Allagash on the Web – A Sampler
A search of the internet for visual information on
Allagash trips turns up a lot of sites.
Here’s a collection of pictures and videos. Some of these sites are more informative than others.
“Zach and I dump the canoe.”
First, a
couple of brief vignettes (a minute in total) of an upset at the very top of
the Chase Rapids. These constitute a
primer in how not to pack a canoe. Nice
pan shots of the rapids. See for
yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QCHvtOhPE8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKBZYbicDeo
My favorite
quote is “Everything's soaked, including the dry bag." Notice that the narrator, Zach, expresses
relief that his anchor fell out of his canoe as he began to tip, because it
stopped the canoe. What went
wrong? (1) Canoe’s too small for two
men and baggage, insufficient floatation in easy waves (2) no real consideration
for keeping things dry (including not sealing the dry bag properly) (3)
carrying superflous weight (an anchor, for crying out loud) and (4) lack of
practice in rapids. What went right? (1) They were unharmed, finished their trip,
and had a good time.
Maine's
Allagash River has a mythic reputation: Henry David Thoreau once sought
solitude here…
How
many times can you say “Thoreau?”
Next up,
Geoffrey Norman describes his Thoreauvian adventure into a savage wilderness,
achieving spiritual baptism (in contrast to Zach’s and Jeff’s actual results). This is the sort of high-toned drivel we’d
expect from National Geographic. You
can bet Geoff didn’t pack any Bud Light in his Thoreauvian canoe.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0409/excerpt5.html
My favorite
quote is “The canoe I took to the river was made by Old Town, one of the
venerable names from Maine. This one
was 17 feet 2 inches (about five meters) long and made of ABS, the rubberlike
composite that gives on impact.”
OK, now this video is truly informative.
This runs
for several minutes and it documents a trip guided by the talented Chip
Cochrane, who shows us how to do things right. I’ve observed Mr. Cochrane in action, and am impressed with his
skill at keeping a large party of campers happy and on schedule. Notice the cooking scenes. Other things to notice in the video:
1:06 to
1:21 Nice action shots in the Chase
Rapids.
1:22 to
1:30 Allagash Falls
2:19 to
2:30 Chase Rapids, again. By
the way, this is the spot where Zach and Jeff dumped.
3:38 to
4:03 Long Lake Dam. This drop is easy paddling, but requires
scouting because of the iron drift pins in the old log structure.
5:24 to
5:40 A bath at the foot of Allagash
Falls is a sybaritic delight after several trips across the portage trail.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHuJwaGyBLw
Five Days with the NRCM ….. is five too
many for me….
Two other
accomplished guides, Garrett and Alexandra Conover, appear in this next
video. In his own way, the narrator of
this video is as distant from his surroundings as Zach and Jeff. He can’t precisely remember where he camped
last night, and has entirely forgotten the name of the site the night before
that. But, hey, he saw a moose! And he loves, just loves, wilderness! At 1:54 the high point of the video shows
Garrett cooking a batch of biscuits for breakfast.
And, at
3:40 “Hey, got a match?” A scene in
which the oblivious bourgeois requires his hired help to chat while holding a
forty-pound load.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUjSiZGdeok
And, finally, a well-organized, straightforward account of an Allagash
trip by a group of Boy Scouts. Here’s a sample of the text:
“The
campsite was typical of all we will use.
There is a picnic table under a ridge pole. The ridge pole extends over the fire pit to facilitate cooking in
the rain. A short distanced away is a
one holer.”
The first
page includes a map, and the photos are in proper sequence, both helpful in
conveying a sense of the day-to-day on
an Allagash trip.
http://www.hiventures.com/Allagash/AllagashWildernessWaterway.htm
http://www.hiventures.com/Allagash/MoreAllagashPics.htm