Allagash Canoe Trip

by Mike T.
(Joliet, IL)

An Allagash canoe trip is a wonderful vacation in northern Maine. The Allagash River is great for beginners and enchanting enough for more seasoned outdoorsmen. Some canoe and camping experience is a good idea and there are plenty of outfitters to help you get the equipment that you need and make sure you get into the river okay.

I spent three days and two nights on the river with three family members. We ranged all the way from expert to a first timer. We took two canoes and had a great time.

We encountered plenty of wildlife including several moose. One of them was standing knee deep in the river chewing and she just watched us float past. We were only twenty feet away at our closest and she just kept on chewing. We didn’t bother her and she didn’t bother us. It made an amazing photo.

The camping is perfect. It was easy to find ground that was soft and mossy. You get some good exercise while paddling and then you can go swimming or fishing on the Allagash, or just read by the flowing water.

The weather is pretty consistent. We checked the weather the week before and kept an eye on it right up until we launched and everything stayed nice for the whole trip.

The Allagash is easily the best canoeing in Maine and it is far enough out in the wilderness that you will never see the distant light pollution of a city. I don’t remember even hearing a car though we must have come near several roads.

On the Allagash Waterway you are truly out in God’s country.

If you have ever wanted to step away from regular life even for just a couple of days then this is the place to do it. You wake up in the morning and the only things you have to get done are paddle downstream some and then make something to eat.

There was no cell phone coverage at the time of my trip but it is possible that this has changed as cell phone companies are expanding all of the time.

Scrape off the rat race and breathe free. I’ve been camping in Alaska twice and if you can’t make it there then canoeing on the Allagash is pretty close.