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...keeping your car keys dry! I often formulate new canoe tripping rules based on the unfortunate experiences of other canoeing friends of mine. One recently had an experience that left me with a new Rule to live by. He recently completed a solo canoe trip in the North Maine Woods. He had left...

I've never been on Cranberry, and I don't fish, so I can't help you there. Little Tupper and Rock Pond is a fantastic area, as is Round Pond which is also connected to Little Tupper Lake. No motorboats allowed, and I hear the fishing is pretty good. It can get a lot of use on the weekends, but...

A nice peaceful lake in the area is Forked Lake, west of Long Lake. Not a big lake, but some really nice backcountry campsites. For something bigger, Raquette Lake also has some really nice sites, but you'll have to watch out for wind and motorboats. -rs

Nice write-up! That is one environment I have never canoe-camped in. I've paddled a few places in Florida in close proximity to 'gators and snakes (and some pretty impressive spiders too), but have not yet camped down there or anywhere on the quintessential "chickies". I think I prefer to camp...

The heat finally got to Rhode Island...only our second (or third?) day in the 90's, but with wicked humidity and a nasty heat index. I'll be leading a club paddle on a local river that is fed from the bottom of a big reservoir, so the water will be icy cold...perfect day for that. I'm betting we...

Nice report and pictures, Kim! It was a nice revisit to a favorite place. I've never been out to Gero Island (the wind has never cooperated the few times I have been there), and I have not yet had the opportunity to paddle down the length of Chesuncook, although I hope to do so one of these...

My worst loss occurred in 2013 trying to run a flooded river after Tropical Storm Andrea. Foolish, I know. We thought we knew the river well enough to avoid trouble, but I didn't know jack. So my boat got stuffed into a mess of snags and spent a restful 2 days before I could retrieve it. The...

Thanks, all...I won't be up there until September, so by then all of this will probably be irrelevant, lol! I've driven most of the roads between Greenville, Rockwood and Chesuncook...not to Chamberlain Bridge, though, which is an option. So I know all about the arrowheads (although the only...

Would a Subaru Forester have enough clearance to get across it? It has about 8 1/2 inch clearance, a little more to the doors. -rs

The situation: It is a hot, sunny day. You're pulling your canoe on its cart along a dusty trail. The horsefly and deerfly air defense corps received orders to scramble and they are executing perfect evasive maneuvers around your head and swinging hand and occasionally scoring a hit on the back...

I wish... I have a lot of day trips on the agenda, more than usual, so that is a good thing. My wife and I will be base car camping and paddling some Adirondack trips in August, and there is a good possibility I can talk her into one or two nights of backcountry canoe camping before or after...

I have recently been doing a lot of slideshows at libraries across the state, talking about my canoe trip across Rhode Island. My audiences are largely people who enjoy the outdoors, but who do not generally engage in overnight trips of the types that most of us are familiar with. I hope to...

Oh man, my feet feel muddy and my arms are itching with bug bites and my head is pouring sweat just LOOKING at that portage through the Bogs of Discontinuity.

Great List! I will have to come back to this list for future reading suggestions. But I checked it for one of my favorite books, one that I often bring on canoe trips, and read aloud to companions, especially if they are new to canoe camping. It wasn't there! It is "A Canoeist's Sketchbook" by...

I like NOAA as well, but I find myself usually using weather underground (wunderground.com). It basically takes the National Weather Service (U.S.) forecast for the area and puts it all in a summary graph that is easy to use. I find it reasonably accurate a few days out...the extended forecast...

I have the Swiss-style cart shown in the first two links, and swear by it. It is rugged and can take a lot of punishment...although I have seen one of the spoked wheels fold like a taco under too much weight and too much lateral stress (the user was not paying attention to the orientation of the...

Great pictures, Robin, thanks for sharing! That is one of my all-time favorite poling runs.

I have that book and it is an excellent resource; probably the most useful book for through paddlers there is to date. I definitely recommend checking out the blogs available on the Northern Forest Canoe Trail web site...a lot of great info that you won't necessarily find in any guidebooks...

If it is a bend in the grain and not due to a knot, I believe it is no more or less likely to break than any wooden pole. Under normal use you should be good. Push the limits of the pole or get it caught between a couple rocks, and look out! -rs

That was the first time I've done that whole run from top to bottom...what a corker! A little too much water to be considered a poling run, but what the hell, most of us poled most of it anyways! I managed to bend a pole trying to make an eddy. I made the eddy...standing beside my boat, lol! A...