calm paddling and camping opps in northern whites ?

We have a few newbie paddlers who would like to paddle to an overnight and back, or get dropped off and paddle to camping.
Do you have any lake, reservoir or no-rapids rivers suggestions for us ?

Lake Umbagog has remote sites that can be paddled to, or for a small fee they will use a larger boat to drop you and your smaller boat off at the sites.

Umbagog. And Umbagog. And, oh yeah, Umbagog. (But keep an eye on the wind.)


These guys seem to have had a good time:

Daredevil canoeists tempt fate on Umbagog Lake

You can also paddle down the Maggaloway into the lake for a nice easy trip. You can put in at the Umbagog NWR.

Richardson Lake has some nice paddling with close to zero development with several sandy beaches. You need to make reservations for the remote sites through South Arm campground. It gets far less power boat traffic than Umbagog. Like Umbagog, it is fairly shallow and it does tend to get afternoon NW winds that can cause swells and possibly white caps. For calm water all day, they may not be the best choice unless the forecast is for no wind. The upper Androscoggin has several flat water stretches, there are no formal campgrounds but there is a lot of large timberland owners who will not object to LNT camping. The stretch from Shelburne to Rumford has a minor stretch of fast water near the gilead bridge and one set of minor rapids in Newry. The campground in Bethel can set you up with a shuttle up river and then you camp in one of the primitive sites and then paddle down to one of three takeouts upstream of Rumford.

Umbagog looks like a small Lake George, which I like. The remote sites there might be perfect, if available.

http://www.nhstateparks.org/uploads/pdf/Umbagog-Lake-Remote_Campground-Map.pdf

I'll research the other recommendations too. Thanks.

Mollidgewock State Park is also right on the Androscoggin River on Rt. 16 a few miles outside of Errol, on the NH State Park website...other campgrounds around would be Milan Hill SP (Rt. 110 B) but that is about 25 miles from Errol but only a couple miles from the Androscoggin in Milan/Dummer..Clearstream Campground on Rt. 26 right outside of Errol and Log Haven close to Dixville Notch...last resorts maybe??

A bit beyond the Whites but Lobster Lake, north of Moosehead, is one of my favorites. Near one of the campsites there is a trail to Lobster Mountain, an easy hike with good views of the lake and Katahdin. Beware of the strong prevailing NW winds ... they could challenge the paddle out.

Also north of the whites, but if you wanted to go all the way up north the Connecticut Lakes and Lake Francis looked wonderful while I was hiking up there a few years ago. Lots of campgrounds.