moose in the swampy areas below the notch...we saw one female. Back at the basecamp, we decided it was too late for our own fire, so instead we walked up to the fire that the outfitters were having and just hung around chatting with them and other campers there. We headed to bed about 9:30PM.

After a night of periodically heavy rains and thunder/lightning storms, we woke early to clearing skies. We broke camp at about 6:00/6:30AM and got an early start home. On the way back down Rt. 16, we had another opportunity to see another female moose along the road. Michael veered off towards VT shortly after this and Sam, Brooks and I continued south waiting to have breakfast in Lincoln at Flapjacks.

Despite the high water and the two violent/heavy nighttime storms, the days were nice and the trip was fun with a wonderful group of guys! Thanks Sam, Michael and Brooks for joining me for this special trip. For me it was nice to get back and explore an area that I really love!
 

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