AMC Outdoors, March 2008
Long routes link paddlers to the past.
When Henry David Thoreau nurtured his spirit with long forays into the North Woods of Maine more than a century and a half ago, he traveled principally by canoe, and he followed a trail of sorts.
For centuries before Europeans came to these shores, Native Americans had used rivers and lakes to traverse the thick forests that blanketed the eastern half of the continent. These water routes, linked by portage trails and traversed in the light and maneuverable birch canoes that evolved with them, later made possible the fur trade, lumber industry, and European settlement of this part of the continent.
When Thoreau made three extensive trips into the Maine Woods in 1846, 1853, and 1857, he traveled the old route with Penobscot guides, their paths scribing a broad circle across Moosehead Lake and down the West and East branches of the Penobscot River. Thoreau wrote about those trips in The Maine Woods, published in 1864. The book represents perhaps the first appearance in literature of the phenomenon we now call eco-tourism.
Thoreau used the ancient canoe routes in a new way as well—not only as a means to traverse dense forests, but also to experience what he called their wildness. He was the first to use a water trail the way we use them now—as Thoreau himself put it, “for inspiration and our own true recreation.”
Inevitably though, Thoreau’s beloved Maine Woods fell to the ax, only to be floated downstream on the same waterways that had brought the lumbermen. Rail and road supplanted the old canoe routes. The portage trails grew over, and the very notion of a linked network of canoe routes slipped out of the public consciousness.
When recreational canoeing boomed in the late 20th century, those who wanted to make long canoe trips faced a new challenge. Lakes and rivers were public, but launch access and camping areas were not.
The time had come for a new paradigm—organized water trails with designated access points and campsites, a route marked by signs and with troves of additional information on interpretive maps and interactive websites. The last decade has seen a tremendous boom in such water trails, and many of the best are in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions.
Some of these trails are short routes suitable for day trips or weekend overnights; others, like the 325-mile Maine Island Trail, are coastal routes best traveled by sea kayak. The five trails we profile are long inland routes, equally suited for a quick get-away or a weeks-long sojourn. They no longer are the most efficient way to cross great distances as they were in Thoreau’s time, but they transport us to places of which he would surely approve: untrammeled woodlands, pristine waterways, and unexpected islands of wildness amid suburban sprawl.
The Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail
On July 23, 2007, 150 years to the day after Thoreau embarked from Greenville, Maine, on the last of his North Woods expeditions, the town hosted the opening of a trail honoring the philosopher-naturalist and the native people who first blazed the route. The trail makes a loop of more than 200 miles through central Maine, starting on Moosehead Lake, following the West Branch of the Penobscot to Eagle and Chamberlain lakes, and then continuing down the West Branch Penobscot to Bangor.
The Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail lends itself to a literary sojourn. The trail map details each of Thoreau’s stopping places during his three trips to the region, making it easy for paddlers to read from Thoreau’s The Maine Woods in the same places he penned it almost 150 years ago. Reading the memoir there makes for a powerful outdoor experience—one that drives home how much things have changed since Thoreau’s time, and how much remains the same.
Literary paddlers may also want to pack the new edition of J. Parker Huber’s The Wildest Country: Exploring Thoreau’s Maine, a combination history, trail guide, and personal memoir.
Trail organizers aiming to increase public interest in the trail plan as many as 11 informational kiosks at historic points along Thoreau’s route. The first kiosk has been installed in Greenville, alongside two marble statues commemorating Thoreau’s trips and the contribution of his Penobscot guides Joe Attean and Joe Polis, who play prominent roles in his Maine Woods diaries. (Wabanaki refers collectively to the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Micmac, Maliseet, and Abenaki tribes.)
A knowledgeable guide may be a prudent choice for those traveling in Thoreau’s wake, as the water trail map is not intended for navigation. “The map was designed more as a cultural history piece,” says Jenn Barton, project coordinator for Maine woods Forever. “You would use it in conjunction with another map for paddling.” If you don’t feel confident in your route-finding, start with the section along the West Branch of the Penobscot from Moosehead Lake to Chamberlain Lake, which overlaps the Northern Forest Canoe Trail and allows you to take advantage of that route’s clear signage and richly detailed maps. Or consider hiring the services of a Registered Maine Guide; several guide companies offer Thoreau-themed paddling excursions. Whatever section you decide to paddle, don’t forget your hiking boots. Thoreau’s ascent of Katahdin was a highlight of his 1846 expedition, and is well worth retracing.
For more information, visit: www.thoreauwabanakitrail.org
The Northern Forest Canoe Trail
The Northern Forest Canoe Trail (NFCT) stretches 740 miles from Old Forge, N.Y., to Fort Kent, Maine, making it the longest organized water trail in the world. The trail’s statistics are staggering: two countries, four states, 22 rivers, 56 lakes and ponds, 62 portages.
The NFCT is special for more than just its scale. It also is unique in its thoroughness. The 13 section maps are exceptionally detailed. More than just route-finding aides, the maps contain nuggets of the region’s rich human history, information about its abundant flora and fauna, warnings about hazards, and sights not to be missed. Maps like these are the centerpiece of the water trail movement. They don’t just enable the outdoor experience; they enrich it.
On the NFCT, that experience is as varied as the trail’s many waterways. Some portions pass through vibrant New England towns; others flow through a bucolic landscape of abandoned mills, patchwork fields, and well-tended bed-and-breakfasts. The route contains vast stretches of forested shoreline and relics from long-ago log drives. In Maine, the Allagash Wilderness Waterway offers a succession of lakes, abundant wildlife, and the seven-mile-long Chase Rapids on the Allagash River.
The NFCT officially opened in June 2006, and immediately became the flagship of the water trail movement, a kind of waterborne counterpart to the Appalachian Trail. Though a dozen people already have through-paddled the trail, its core purpose is to make shorter trips easier, and thereby introduce more people to the waterways of the Northern Forest. “Our hope was that this would offer a family the chance to do different trips for 10-12 years on a summer vacation,” says Rob Center, who with his wife Kay Henry spearheaded the NFCT effort. “The goal really was to keep it simple and fun and accessible.”
For more information, visit: www.northernforestcanoetrail.org. For state-by-state highlights of the trail, see the March 2006 issue of AMC Outdoors.
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