Big Smallies at Fish Pond

July 15, 2024

mile 482.8-506.7

(Jackman Landing Campground) (5.5 miles of portaging)

I woke up before the alarm this morning, that doesn't happen very often. It was a beautiful morning and we loaded up slowly.

We were on the water by 9 am and paddled into Fish Pond. Henry tossed a line in a weedy area near a drop off but didn't catch anything after a few casts. He was ready to move on but I asked to try and on my first cast caught a big smallie!

It put up a great fight, I officially love catching bass, so much fun. Henry was so excited for me and tossed a line in again and caught an even bigger one! We ended up spending over an hour at that fishing spot before continuing on. What a great start to the morning.

Next we had a small section of Spencer Stream to finish to reach our portage. It was windy, there were plenty of beaver dams and fallen trees but at least it was short. We stood by the side of the dusty logging road organizing our gear for the portage while a few truckers drove by shouting a variety of funny things out the window. One yelled as I walked down to the stream "If you're walking down to the water you oughta have your fishin pole!"

The 5.5 miles Spencer Pond Carry was... you guessed it, hot. 18 wheelers with huge loads of logs zoomed around corners but slowed down respectfully when they saw two poor weary travelers pulling a canoe in the dust. I woke up with a sore throat this morning and was really struggling. I stopped to take some cold medicine, pull on my bug net and drink some electrolytes and then lagged behind listening to my audiobook to get me through.

It was over quicker than I expected surprisingly and Henry told me to sit on the riverbank and take a break while he loaded the canoe. I felt exhausted and took one of Henry's caffeine pills to try to recover and sure enough it kicked in as we paddled down the Moose River and I felt alive again. We're going downstream. On a beautiful fucking river. What a euphoric feeling. I filtered us some water while Henry paddled. The sun was still hot and relentless and I took my sun hoodie off and drenched it in the cold river water multiple times to cool down. It's my own personal version of AC.

We ran the first rapid at Attean Falls with no problem and it was a great adrenaline rush. The 2nd rapid Henry didn't feel confident about so we took a short portage around it and then paddled out onto Attean Pond.

We were heading directly into the sun, I was sunburn and very tired of squinting so when it finally set below the mountains I felt relieved. The sunset was beautiful and just grew more so as the evening went on. We paddled into Wood Pond and the sky was alight in oranges and yellows, I felt strong and in tune, my paddle felt like an extension of me.

The two of us paddling hard to get to the campground meant we were absolutely flying. We reached the take out at the campground just as night was falling. Neither of our phones worked (although they showed 3 bars of service) so we couldn't look up a campground map or make an online reservation. I called Mom and Gagoo while we were wandering around and they reserved one for us and Gagoo paid for it as trail magic 🩷

I always feel so grateful to have a family who answers the phone on the first ring and would do anything for me.

I quickly set up the tent against the swarms of mosquitoes (these Maine mosquitoes are a different breed, holy shit) while I talked to them for a little longer. They seem to be at their absolute worst right as darkness falls and then dissipate some to go torture something somewhere else. Henry cooked dinner while I walked down to the bath house which was surprisingly luxurious. Took my time scrubbing my face clean and washing the layers of dirt off of my hands, wishing I had the energy to shower but there's always tomorrow. We ate our dinner and snacked until our food bag was completely empty. Tomorrow we'll pick up our resupply box across the street.