Day 1:
The Lake - Umbagog Lake.
Date - September 23rd 2010
The Crew - Doug D; Scott B; Chuck B; Andy S; Gary D; Kenny G (from Florida. Not sure of his last name so I added the G, but it's not the Kenny G you may think it is, because he doesn't paddle).
Trip Details - Magalloway River to Tyler Point, Umbagog Lake
Total Miles - 7
Doug and I pulled into Errol around 9:30am Thursday morning. After doing this trip for the last 5 years we decided to avoid a paddle on the southern end of the lake by putting in on the Magalloway River at the Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge station on Rt 16, just north of Errol. Knowing we wanted to paddle in on the Magalloway and paddle out on the Androscoggin, we decided to hire LL Cote for a shuttle. For a cheap $30.00 you leave them your keys and they'll pickup your ride and drop it off to where you want it to go. For us is was the takeout on the Androscoggin at Steamer Diamond, just above the Dam.
After dropping the keys off we headed South to the Campground to pay our tent fees of $10.00 per night. Scott made the reservations so we paid for our tents as the general policy of the lake applies. We ran into Scott and crew at the public launch next to entrance of the campground, chatted for a minute, grabbed their beer and some gear and ran. They were entering the lake from the southern end, so we decided to help out and carry some of their gear as they were in kayaks.
Day 1. The Magalloway - Overcast and 60 degrees. Entering the Magalloway from the UNWR is an easy put-in with a boat launch. The river itself is shallow and silted with a very mild (if any) current. Easily stroked upstream if needed. It follows Rt. 16 only for a short distance then meanders it's way toward the lake. This section has a few logans on it, but are not mistaken for river channels. Mileage to the lake is 3.5 miles to where we found a very small channel that was cut into the lake. We also could have completed the river about another half mile downstream to where the Magalloway spills into the lake by the Andro. The lake was shallow this year after a very dry summer. Headed south for Tyler Point on the eastern side of the lake, we head past Molls Rock where we run into an older gent who was camped solo for the full moon that week. A nice fella, and a novice poler, he was an unassuming man from Londonderry NH, who happened to be familiar with the legends of Scooter and Hal apparently from a man named Carp. As proud and honored as Doug was for being such a cult status symbol in the paddling world, Doug left four wife beaters behind for the unassuming man from Londonderry to quench the wet palette of a paddler. (Above photo you see Doug dancing a jig on the Magalloway. Happy to be in a boat again).
From Molls Rock we make our way due South East with a 1-1/2 mile lake crossing toward Tyler Point. The winds were down and weather calm, perfect for a crossing. Averaging about 2 miles per hour fully loaded with gear and beer, the crossing took us 45 minutes. To which we could see the other half of our crew in kayaks arriving at the same time as us. Sometimes things just work out, you know?
From here we scratch our boats on the rocky shore to leave a little paint, otherwise known as a paddlers footprint as we unload the boats for a restful nights stay. We setup camp, group gear first, personal gear and tents second, me in Maine, the others in New Hampshire. Maine is more restful, besides it doesn't rain as hard in Maine. It might not be tax free, but hell, I already paid for my tent in tax free NH, so who cares? Photo from my Maine Camp below.
Doug had dinner that night, to which he made a really good ham and potato soup. The boy can actually cook! Chuck was fishing and managed to land a few small bass. We had a full moon with a really nice moon rise over B Brook Cove behind us. All to bed about 8:30 (except for Doug who made his way to his tent for 7pm). A day well done.
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