Canoeing

Starting on September 14th, 2009, Boston joins Chicago and New York as hubs for Canada’s budget airline, Porter Airlines.  Round trip flights to Toronto start at $198 Canadian.  Why should you care?  Because early Autumn is not only a great time to see the striking new Frank Gehry addition to the Art Gallery of Ontario, but arguably the best time to paddle Ontario’s bounty of lakes.  A mere three hour drive north of Toronto, Algonquin Provincial Park provides paddlers with a seemingly endless connection of waterways snaking through forests of tall pines, birches, maples, and cedars.  Moving at such an unhurried speed, it’s very likely you’ll spot moose and hear the call of wolves, especially in September when moose are in heat. Voyageur Quest, a Toronto-based outfitter, offers guided trips to Algonquin through October 4th, including canoes, food, tents, and transportation from Toronto.  Cost of their weekend trips, leaving Friday, returning Sunday, are $580 Canadian per person. Porter will also be flying direct to Mont Tremblant for winter skiing, so you won’t have to drive the extra two hours from Montreal.
 

Remarkably, even today, the best way to savor this wilderness is to jump in a boat and canoe up to 120 continuous miles of waterways. Starting from the southwest corner of the park in Old Forge, paddlers can follow a sinuous blue line all the way north to the Saranac Lakes. However, the word portage (or carry, as New Yorkers say) better be in your vocabulary. The countless rivers, lakes, and ponds are connected by short trails, resulting in a seemingly endless combination of canoeing options. So pack lightly, get ready to throw your canoe on your shoulders, and venture to these pristine waters for an improvisational or pre-planned journey lasting anywhere from one day to three weeks.

St. Regis Canoe Outfitters in Saranac Lake, New York, will provide all the necessary amenities for a canoe trip including canoe, paddles, food, maps, tents, backpacks, and sleeping bags. Owners Dave and Kathy Cilley will also go over suggested routes (ask about the 4-day loop that includes eight ponds and the Upper and Middle Saranac Lakes) and provide a shuttle service to drop you off at outlying waterways. Their put-in at Floodwood Pond is located approximately 3 to 4 hours northwest of Albany, New York, off Route I-87.
 

September is my favorite month to travel. University students who spent the summer backpacking Europe are back in class or looking for a job, while the Europeans are back from their summer trips. On the American coast, the beaches are far less crowded, but the waters are just as warm as summer. And in Eastern and Southern Africa, the summer high peak safari season is over, yet the summer rains won’t arrive for a good six weeks, so there are a lot of deals to be found. Yet, arguably my favorite place to be in September is inside a canoe, paddling the tranquil rivers and lakes of the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota, Wabakimi Wilderness in western Ontario, the Adirondacks in upstate New York, and the Maine woods, where I’ll be paddling later this month. Those nasty mosquitoes and black flies are gone, foliage color is already starting to appear, and moose are lining the shores in heat, more talkative than Bullwinkle. So grab a paddle and find your own placid retreat.

Grafton Ponds is best known for its mountain biking and cross-country ski trails. See the story I just wrote in this past Sunday’s Boston Globe. Yet, Director Bill Salmon is also happy to guide folks to his favorite local fly-fishing streams, mountain hikes, and coveted paddling spots. Tell him to take you to nearby Lowell Lake, whose hillsides are brimming with color this month. Backed by the Green Mountains, you’ll paddle around the perimeter watching turtles catching rays on floating branches, and, if Indian Summer weather prevails, jump into the refreshing water for your own version of a Vermont baptism. 

 

Every newspaper, magazine, and website seems to be picking their top (fill in the blank) of the past year, so I’ve decided to give you my favorite adventures of the year. In early October, when the leaves on the maples were turning yellow, I had the good fortune paddle down the West Branch of the Penobscot River following in the current of the great naturalist and philosopher, Henry David Thoreau. Our guide was Kevin Slater, a legendary Maine paddler and dogsledder who learned these rivers and how to carve his own canoes and paddles from his mentor who he simply called “the Old Timer.” We spent four glorious days on the water, with few other paddlers, spotting moose, bear, loons, and osprey. In the backdrop was mighty Mount Katahdin, the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. The story will appear in an upcoming issue of Sierra Magazine, the publication of the Sierra Club. If you want to paddle with Kevin Slater on the Penobscot, you can contact him via his website.
 

Don’t be put off by the immensity of the 1,506,539-acre Everglades. A 99-mile Wilderness Waterway from Everglades City to Flamingo Island hops along isolated sandy cays before heading inland via mangrove swamps, back bays, and creeks.  If your canoe starts to rock, slap your paddle firmly against the water. This usually scares off alligators and those doe-eyed West Indian manatees. Everglades National Park rangers lead four-hour guided canoe trips on Saturdays, Sundays, and Wednesdays through mi-April from the Gulf Coast Visitor Center in Everglades City. Guided overnight camping trips are led by North American Canoe Tours, also located in Everglades City. 
 

In the May issue of Sierra Magazine, I wrote about paddling the West Branch of the Penobscot River in northern Maine. More paddlers are soon to follow, now that the West Branch of the Penobscot is part of a 740-mile water corridor called the Northern Forest Canoe Trail. Launched in June 2006 by the former owners of Mad River Canoe Company, Rob Center and his wife, Kay Henry, the route starts in Old Forge, New York, linking together more than 75 lakes and rivers before reaching its northern terminus in Fort Kent, Maine. Unlike the Appalachian Trail, Center does not believe the non-profit will attract a significant number of thru-paddlers. So far, the list of canoers who’ve traversed the entire circuit in one trip numbers around thirty.  He hopes to entice paddlers to try each section of the route in chunks, going back year after year and thus support the struggling economies of small communities along the waterway. The non-profit also designs exquisite maps for each segment of the trail that not only pinpoint campsites and portages in the area, but delve into the ecology and history of the region. To become a member and learn more about the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, visit their website.
 

The weather in Boston has been sunny and warm this past, which, believe me, is a rarity in spring. It’s a great time to grab a canoe and paddle one of the rivers or lakes before the mosquitoes start to swarm. This week I’m going to discuss my top 5 places to paddle in America. First up, the Adirondacks in upstate New York.

The countless rivers, lakes, and ponds in the Adirondacks are connected by short trails, resulting in a seemingly endless combination of canoeing options. One of the finest is a 4-day figure eight loop in the St. Regis Canoe Area that includes eight ponds and the Upper and Middle Saranac Lakes. Creeks, inundated with beaver dams and lily pads, connect the placid waters of the ponds. Mountains hovering over 2500 feet surround the lakes. St. Regis Canoe Outfitters will help plan an itinerary and provide all the necessary amenities for a canoe trip including canoe, paddles, maps, tents, backpacks, and sleeping bags. 
 

Maybe it’s the 1,000,000-plus acres of seemingly endless wilderness—a whopping 1200 miles of canoeable waters through countless lakes, rivers, and ponds—that gets paddlers all dreamy-eyed over Minnesota’s northern frontier, the Boundary Waters. You can go days without seeing another person, replaced instead by moose, whitetail deer, black bears, beavers, otters, and those laughing loons. Wilderness Outfitters has been taking people away from civilization since 1912. Fish for smallmouth bass as you canoe from Mudro to Crooked Lake in early June, or wait for fall foliage in late September and you can paddle when moose are in heat. They also offer canoes and maps for self-guided trips. 
 

Canoeing and Nebraska may bring to mind images of portaging through cornfields past cows and combines. But avid Midwestern paddlers know there’s a gem in the rough and it’s called the Niobrara River. A coveted Cornhusker secret, the Niobrara is arguably the prettiest prairie run in the States. A 30-mile, three-day jaunt from Valentine’s Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge to the take-out at Rocky Ford is a smooth ride on a wide and shallow river between sandstone cliffs. Along the way, there is excellent wildlife viewing opportunities. Scattered groups of bison

Maine’s rivers have attained near-celebrity status from paddlers nationwide. Mention the Allagash River to a canoeist and his eyes suddenly become moist and dreamy as he inevitably responds, “Yeah, I'd like to go there someday.” The river has somehow attained legendary stature. Perhaps it's the way the blue streak of water slips off the map of America’s northern fringes, remote and isolated, hundreds of miles from the nearest metropolis. Or maybe it’s the legacy of writer, philosopher, and inveterate traveler Henry David Thoreau, who ventured down the waterway a mere 140 years ago, waxing lyrically about the last great frontier in the East in his book, The Maine Woods. Whatever the reason, the 92-mile Allagash Wilderness Waterway continues to lure 10,000-plus paddlers to its shores every summer, turning farfetched dreams into reality. Go with a trusted guide like Mahoosuc Guide Service, who led me down the West Branch of the Penobscot River in Maine last fall. That led to an article in this month’s Sierra Magazine.
 

Don’t worry about crowds on this forgotten run in the glacial-carved valley of northeast Iowa. The Upper Iowa can be paddled for 110 miles from Lime Springs to the Mississippi, but a good 31-mile jaunt from Kendalville to Decorah snakes through cliff-lined gorges below 200-foot-high chimney rocks. Bald eagles frequently soar over the limestone outcrops and deer, mink, raccoon and beaver call the area home. Chimney Rock rents canoes, offers trip planning, and provides a free shuttle. 
 

This past Monday, Cathy Mumford of Colts Neck, New Jersey, became the first woman to paddle the entire Northern Forest Canoe Trail solo. The 50-year old mother of two started at Old Forge, New York, on June 19th, and finished her trip in Fort Kent, Maine, at the northern terminus of the 740-mile route. She paddled across Lake Champlain on her 50th birthday, made several wrong turns on the route to add to the mileage, yet still achieved her goal of completing this Appalachian Trail of the water in her trusty 9-foot kayak. And she only started kayaking several years ago in Tennessee. Talk about a quick learner!
 

It’s supposed to reach 90 degrees today in Boston, but my mind is already thinking ahead to fall foliage. The dry hot summer will lead to an earlier than usual foliage. Though we did get much needed rain in New England this past week, so trees that were wilting should be happier. This week, I’m delving into my favorite activities during the height of fall foliage.

12 years ago, I was hired to write a story about paddling the Allagash River for Men’s Journal magazine. It was late September, when the leaves on trees were yellow, orange, and crimson and the normally taciturn moose was in heat and was as talkative as Bullwinkle. There were no mosquitoes, no black flies, no humans, except our little group who paddled over 5 days up the narrow river corridor. Last year, I was fortunate to return to Maine’s North Woods in autumn, this time on assignment for Sierra magazine. I was in the capable hands of registered Maine guide, Kevin Slater, who with his wife, Polly, run Mahoosuc Guide Service. We spotted moose, bear, a barred owl, and once again we had the river, this time the West Branch of the Penobscot, to ourselves. There’s something about being on a lengthy Maine river in autumn, when the crowds are gone, and you have this serene scene of water, the pine-studded campgrounds, and mountains hovering in the background. It seeps into your skin and I yearn to be back there each fall.