50 Mile Day on the Allagash

July 22, 2024

Mile 620.3-670.9

(Allagash Village Launch)

It was chilly and everything was damp when we woke up this morning. The sun rose and shone on us, warming everything quickly and then we were kissing and taking off with the goal to either make it to Allagash Village or get as close to it as we can.

It was a gorgeous day and I paddled topless for most of it, trying to soak up every bit of sun knowing that tomorrow this incredible journey will be over. We stopped once on a weedy island to make some coffee and lay the tent out to dry in the sun. We dipped down in the water to cool off a few times and plucked leeches from our ankles.

Paddled across Round Pond where we filled up our water bottles at an ice cold piped spring.

I felt strong and invincible all day. The current wasn’t very fast but it was still moving and the miles ticked by on my watch continuously. Henry hates knowing how far we’d gone for the day so I kept it to myself until he asked as we approached the portage around Allagash Falls.

We’d done 40 miles so far. His mouth dropped- 40?! He thought we’d done 20. His spirits seemed renewed at this and looking at the time we knew we could make it to AV right at dark. We portaged the canoe for the last time on the path around Allagash Falls and didn’t even mind that it was steep and rocky with an occasional brief smooth boardwalk.

When we put back in below the falls we cleaned and organized the boat since it was full of blood from Henry’s leech bites. We ran a few rapids including one last class II which marked the end of the Allagash Wilderness. I can’t believe it, we paddled it all in one day. We had seen a moose swim across the river earlier and saw another right at dusk.

Before we knew it we were rounding the bend and pulling up at the launch in town. On the shore we hugged each other high, we had paddled 51 miles in 13 hours with breaks. We loaded the canoe on the portage cart and tried to figure out the confusing camping situation with conflicting information commented on FarOut. It was 9 pm by now and we didn’t think it was smart to knock on the landowners house to pay for camping and decided we would catch them in the morning and hoped they wouldn’t mind us setting up the tent in the field. Clouds of mosquitoes descended and I went into survival mode putting up the tent. I kept my mouth closed and when I would breathe in through my nose I had to snort out the mosquitoes that I’d breathed in. We were exhausted and uncomfortable and really didn’t want to do all of our chores inside the tent but there was no way we were sitting outside. We smoked a spliff and felt a little better after, I washed my face and began eating while Henry made dinner. My stomach feels like a bottomless pit and no matter what I add to the furnace, my body just immediately burned through it. After dinner my stomach still somewhat felt empty but I’d already eaten tomorrow’s snacks as well, hoping I’d be able to pick something up in the village tomorrow to make up for it. Our tent is on a bit of a hill and Henry keeps rolling into me. I cannot believe this is our last night on trail. Our last night on the NFCT.