Moosehead Lake Crossing

July 18, 2024

Mile 531.4-558.5

(Thoreau Island) (2.1 miles of portaging)

It was a warm night and Henry had a hard time sleeping. Sometime around midnight he got out of the tent and slept on the ground outside even after it started to rain 😆

We set off for the day and once we exited our little island cove the wind picked up and the worry set in about what conditions we’d face later on Moosehead Lake. We had a short non-wheelable portage around a dam which wasn’t bad at all.

Put back in on the Moose River and had about a mile of surprise class Is which we made through with no difficulty. The miles really seemed to go by slowly this morning. Finally we were paddling past homes, camps, and float planes before seeing Moosehead Lake ahead. We paddled over to a small island to prepare ourselves for an open water crossing. I ate snacks, we donned our life jackets and we set off. The two mile crossing wasn’t bad, there weren’t too many motorboats out which are really the only thing that give me any concern. They tend to race right towards you until you think they truly might run you over and kill you and then change course at the last minute. The waves picked up midway but were only about 1 foot. We stopped at another island to skinny dip and cool off from the hot sun.

Back in the water we were protected by the island for awhile and then had another 2 mile crossing. This time the waves were around 2 feet and I was getting annoyed. It’s almost impossible to get a full stroke of the paddle in when you’re rising and falling so high with every wave which makes me feel like we’re going in slow motion. Every now and then a wave would crash over the side and soak me. I listened to my audiobook Bride for awhile and if there’s anything to take your mind off of poor lake conditions it’s a book about a mated Vampire and Werewolf couple. We took one last island stop to stretch our legs and get out of the wind. It had really picked up by now and was howling and whipping so hard I couldn’t really hear Henry if he tried to talk to me from the stern. This was our last push to the shore and it was the worst waves so far. They started coming from two different directions and Henry shouted over to me that it felt like we were in a meat grinder. The waves were at least 3 feet by now and I hadn’t worn my life jacket since the first crossing because it was hot and uncomfortable but for the first time I strongly considered pausing to put it back on. I didn’t though because I knew if I stopped paddling we would be turned completely sideways and be in a possibly worse position than we were already in. It was exhausting trying so hard to keep the boat pointed toward land. As we turned to head into shore huge rollers rocked us and slapped into the side of the boat. Landing was tricky but we nailed it- I leapt out of the boat first and drug it and Henry as far as I could before he hopped out too. We quickly pulled it as far out of the lake as we could as waves continued to batter it and crash inside the boat threatening to flip it, which wasn’t easy considering it probably weighs about 150 pounds.

I sat on a rock and snacked, figuring that was part of the reason I was feeling cranky and then we started our portage on the Northeast Carry, grateful to get the fuck away from Moosehead and the howling winds. Not long after beginning our walk an older couple in a truck stopped to talk to us. The guy was so funny- he was less impressed that we’d paddled there from NY than he was that we’d just crossed Moosehead in the conditions that we did. He told us about some people in kayaks that had to be rescued. I asked about the general store coming up, figuring it was closed, and they said we should try the door anyway because they’d just stopped in and the owner was still there. I didn’t let myself get my hopes up just yet but Henry opened the door and the owner waved us in! We got 2 big cowboy cookies, rolling papers, a Diet Pepsi, and a canned iced coffee for tomorrow. Filled up our water jug outside at the house and continued our portage.

It was honestly one of the nicest portages so far- no traffic, cool weather, shaded and minimal bugs. We reached our destination after 2 miles- the Penobscot.

It was wide, gorgeous and lined with beautiful tall pine trees. I was wary to get my hopes up, but damn the entire 4.5 miles to our campsite were some of the nicest river miles we’ve seen so far.

Downriver flow, beautiful golden hour scenery and we came around a corner to a moose munching on some river grass! She let us get pretty close before turning and running into the woods where a young moose trotted after her. What a special sighting 🩷

The tops of the pine trees turned the brightest gold as as we reached our little magical island. A big, open campsite with a nice grassy patch for the tent. The sky glowed pink and purple and the full moon rose up above the trees. Henry held me tight in his arms as we soaked it all in and we whispered to each other that we’d remember this forever. Ate dinner of spaghetti, crawled in the tent and journaled until my edible kicked in and I was out 😴