Allagash Lake Trip
In the summer I work for a local company called Native Notions doing landscape construction. It’s tough work, but one of the perks is that we’re all paddlers and at the end of each season we take a paddling trip. This year we spent four days exploring Allagash Lake, which isn’t all that big. Because we wouldn’t be paddling miles and miles each day, we got plenty of time to unwind and relax in what is probably the quietest place I’ve ever been in my life.
Luckily we didn’t plan too much mileage, because the wind picked up on day one and didn’t let up until the end of day three. We also dealt with rain, but we have the gear to manage so it wasn’t too bad. Because it was late season we only encountered two others groups of paddlers and oddly enough, two border patrol agents walking the shoreline. When you’re paddling along and you stumble upon two guys with assault rifles in the middle of nowhere, you start to create stories in your head. Umm..
Back to the start. After carpooling up in the truck and making it to the put in, we still had to walk in to the lake, as there is no road access. I was actually quite excited about it because I love portaging. Something about being self sufficient and able to move over ground gets me wound up. I lugged my large pack onto my back, shouldered the Esquif Echo I was paddling and took my first heavy steps up the trail. And I didn’t stop for one mile, until I reached the shore of the lake. Matt & Ron - not so smooth. They were paddling kayaks and weren’t packed quite as light as I was.
Since it was already getting late, we camped at the end of the portage trail on the lakeside and had just enough light left to hike to the fire tower to take in the aerial view of the lake. It sure was exciting to finally make it there after talking about and planning the trip for months.
The next morning we crossed the lake and setup a base camp on the far side - that would be our home for the next three nights.
I have to repeat this one more time - Allagash Lake is the quietest place I’ve ever been on earth. It blew me away how quiet and peaceful it was up there. We all agree pretty quickly how beautiful this spot it. This is the last section of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway for all of us. We’d paddled the other lakes and the river in past trips and Allagash Lake was sort of off our radar until we read up on it and I’m so glad we did.
As I mentioned earlier, the wind completely died on our third night a couple hours before sunset. Seeing an opportunity we jumped in our boats and paddled out into the lake a bit, to enjoy the stillness, the sunset and the rising moon. We floated out there for over an hour just taking it all in. Before we paddled back to camp in only the moonlight, something very strange happened.
Because it was so quiet you could hear everything that moved. At one point a woman camped across the lake dropped a pan and you could hear it loud and clear close to a mile away where we were. Anyway, that’s not the weird part. All of a sudden a weird noise started above us; it sounded like wings, or a bird or a glider slicing through the air. But it was high above us and we couldn’t see anything. You could feel it traveling over us and then across the lake, leaving that air disturbance behind it. It felt much faster than any bird could fly, but it didn’t make the sound of an aircraft. It felt like it was right there, you couldn’t see it but you could certainly hear it. And then it was gone.
We never did find out exactly what it was, but I’m fairly confident it was a homeland security drone. The type of drone that flies instead of hovering. Since we were closer than 20 miles to the Canadian border, I believe they use them to surveil the area. It was strange. I did a bunch of research when I got home and couldn’t find any other examples or stories of them. Whatever it was, it was a bit unsettling. But the peacefulness of the area returned quickly. Great trip!
