Adventures on the Northern Forest Canoe Trail: NFCT: Days 16-21

Have you ever read The Little Engine that Could? Because that's how we feel!

Since we last wrote in Newport, VT, we've been plugging away at some pretty tough upstream paddle and some LONG portages. We're now enjoying another zero day in Berlin, NH with Seth. Now that we are just over half way (377 miles down!), we wanted to do some minor boat repairs, clean our laundry, and have a relaxing visit. Here's what our days have been like:

Day 16
After our rest day we headed out of Newport and made our way to Pensioner Pond. We portaged the first part of the Clyde River to avoiding ascending a series of rapids. This was a good decision, made even better by a chance encounter with Shirley Hackett. As we were walking along Rt 5, a car quickly peeled off the road, into a parking lot, and out came Shirley. She proclaimed that she had been following our blog since the beginning and gave us big hugs. Though we declined her offer for a ride to Island Pond, we did take her up on an offer to launch our boat into Salem Lake at her friend's house. Thanks again, Shirley! After Salem Lake we paddled up the Clyde until Pensioner Pond, where we camped at Clyde River Recreation. A short day of 12 miles.

Us and Shirley

Day 17
We woke up to a light rain. At this point in the trip, we're not really surprised! We pulled on our rain gear and started back up the Clyde. Our original plan was to pull out at 10 mile square road and portage around the section that our guidebook claimed was confusing. While we ate lunch at ten mile square road, we happened upon the Northern Forest Canoe Trail farm stand and met Bill Manning, head of the Northwoods Stewardship Center. He encouraged us to paddle farther up the Clyde through the fen. We had a great chat, he snapped our photo, gave us an ice cream, and sent us on our way! His map was incredibly helpful for navigating this section of river and we highly recommend stopping here. We did stop at 5 mile square road and portaged to Island Pond to avoid some rapids.
21 miles.

Just made it into Island Pond

Island Pond

Day 18
After reading the guidebook closely and talking to locals, we decided our long canoe and desire to get to the Connecticut River didn't mesh well with the Nulhegan's oxbows and narrow width. We portaged around the few miles you could paddle on the Nulhegan before rapids forced you to portage anyhow. While we were sad to miss the wildlife, we don't regret this decision. We made it to the Connecticut River by 2 pm and were SO EXCITED to paddle downstream. We were bummed, however, that the DeBanville General Store had closed. We were looking forward to floating downstream with some pizza, beer, and a new pair of suspenders (for Brian). Nevertheless, we enjoyed our afternoon and camped at the Maine Central RR trestle campsite. The campsite itself was very buggy, but the beach was wonderful. We enjoyed every second.
25 miles.

SHARK!

Connecticut River

Improvised beer refrigeration!

Day 19
Woke up and had a gorgeous paddle for 13 miles down the Connecticut before starting upstream on the Amonoosuc River. We quickly decided that the current was too strong, so we portaged along an access road into Groveton. At this point, the story gets CRAZY!

A peaceful moment on the Connecticut River

We decided to have a hot lunch in town due to the fact that it was raining (surprised?). The waitress and folks inside assured us that if we stored our canoe in the alley next door and sat at the window table, our canoe and belongings would be fine. It was midday and seemed like a quiet town, so we agreed and stashed the canoe. About halfway through lunch, an elderly woman got out of her car and motioned us outside. She said there was a sketchy looking man in the alleyway near our canoe. Sure enough we rounded the corner and there he was. We quickly realized that our blue dry bag (which housed our passports, camera, wallet, and tent) was gone. We asked him if he had seen it and what he was doing there. He claimed he was visiting his brother in one of the apartments in the alley and took off. At this point we had created a stir at the restaurant. Our waitress, Tanya, came outside and began helping us look for the bag. After barging into the two alley apartments and not finding the bag, she located it in the back corner of the alley. Luckily, it hadn't been opened. At this point we assumed the man had been spooked by the elderly woman and ran off before he could take anything. We were stunned. Conveniently enough, a police officer was driving by and we flagged him down. After giving him a description of the scene, we pulled our valuables inside and put the canoe in plain sight. We tried to enjoy the rest of lunch, but the hullabaloo inside the restaurant hadn't quite died down yet. About 20 minutes later, the man walked by! We recognized him and told Tanya. Luckily two EMS workers were also dining here (small town) and radioed the cops. We were embarrassed about creating a scene, but also got some serious joy out of watching Tanya yell at the unsuccessful thief. We again sat down to finish lunch. As we were finishing, a man walked by and dropped a $100 bill on our table. We were stunned yet again. We weren't quite sure what it was for, but knew we couldn't accept. We ran out to his car to thank him and return the money. He told us that he didn't want us to think that all people in this area were bad. We were touched by his kind gesture and all the help and support we were given in Groveton. It's easy to dwell on the negative feelings from earlier, but the generosity we felt from people in Groveton lifted our spirits. We left Groveton and started a very long portage to West Milan, where Seth picked us up.
35 miles.

Day 20
We ditched most of our stuff at Seth's house, where we knew we'd be spending 3 nights. We still wanted to chip away at our upstream paddling, so Seth dropped us back off in West Milan around 11 am. We portaged to the Pontook Reservoir where he joined us for a beautiful, sunny paddle. We were so pleased and relieved to find that upstream travel on the Androscoggin River is doable. We paddled until Wentworth Island, where we took out and portaged until the road met the river upstream. We then paddled a few more miles and met Seth on the road around 5:30. Then it was Chinese food and bed!
13 miles.