Question:
Can anyone suggest good places in Vermont, New Hampshire, or Maine to go "Canoe Camping?" I’m familiar with parts of the White and Green Mountain forests, but have always gone backpacking. I am looking for spots where there are preferably NOT campgrounds or other major tourist traps. Thanks! Kirsten Wolosz Personnel Office Clark University
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The Saco River near Fryberg NH/Maine has a nice 3 day flatwater trip. –Chris
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Can anyone suggest good places in Vermont, New Hampshire, or Maine to go "Canoe Camping?" I’m familiar with parts of the White and Green Mountain forests, but have always gone backpacking. I am looking for spots where there are preferably NOT campgrounds or other major tourist traps.
Actually the best camoe camping I found was in upstate NY. In the Adirondaks they have "canoe trails" were you canoe between lakes and such. Some of the camping is on islands in the middle of the lakes. Highly recommended. I did have lots of adventures with bears, but that’s another thread. RIPS (Raster Image Processing Systems) uunet!solbourne.com!rips!rob 4665 Nautilus Court South << KERNAL: Panic, core dumped Boulder, CO 80301 Darkstar crashes, pouring its light (303) 530-2910 into ashes, reason tatters, …
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I know you asked for N.E. states but if you don’t mind driving a little, Algonquin Prov. Park in Ontario Canada is awesome for canoe camping. It’s 3 hrs N.W. of Ottawa and canoe-camping starts in May. Have fun, Xerxes
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Can anyone suggest good places in Vermont, New Hampshire, or Maine to go "Canoe Camping?"
I’d suggest the Allagash Wilderness Waterway in northern Maine. Due to its distance from you and its remoteness in general you probably need at least a week for road travel as well as for canoeing and camping. The AMC River Guide books cover all three states and may be a good source of trip ideas for you. Also, try rec.boats.paddle. I’m planning to do the upper St. John in May and am looking hear about other’s experiences there, if anyone cares to contribute. Thanks. David
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In Baja over the X-mas/New Year holiday, we reached a sand bar for one evening (many others camping (car) there) which would have required a portage. Carol had a set of wheels for her Klepper for the portage (very short distance) next AM. What she did not count upon was that the tide came in and covered the far end of the sand bar. While she carried over the top of the bar, Dave and I put in on the side we landed the day before and paddled over the submerged portion. Some people can be stubborn. I guess she really wanted to use those wheels.
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I think as with everything, this is a matter of personal preference. I don’t like double-packing (pack on the back and front)because it means I’m walking along the portage trail and can’t see my feet in front of me. I’d rather make two trips than risk spraining an ankle. RM
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If your goal on a canoe trip is to get the experience over with, by all means single trip your way over portages. Personally, I’m not there to win any races and portaging is a basic part of the whole experience. While I’ll admit they are not my favorite parts of canoeing, I relish the places that some of our portages have taken us! We’ve been wilderness tripping for 20+ years, and in our 20ish days we too raced our way over many portages, only now that we have slowed down do we see what we had missed. When we’re on a river that we know will have some tough portages, we now provide extra time. Knowing that long portage days will slow our trip down we plan for those days, instead of rushing ever on-ward, hoping to ‘make-up’ time later. Over the years we’ve met many a group that brags of completing a 2 week trip in 8 days. To what point? To put another notch on your belt, chalk up another river? If you are capable of doing 1 trip portages, by all means do it, but then take some time to find out why the portage was there. We have pictures, memories, and stories we show or tell to people that have ‘run’ the same river and they ask- ‘where was that? we didn’t see anything like that!’ All I’m trying to say is remember why you are there to begin with, be it — ‘to get away’ ’to explore and have some adventure’ ‘to see places, people and things that are new’. Anyway, enjoy your trips and be safe! Rick Etter Canoe North! http://www.bright.net/~retter Keep your stick on the ice — and — your paddle wet!!
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I agree completely with John Mianowski. One should travel with a load that can be carried with the canoe in a single trip. Last summer I was out for more than a month on three trips. On one of the trips I was with my wife and 4-year-old son. We were able to carry everything in a single trip. This meant carrying a minimum of kitchen equipment in a waist carier. I had one pack on my back, one in front (lighter or I couldn’t breathe) and one on my waste with the canoe above my head. It might seem heavy, but overall it was a lot easier than having to travel three times the distance by making two trips on the portage routes. Rick – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – For canoeists travelling in pairs, there is no reason to walk the portage three times when only twice will do the job. Here’s how you do it – one paddler picks up the boat and carries it all the way across the portage while the second paddler picks up one of the packs and carries it to a point which he estimates as halfway across the portage. The second paddler should drop the pack there and return to the beginning for the remaining pack which he will carry to the end of the portage. In the meantime, the paddler who carried the canoe returns halfway for the first pack and finishes carrying it to the end of the trail. In that way, both canoeists only walked the portage twice. IMO, there’s seldom any reason NOT to single-carry. I once went an entire summer (June-Sept) canoeing in Canada (4 men, 2 canoes + gear), with the full summer’s provisions. The first portage was multi-trip, and we stirred up so many bugs by the last time over that we vowed never to do that again! The men carrying a canoe would also carry 2 packs, front & back. The other 2 would triple-carry the remainder, with odd items, paddles, etc. hand carried or stuffed into wherever they fit. We developed a technique of grabbing the 2nd & 3rd packs by the *ears*, flipping them up overhead, on top of what was already on back. I’m talking about #4 Duluth packs here, full (at least at the start!). Actually, it’s not too bad once you get the hang of the balance & proper lean. I doubt this would work with frame packs. Needless to say, we all came back from that trip in the best shape of our lives! JM — It is customary to attach some clever phrase at the end of a message. This ain’t it.
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- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – …. Holy Hercules, Batman … that ain’t portaging, that’s masochism! But, if you’re up for it, by all means, then go for it! Actually, it wasn’t all that tough, which I suppose was the true (but perhaps not clearly stated) intent of the post. We were pretty ordinary 20-ish guys at the time, out for some adventure, not particularly athletic (or smart, perhaps). We all grew up in northern MN, and were very accustomed to canoeing & portaging (not a lot else to do there in the summer, you see 
. As I noted, once you got the technique down, with proper balance, it’s not that bad.
Hmmmm … I wonder if the operative word in the above is "20-ish". ;- I remember ( a LONG, LONG time ago) doing similar things that I wouldn’t dream of doing now that I’m crowding 50 :-} I’m still managing single portaging but more from experience and by paying very careful attention to what we carry and how we pack it. — Cheers, Paul Weiss Backwater Trails: http://www.netaccess.on.ca/~cpweiss/BWT/BWT.html Personal Home Page: http://www.netaccess.on.ca/~cpweiss/ Quote:"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." "Does anal retentive have a hyphen?"
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…. Holy Hercules, Batman … that ain’t portaging, that’s masochism! But, if you’re up for it, by all means, then go for it!
Actually, it wasn’t all that tough, which I suppose was the true (but perhaps not clearly stated) intent of the post. We were pretty ordinary 20-ish guys at the time, out for some adventure, not particularly athletic (or smart, perhaps). We all grew up in northern MN, and were very accustomed to canoeing & portaging (not a lot else to do there in the summer, you see . As I noted, once you got the technique down, with proper balance, it’s not that bad. We did it, and so can anyone else who resolves that they are going to. JM — It is customary to attach some clever phrase at the end of a message. This ain’t it.
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- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – For canoeists travelling in pairs, there is no reason to walk the portage three times when only twice will do the job. Here’s how you do it – one paddler picks up the boat and carries it all the way across the portage while the second paddler picks up one of the packs and carries it to a point which he estimates as halfway across the portage. The second paddler should drop the pack there and return to the beginning for the remaining pack which he will carry to the end of the portage. In the meantime, the paddler who carried the canoe returns halfway for the first pack and finishes carrying it to the end of the trail. In that way, both canoeists only walked the portage twice. IMO, there’s seldom any reason NOT to single-carry. I once went an entire summer (June-Sept) canoeing in Canada (4 men, 2 canoes + gear), with the full summer’s provisions. The first portage was multi-trip, and we stirred up so many bugs by the last time over that we vowed never to do that again! The men carrying a canoe would also carry 2 packs, front & back. The other 2 would triple-carry the remainder, with odd items, paddles, etc. hand carried or stuffed into wherever they fit. We developed a technique of grabbing the 2nd & 3rd packs by the *ears*, flipping them up overhead, on top of what was already on back. I’m talking about #4 Duluth packs here, full (at least at the start!). Actually, it’s not too bad once you get the hang of the balance & proper lean. I doubt this would work with frame packs.
Holy Hercules, Batman … that ain’t portaging, that’s masochism! But, if you’re up for it, by all means, then go for it! I should have added that when my wife and I or my son and I go paddling, we always single portage as well. We have our packing down to a large canoe pack which contains all of the common gear, a small canoe pack which contains the food and kitchen items, and, finally, any loose doodads such as paddles, PFDs and camera. I take the small canoe pack and the canoe while my partner takes the larger pack plus all the loose items. The method which I suggested in the first posting was simply a way of lowering the difficulty of the portage for those that haven’t yet mastered the fine art of single portaging or who haven’t the desire to beat themselves up like this gentleman does. — Cheers, Paul Weiss Backwater Trails: http://www.netaccess.on.ca/~cpweiss/BWT/BWT.html Personal Home Page: http://www.netaccess.on.ca/~cpweiss/ Quote:"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." "Does anal retentive have a hyphen?"
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For canoeists travelling in pairs, there is no reason to walk the portage three times when only twice will do the job. Here’s how you do it – one paddler picks up the boat and carries it all the way across the portage while the second paddler picks up one of the packs and carries it to a point which he estimates as halfway across the portage. The second paddler should drop the pack there and return to the beginning for the remaining pack which he will carry to the end of the portage. In the meantime, the paddler who carried the canoe returns halfway for the first pack and finishes carrying it to the end of the trail. In that way, both canoeists only walked the portage twice.
IMO, there’s seldom any reason NOT to single-carry. I once went an entire summer (June-Sept) canoeing in Canada (4 men, 2 canoes + gear), with the full summer’s provisions. The first portage was multi-trip, and we stirred up so many bugs by the last time over that we vowed never to do that again! The men carrying a canoe would also carry 2 packs, front & back. The other 2 would triple-carry the remainder, with odd items, paddles, etc. hand carried or stuffed into wherever they fit. We developed a technique of grabbing the 2nd & 3rd packs by the *ears*, flipping them up overhead, on top of what was already on back. I’m talking about #4 Duluth packs here, full (at least at the start!). Actually, it’s not too bad once you get the hang of the balance & proper lean. I doubt this would work with frame packs. Needless to say, we all came back from that trip in the best shape of our lives! JM — It is customary to attach some clever phrase at the end of a message. This ain’t it.
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i do alot of "solo canoe tripping" but have never been able to master the single carry portage. snip i use the second trip with the pack to see a bit of the terrain, have a different experience, see some different wildlife, check out the flowers, eat some berries .. i rather enjoy this diversion. i’m not in a rush. by the fourth week, my pack of food is pretty much eaten up so single carries over shorter portages are fine. that’s the way i canoe trip.
For canoeists travelling in pairs, there is no reason to walk the portage three times when only twice will do the job. Here’s how you do it – one paddler picks up the boat and carries it all the way across the portage while the second paddler picks up one of the packs and carries it to a point which he estimates as halfway across the portage. The second paddler should drop the pack there and return to the beginning for the remaining pack which he will carry to the end of the portage. In the meantime, the paddler who carried the canoe returns halfway for the first pack and finishes carrying it to the end of the trail. In that way, both canoeists only walked the portage twice. — Cheers, Paul Weiss Backwater Trails: http://www.netaccess.on.ca/~cpweiss/BWT/BWT.html Personal Home Page: http://www.netaccess.on.ca/~cpweiss/ Quote:"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." "Does anal retentive have a hyphen?"
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- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – i do alot of "solo canoe tripping" but have never been able to master the single carry portage. snip i use the second trip with the pack to see a bit of the terrain, have a different experience, see some different wildlife, check out the flowers, eat some berries .. i rather enjoy this diversion. i’m not in a rush. by the fourth week, my pack of food is pretty much eaten up so single carries over shorter portages are fine. that’s the way i canoe trip. For canoeists travelling in pairs, there is no reason to walk the portage three times when only twice will do the job. Here’s how you do it – one paddler picks up the boat and carries it all the way across the portage while the second paddler picks up one of the packs and carries it to a point which he estimates as halfway across the portage. The second paddler should drop the pack there and return to the beginning for the remaining pack which he will carry to the end of the portage. In the meantime, the paddler who carried the canoe returns halfway for the first pack and finishes carrying it to the end of the trail. In that way, both canoeists only walked the portage twice. — Cheers, Paul Weiss Backwater Trails: http://www.netaccess.on.ca/~cpweiss/BWT/BWT.html Personal Home Page: http://www.netaccess.on.ca/~cpweiss/ Quote:"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." "Does anal retentive have a hyphen?"
Why didn’t I think of that? 
Rob Smith
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i do alot of "solo canoe tripping" but have never been able to master the single carry portage. i have excellent gear .. lightweight, durable and expensive….the same gear i use for backpacking. most of my trips are about a month at a time — that’s alot of food. i pack light but the pack still weighs 85 pounds. i use a mad river kevlar independence which weighs in at 35 pounds for most of my ‘flat water river and lake trips’. no matter how you add it up it comes to 120 lbs and that doesn’t include my fly rod. maybe i’m just a woos but carrying 120 lbs. over a rough 2 mile portage just beats me up. for the first three weeks, i make the three trips over and back. i use the second trip with the pack to see a bit of the terrain, have a different experience, see some different wildlife, check out the flowers, eat some berries .. i rather enjoy this diversion. i’m not in a rush. by the fourth week, my pack of food is pretty much eaten up so single carries over shorter portages are fine. that’s the way i canoe trip. DC
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It’s gratifying to see such a nice response to this subject. Having kept up with this thread, here some more thoughts. IMHO,there are really two fundamentally different kinds of flatwater canoe camping and to me they’re differentiated by portages. If you’re going to paddle out to an island or a site at the end of the lake you put into, you can take almost anything with you. Like with car camping, you can take as much stuff as you can stuff into the car (or canoe). You can also use most any canoe, regardless of the weight or size. However, as soon as you add a portage, the picture begins to change dramatically and more so as the portages get more numerous and lengthy. This kind of canoe camping (or canoe tripping) becomes almost identical to backpacking in your never ending search for reducing weight. We are firm believers in the single carry and this took several years and trips to finally achieve. But once achieved, the quality of the experience is well worth it. Think about it…if you have two porages on a given single day, each taking a 1/2 to walk, you’ll only be off the water for one hour if you can single carry. If you have to double carry ( a misnomer since you’re actually walking the trail three times), you’ll be off the water swatting mosquitoes for THREE hours. And that’s always three hours of prime time. I don’t know about you, but I go canoing to be on the water, not on the trail (otherwise I’d go backpacking). The first kind of camping is cheap. The second kind, let’s face it, does start to get pricey. But then so does backpacking as you become more aware of the value of good, lightweight equipment. One way we reduced the cost significantly was to buy an old, used kevlar racing canoe ($450 for a work) to reinforce it and it turned into a superb tripping canoe with pleanty of volume and surprisingly stablility in big water. The only real downside is the bow which is straight up and down, so we’re real careful about waterline level rocks. Eric Knudsen Lee,MA
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