Chris and Meghan's Excellent Adventure! NFCT 2014

[celliott]

This summer, my girlfriend of four years, Meghan, and myself, will be paddling the Northern Forest Canoe trail. The trail is 740 miles long, starts in Old Forge NY and ends in Fort Kent Maine. It goes through New York, Vermont, Quebec, New Hampshire, and Maine.
We expect the trip to take at least 6 weeks. I cannot wait to start. So much planning left to do...
We will (try) and keep up a blog along our trip. There will be stops in towns with internet access, but some posts may be delayed a bit. Everyone is invited to follow our progress on the blog if you would like  Link to the blog and first post is here-

http://chris-and-meghannfct2014.blogspot.com/

I am seriously excited to start this trip. It's something I've wanted to do since I first heard about the trail.

Here is a link to the Northern Forest Canoe trail website-  http://www.northernforestcanoetrail.org/
You can explore the website, find out more about the trail, plan day trips, etc. etc. Good website.

I made our first post on the blog, it is a bit more detailed than what I have posted here.

Some pictures from past canoe trips

Meghan and I at Holeb Falls, on the Moose river in Jackman Maine


The crew on Low's ridge, in the Adirondacks


Halfway through a long portage in the Whitney Wilderness area of the Adirondack Park

[thecfarm]

Hope it all goes well. Have a great time and yes,please add to your blog.

[beenthere]

Sounds like a great trip.


How can you afford to go on a vacation for 6 weeks?

[celliott]

Sounds like a great trip.


How can you afford to go on a vacation for 6 weeks?

That's why NOW is the time for us to do this. I'm working part time, flexible schedule. She's just graduating. We aren't tied down with any major commitments. If it's to be done before retirement age, it's probably got to be now.
My dad would love to go, but he can't take 6 weeks off from work....
We are in a fortunate situation to be able to do this trip. As well as a good location, in Vermont, we're about halfway between both ends of the trail.

[Magicman]

I wish you two the best with your adventure and your timing is correct.  I always wanted to hike the AT, but job, family and then knees always had other ideas.  Pat and I did hike part of it so at least we have been there.

I admire you for your adventuring spirit.     

[RynSmith]

I've always wanted to canoe the Okefenokee - good for you for getting on it when you can!  Safe travels and I look forward to your updates. 

[sandhills]

Hope you both have a great and safe trip!  No time like the present 

[justallan1]

I hope you guys have a blast. Sounds like it's going to be a great summer.
I'll be looking for updates.

Allan

[celliott]

Thanks everyone!
We will try to be as safe as possible. While accidents can happen, there is alot to be said for prevention- Should we really run those rapids? It's pretty windy, maybe we shouldn't cross that big lake? (there's some big water on the trail, Lake Champlain, Moosehead lake...) Our past canoeing experience and common sense comes into play here. And we ALWAYS wear our PFD's  ;)

Magicman, while we have no intentions of hiking the AT, there is a trail here in Vermont called the Long trail, which traverses the spine of the Green Mountains, the length of the state. We would like to do that also, but we'll see what fall brings.

Why do we do these things? Because it's there  And we need no reason beyond that.

[pine]

Good luck and have fun.  An adventure you will not forget.

[goose63]

You guys are young now go for it be for you get to old have fun and a safe trip 8) 8)

[Gregg Huffman]

You are right to go while you can, you'll never get another chance. Have fun!

[Weekend_Sawyer]

I am watching with interest.
Have a great trip!

Jon

[Hilltop366]

Sounds like fun!

Keep your hands off the gunwales and lean down stream.

Stay safe, I'll be following along.

[JohnM]

Why do we do these things? Because it's there  And we need no reason beyond that.

Darn skippy!  You only get one go round, 6 weeks or 6yrs it's your life, do what makes you happy!  ...cause you'll never please everybody. ;D :

Before we were married my wife and I planned to hike the last 270 miles of the AT ('95), just above Hot Springs, NC down to Springer Mtn, GA.  Neither of us had done any major trek like that but we did our homework and put together out drop/resupply boxes to be mailed out by my wife's sister.  The best laid plans...about a week before we started Hurricane Opal had blown through the area.  Long story hike short, we did the first 50mi (took twice as long going around all the blowdowns and whatnot) got to the Smokies and were told 'no go', trail was not hike-able.  We took a shuttle around to pick up and our supply box in Fontana Village and I decided I wasn't done hiking but my wife was. :D  I did a 5 day 25mi loop (low land/less storm damage) while she went to visit her mother in Atlanta.  Now the plan was to propose on top of Springer Mtn, but the "Fontana Hilton" shelter had to suffice.  And the rest, as they say, is history.  (And, yes, the 'ring' from Fontana Village really did turn her finger green! :-[)

Looking forward to following your adventure.   Oh and...no pressure on how it ends. ;) ;D

[Tom L]

I wish I did something like that, take a trip or a hike or canoe somewhere for a yr or two. (or even 6 weeks)

I just started to work every day, and have lost most of my life to just working with not too much fun in between.

good for you and I hope you have a great adventure!!

[Ljohnsaw]

Wow, quite a trek.  So, what is the rough percentage of water to portage?  Out here in California, you'd be walking at least 90% of the time if you wanted to travel down the state!  :D  Can't float south on the California Aqueduct from Sacramento. ;)    How about the ratio of lake travel to river? Not knowing the area at all, I'm assuming you will be heading down rivers, not up, right?

[celliott]

Wow, quite a trek.  So, what is the rough percentage of water to portage?  Out here in California, you'd be walking at least 90% of the time if you wanted to travel down the state!  :D  Can't float south on the California Aqueduct from Sacramento. ;)    How about the ratio of lake travel to river? Not knowing the area at all, I'm assuming you will be heading down rivers, not up, right?

55 miles of planned portages.
There are upstream sections, some of which simply cannot be paddled upstream, some will be poled, lined, or portaged around. We are unsure how many extra miles of portaging we will have to do because of low water, or unnavigable upstream conditions.

Here is a link to a trail overview, pretty informative.

http://www.northernforestcanoetrail.org/PlanaTrip-2/NFCT-Trail-Overview-35

[WDH]

I am excited for you.  Go for it.

[celliott]

New short blog post

http://chris-and-meghannfct2014.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2014-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2015-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=2

Feel free to subscribe (I think there's an option somewhere there)
I won't necessarily be able to post to the FF while on the trip. I think I'll be lucky to make the time to update the blog more than a couple times.
But there will be pictures. Lots of pictures. Once we're done of course  ;)

[Woodboogah]

I wish you luck and have fun.  I planned to hike the AT when I got out of college.  Same deal no obligations, not tied down.  I planned for 6 months two weeks before I left I crushed my ankle and was out of commision for almost a year.  I will be following along.  I wish you well!

[Ron Scott]

Keep us posted.

[celliott]

New blog post, this one by Meghan.

http://chris-and-meghannfct2014.blogspot.com/2014/05/meghans-first-post.html

We're getting down to about 2 weeks left before we leave, and we're both very ready to get on the water!
Very exciting stuff  8)

[WDH]

Hopefully you will not get oatmealed out or freeze dried out before you get finished.  You just might just be eating the first snake that you come across after the first few weeks  ;D. 

[JohnM]

New blog post, this one by Meghan.

http://chris-and-meghannfct2014.blogspot.com/2014/05/meghans-first-post.html

We're getting down to about 2 weeks left before we leave, and we're both very ready to get on the water!
Very exciting stuff  8)

All looks very familiar.   Wife and I did bunch of dehydrating of everything for our AT trip, those prepackaged meals were still pretty new back then and hit or miss on quality.  When (if?) near a town make sure to get some fresh fruits and veggies (and bacon cheeseburgers ;D), helps break up the monotony of that trail food.

Still looking forward to following along.

[celliott]

Very real possibility we will get tired of oatmeal....
And the freeze dried food as well.
The reason for the oatmeal for all of our breakfasts, is that it is simple and fast. We boil a minimal amount of water, pour the water right into the packet, and eat out of the packet. Throw the packet in the trash, no cleanup at all. Energy for the day.
The freeze dried food is decent enough. Meghan is obviously more fond of it than I am  :D But again, it is quick and simple, with minimal clean-up, which is just what you want after a 25 mile day on the water and you're setting up camp at 7PM.
We will both be looking forward to when we stop into towns and can buy fresh food. A salad, burger, and bread will have never tasted so good  8)

Every thread on the FF gets to food eventually, this was a natural transition though  8)

[Mooseherder]

You can catch a meal of Trout everyday at camp and smoke some for the next days lunch.   

[thecfarm]

I hope the weather will be good and the flies won't bother you too bad.

[celliott]

We are off Saturday morning!
I need to get paddling. The last few days I have been stressing out over the planning. I just feel we are missing something, even though we most likely aren't. I'll keep worrying until we get started too, I'm sure.
Last minute things to do, running into some hiccups, all good stuff I'll look back upon and smile about, but not now.

I made one more post on the blog before we head out- http://chris-and-meghannfct2014.blogspot.com/2014/06/countdown-to-old-forge.html

I honestly am not too sure how well we can keep the blog updated. It may be updated when we rest in Vermont, and that'll be it, I don't know. I would like to keep it updated but if the trip is going along smoothly, or a "blog stop" just doesn't fit in, then we aren't going to go out of our way. Also, when we do have a new post, I probably won't come onto the forum to add a link to a post.
We both will be keeping journals, and taking photos. There will be a detailed account of our journey, after we finish 

My Dad is going to paddle the first day with us. He is working on section paddling the trail, and the Fulton chain is a section he hasn't done yet. It will be nice to have him with us for the start, he's a familiar paddling partner, and it will be reassuring before we are off "on our own" for the rest of the trip. Not the entire trip, he is going to try and paddle some of the Vermont sections when we are staying at our Grandparents camp. And we aren't totally alone either, we have an awesome support crew of both our Parents and Grandparents that will be ready to help us if we need it (been reassured of this multiple times in the past days)

Is it Saturday yet  ???  ;D

[Magicman]

I certainly wish you and Meghan the best.   

[thecfarm]

You might forget something. So what if you do!! As I say,I have to do something twice,to know how to do it the second time.  ;D
Have a great time.

[JohnM]

We both will be keeping journals, and taking photos. There will be a detailed account of our journey, after we finish 

Looking forward to it, Chris.   I kept a journal during a backpacking trip to Alaska (wrote it like a letter to my wife), I read through it once in a while and relive the whole trip.  Be safe and have fun! 8)

[celliott]

Thanks alot everyone!
Our families had a nice steak dinner together tonight, as a final send off. We depart at 6:00AM tomorrow morning!
And we are as ready as we'll ever be. I've calmed down and accepted that we're going ready or not and everything will be just fine 

Farewell for now Forestry Forum!

[celliott]

Hey everyone!

We are back in Vermont. Taking a couple rest days at my Grandparents camp, then getting back at it.
I am thankful for my Dad keeping the blog updated for me, with what he can glean from a few texts or a brief call every couple days. I made a fairly lengthy post detailing our last couple days and added a few pictures.
We are both feeling good about the trip, doing well, and are excited to keep going.

http://chris-and-meghannfct2014.blogspot.com/2014/06/rest-days.html

[Den Socling]

What are you paddling?

[thecfarm]

Something you do will remember for years to come.

[celliott]

We are back!
Finished Saturday the 26th, could have been done sooner, but we thoroughly enjoyed the last week of the trip.
I am going to be detailing the gap in our trip where we had no contact on our blog, from Jackman ME to Fort Kent ME. It will be more picture intensive (everyone likes pictures )

What are you paddling?

Den, we were paddling a 16' Old Town Penobscot, royalex material. A good all around canoe that had seen thousands of miles before this trip.

Here's a link to the most recent blog post

http://chris-and-meghannfct2014.blogspot.com/

[Hilltop366]

Congrats on the successful trip!

I enjoyed following along but didn't miss having to do the carries!

[celliott]

Yeah, there was some serious carries.
Wait for the next post when I detail the mud pond carry. What an adventure that was 

Oh, I did get oatmealed out... Meghan didn't, but I skipped oatmeal the last few days. Just sick of it, wanted bacon and eggs and pancakes and syrup too bad.

[WDH]

Oh, I did get oatmealed out...

You have restored my faith in humanity  :D. 

[Southside]

Chris,

Did you follow the Allagash or the St John in Maine?  If it was the Allagash did you get to the old logging tramway and locomotive sites?

[celliott]

Oh, I did get oatmealed out...

You have restored my faith in humanity  :D.

Meghan went out and bought more today. After spending 43 days in a tent together, I guess I still don't understand that girl  :

[Hilltop366]

Oh, I did get oatmealed out...

You have restored my faith in humanity  :D.

Meghan went out and bought more today. After spending 43 days in a tent together, I guess I still don't understand that girl  :

Well if you learned anything..... ;)

[celliott]

Chris,

Did you follow the Allagash or the St John in Maine?  If it was the Allagash did you get to the old logging tramway and locomotive sites?

We followed the Allagash onto the St.John.
And yes Sir, we did the tramway carry, definitely the most enjoyable portage I have ever done. Rusting logging era history everywhere, and at the end, two huge steam locomotives, what a sight to see.
Also at Churchill dam, they had a history depot, kind of a small museum. Lots of captioned photographs, memorabilia, stories, quite an interesting place.
AND- this will make member "Loggah" happy- We were able to find two old lombard loghaulers on the side of the Allagash, down an unmarked path. There was a note on our map about them, but not other maps I've seen. A steamer and I think a diesel powered one, just left in the woods.

Yes, pictures to follow  8)

[celliott]

Here's some teaser pics of the historical logging equipment 

I'm gonna have to find a good photo sharing website once I get them all ordered and organized. Any suggestions?

The boilers used to power the cable-tramway between Eagle lake and Chamberlain lake


The tramway as an educational display


Steam powered lombard loghauler remnants



Diesel (or gas?) lombard loghauler



Tramway information- 1\2 million board feet of logs per day! And 100 million board feet to it's credit in the 6 seasons it operated!

[JohnM]

Congrats to you both, Chris!  Haven't had a chance to check the blog but look forward to it when I do.

[celliott]

Gonna try out this new "mention" function.
@loggah  you are the resident lombard loghauler expert, had heard about\seen these lombards on the Allagash?

Works now @Jeff 

[Jeff]

After you typed the @ did you get a drop down giving you options as you typed, and then select from the list?

[loggah]

Chris,back in the early 70's we got a few parts of those machines !!!! ;D they were in a field then!! Cunliffe Depot,were Will Cunliffe had his logging operation back in the late 20's early 30's.  Both those machines had been cannibalized for years. The gas lombard is a very rare machine,it has a 6 cylinder engine in it that was actually built by Lombard !!!! he only made a few engines and they were prone to blowing the cylinders off the crankcase,to high compression,and vibration. If you looked carefully at the engine you would have seen the blacksmith repair angle brackets thru the cylinders to the block!!!! ;D You guys are having a nice trip,the first time i was at Cunliffe the river was still having a ice out  and was about 15 ft above normal,made quite a canoeing experience!!!  ;D ;D Don