I live in the Gaithersburg, MD area and found this site about 2 weeks ago while researching gear to take on a guided 5 day trip on the Allagash River (from Churchill Dam to Allagash Village), September 25-29! Other than an easy over-nighter along the Potomac River in western Maryland earlier this summer, this will be my first canoe camping trip since I was kid at summer camp. I'm now in my early 50s. For some reason the bug bit me a couple of years ago and I decided to build a 16 ft tandem cedar strip canoe. This was my second season paddling it. If the Allagash doesn't cure me of this canoe camping obsession, I'm thinking about Assateague Island in October....