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Just after sunset last Saturday on Lobster Lake in Maine. My companion was seeking enlightenment.

Those tents are all well and good but the baby blue Sawyer steals the show.

They might give you one if you call. If it's not the same as the one on the floor then it's really their error, however small. In the good ole days you could just go up to the factory store in Old Town for spares, but I don't think it ever reopened after covid.

That'd be a great trip. Pick up some chert when you're there! If you did it upstream you could use Webster Stream and the Millinocket Carry to make a loop. One of the tough things about Allagash area trips is that the car shuttle can be as epic as the trip itself, so I'm always trying to...

Thanks guys. I enjoy these trips more because I know that afterward I'll be able to share them with people who understand canoe tripping. Yes! https://arcg.is/vWCbz1 It's fun for me to read Hope's story map trip reports. We pool our photos but write up our experiences independently, and...

Afternoon/Evening Day Two After another snack / late lunch, we broke camp and got back on the water. We could have stayed, but we wanted to make some progress to our takeout and were looking forward to one of those beachy sunset campsites on First Debsconeag. The 0.8mi carry from Second to...

Evening of Day One Sitting on Second Debsconeag eating our snacks, we did the math on the return trip for the canoe. 2 hours up to Big Beaver would make it around 5:30, giving us about 2 hours with good light, then at most another hour with fading light. Getting caught after dark in a trailless...

Day One (sorry for the slow start on this TR, thought I'd have time yesterday) The thermometer in my tent read 37F Friday morning. It was a bright and pleasant morning, but still quite chilly. There were a few clouds around and when the sun went behind one it was immediately uncomfortably...

That's the one! I guess the hat was stowed due to rain in the first few pictures.

Pre-Trip The Debsconeag Lakes Wilderness Area (The Nature Conservancy) and the state Nahmakanta Unit (Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands) combine for form a ~90,000 acre preserve in the area southwest of Baxter State Park. The "100 mile wilderness" stretch of the AT passes through here. It's a...

The great thing about the MR340 is it's about at the limit of what you can do without sleeping or pooping, ~36-48 hours for podium finishes in most classes. You don't see anybody slamming bran muffins at the start. If anyone is looking for a crazy race, the AL650's qualifying races list is a...

OT Penobscot 16, West Branch of the Penobscot in the background. I like this picture because of the scuffs on the side of the boat -- like grass stains on your chest, that a sign you've been playing hard!

That far north you may be OK. I was in the Debsconeags last weekend and there were still no blackflies, just a few large gauge mosquitoes.

Congruently, I see other people doing it and I wonder if it would be good for my soul, but I never get around to trying it.

Trippers have such classic lines. It seems like big royalex boats always oil can with 2 men and no gear in them. They were obviously designed to have a heavy wannigan and/or cooler of beer in the middle. Have you thought about going with wood/webbing seats for both ends? Then you'd have more...

The one I always remember: Old man sees doctor "I eat SPAM daily," says he Angioplasty

A little sticky spring snow really brings out the contours of a hull. You can see where the flare in the bow and stern give way to straight sides and then tumblehome in the center. On this canoe (Rx Wilderness) I've played with bow thwart length to adjust the flare, but the cost of a drier...

I use Raka and keep both fast and slow hardeners around since I live in Maine and am often pushing it as far as temperature goes. They say fast hardener is OK down to 50F and slow to 60F. I think I've used fast on sunny days in the 40's and gotten away with it, although I wouldn't do that for a...

I have a folding canoe chair from Cabela's that sits on the bottom of the hull. I can't find a picture of it, and I can't find it on Cabela's current site, but it's aluminum tubing like a 70's lawn chair, but with padding on the lower tubing so it sits well against the hull and doesn't dent it.

Got some nice cookies and brownies from that store. Paddlers need to replace carbs. The first time I ran that race (~15 years ago) I was by myself with a solo canoe. When I got there I looked all around but didn't see a tent or desk to register. Finally I asked someone. It turns out the...