Well, Dougly said it well on his blog post and covered the trip as good as it could have been covered. Regardless, I figure I'd post my trip report anyway and hit anything he might of missed.
Yes, the river was PACKED. There is nothing like spending a hot weekend with 3000 other people on a river with anything BUT paddling on their mind. Can't blame them really, I've done it and liked it myself. But as my buddy Dougly gets grumpier the older he gets (you should hear him mumble), and I get more anti-social to people the older I get, it wasn't really my thing. Ever heard the term "been there, done that". Yep, that was me.
Saco River - Summer 2011
The trip plan was to put in at Swan's Falls Friday July 15th and take out at Brownfield Sunday July 17th. Total miles including our venture up the Old Course would round out about 22 miles. Now, if memory serves me correct, without checking dates or stats, I need to tell you it's been at least 15 years since paddling the river in the summer. Or, better yet, the last time I pulled off this river in the summer was the weekend Princess Diana died. I know this because when I called my then girlfriend when I got off the river, she asked me if I had heard about it. WHAT? I had been drinking and partying for four days straight NON STOP (just like these chuckleheads did this weekend), and she's asking me about Princess Diana? No shit.
Now that we got history out of the way, all I can say is it was loud. We drop Doug's car off in Brownfield on our way through to pay $10.00 per night parking to a parking attendant that works for the State of Maine. Good guy that charged us for two days rather than three. The dude at Swan's Falls where I parked my truck charged us for three full days. Also had to park my truck in the overflow lot by the Fairgrounds as the main lot was FULL. We put on the water as Doug said to many cops around and invasive species investigators checking for wood. No problems putting in, just many people. Friday night as we're paddling downstream, a police boat from Fryeberg police is patrolling the river and Fiddlehead beach is being patrolled by who I would guess to be recreational patrol on four wheelers, and of course the long arm of the law at the put-ins.
As Doug said, our camp site Friday got ousted by a few decent guys with a lot of tents. Eight to be exact. They apologized, we accepted and moved on. They were hungry and we were feeling no pain from a hot day on the river with plenty of cold beer. 9:30 pm Friday lead us to a full moon paddle up the Old Course. Struggling to find our way against current, it was slow moving, but peaceful and quiet away from angst of youth. 12:30 am rolls us off the river and into our respected bunks among the many other tents that invaded us. But before bed, I speak to a guy whose voice I recognize but face I can't see. We make small talk, make a connection to the fact we're both from Concord and he mentions Doug's mumbling and hurry to get to his tent. See, Doug got off the river before I did as I paddled upstream to take one last look at the mayhem of the beach above us. After my small talk with my friend from Concord, I knock on Doug's tent to make sure he's still alive, and all is good. He mumbles to me, then is out for the night. I can rest now.
We awake 6 am Saturday to say "lets get the hell out of here". Before we leave, I speak to the guy I spoke to the night before, and its a face I recognize from my early days in my career at Concord Litho. He remembers me, I remember him and we're like "no shit", the world gets smaller man. It does indeed! Al and I talk, Doug leaves, I leave. We make a pot of coffee down stream on a beach with a small family and a quiet setting. Here, we make our decision to get the hell off the water.
Nothing eventful for the day other than trying to stay ahead of the chuckleheads partying for the day. Of all the boats we see on the water, only two, YES TWO canoes have children in them with family. One Eagle and a family of Canada Geese on the water. A few trout and nothing else. Summer scares the wildlife away. But yes, the river is cleaner and the presence of the authorities help this. Regardless, its not a river I want to paddle in the summer again. WE'll stick to our late season November trips on this on this one. Doug, thanks for paddling this one with me.
No comments:
Post a Comment