After we had put the kayaks in at Umsaskis Lake and were a few strokes out onto the cerulean waters, I turned to my friend Rachel and said, "OK, cue the moose, eagle, and river otter." She added, "Don't forget the loon."

We were starting at about mile 39 of the 92.5-mile Allagash Wilderness Waterway (AWW) in northern Maine, not far from the Canadian border. My husband Pete and I, along with Rachel and her husband Adam, had just driven on more than 50 miles of shale logging roads from Ashland, Maine, to reach our put-in and embark upon a three-day paddle from Umsaskis north to Michaud Farm, camping at primitive sites along the way.

The harsh roads, which are the only means of penetrating the 3.5 million acres of commercial forests surrounding the waterway, claimed one tire and left us with grit between our teeth. Such remoteness, though, promised a degree of wildness difficult to come by on most Northeast rivers, and we were hoping for big payoffs in terms of wildlife sightings.

The first came in less than a mile, after paddling through The Thoroughfare — a thin channel where the water drains from Umsaskis into Long Lake. We spied a moose standing on the western shore, its legs obscured by brush. The animal stopped grazing and raised its head, watching us as we got closer, our paddles quietly caressing the water. My kayak floated until it was alongside the moose, yet still several yards away. I was able to note the contrast of color between its tawny face and the rich chocolate brown of its body, before it turned and disappeared into the spruce-fir forest.

Within another mile, we had our loon. Nearly 3 feet in length, the bird swam languidly around our boats for several minutes. As I watched it, I became aware of the stillness that engulfed us, of how silence can have a certain kind of pitch as poignant to the eardrums as sound. My senses became tuned to the absence of any human-induced noise, aside from the plunk of our paddles and the occasional exchange of words.

LEARN MORE
View a slideshow that includes a sampling of the images Pete captured during their multiday journey. Read more about AMC's river conservation efforts here.

Visible from the summit of Katahdin, the Allagash Wilderness Waterway formally begins at Telos Dam, on Telos Lake, near the western border of Baxter State Park, and ends at the confluence with West Twin Brook, just south of Allagash Village, where the river completes its northward journey and empties into the St. John River, about a dozen miles from the Canadian border. The waterway, which includes all associated lakes, ponds, and tributaries, was officially designated on May 11, 1966, by the Maine Legislature to preserve its wilderness character and pristine waters. Later that year, the citizens of Maine approved a $1.5 million bond to fund the protection of the waterway, and in 1967 the U.S. Department of the Interior provided matching funds through the Land and Water Conservation Act. The monies largely went toward land purchases that formed a protected corridor averaging 500 feet from each riverbank.

The AWW received additional protection in 1970, when the governor of Maine petitioned the federal government to designate the Allagash as a "wild" river within the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, established by Congress in 1968 to protect rivers that possess exceptional natural, recreational, or scenic value. To be classified as "wild," a river must remain free flowing and, according to the federal act, "free of impoundments and generally inaccessible except by trail, with watersheds or shorelines essentially primitive and waters unpolluted. These represent vestiges of primitive America." Protection is provided through both government regulation and voluntary efforts by private landowners.

The AWW was added to the system and became the nation's first federally protected waterway to be state-managed. Since then, 12 rivers or river segments in the Northeast have been added to the system, including Wildcat Brook (NH) and the Musconetcong (NJ), Delaware (NJ, PA), and Westfield (MA) rivers — a total of 598 miles classified as wild, scenic, or recreational. The Westfield is the only other Northeast river to have a segment, only 2.6 miles long, deemed wild.

Comprising just three-tenths of 1 percent of Maine’s total river mileage, the Allagash is the state's only river in the Wild and Scenic Rivers System and one of the few waterways in the Northeast where a multiday canoe or kayak trip without the interruptions of urbanization is still possible. Paddling the entire route averages between seven and 10 days, depending upon water level, wind, and daily mileage. Most paddlers, according to AWW Superintendent Matthew Laroche, bypass the large headwater lakes and begin at Churchill Dam, south of Umsaskis Lake, where a trip to Allagash Village can be completed in about four to five days.

We chose to put in at Umsaskis to bypass the Class II rapids below Churchill Dam and enjoy a leisurely voyage of approximately 35 miles on stretches of stillwater, quickwater, and Class I rapids to Michaud Farm, 17.5 miles south of Allagash Village. We also chose to go during the first weekend in September rather than the peak months of July and August, when most of the 4,500 people who paddled the AWW last year made the trip.

Long Lake Dam
We logged an easy 8 miles our first day, gliding down Long Lake on quiet water that mirrored the blue sky and cumulus clouds above. In shallow areas, my boat skimmed over long tendrils of grass that swayed in eerie rhythm through the crystal clear water.

We spied just one other party on the river that weekend — a group of four in two canoes who stayed well ahead of us. Our solitude was disturbed only by the swarms of no-see-ums, or midges, that emerged at dusk each evening, despite plunging overnight temperatures that left us with morning frosts.

Our first campsite was perched on a hill above Long Lake Dam. The large cleared area overlooking the water was mowed and held a long picnic table with wooden poles erected over it for draping tarps in the rain. Several tent sites and the privy were located discreetly in the copse alongside the clearing. The campsite also serves as a short portage around the dam, which can be run only in high water.

Before Pete and I had carried our boats up the embankment and emptied the hatches of our food and camping gear, Adam had grabbed his rod and vest and was casting flies into water that rushed over the rotted pieces of timber breaking the surface like jagged teeth. In no time, Adam called out, "I've got one.…It's a beaut." He held an 8-inch brook trout; its red and yellow spots glimmered in the sun until Adam dipped it back into the water and we watched it swim away.

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