Lakes Richardson & Mooselookmeguntic, Maine May 2-7 2013

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spider solo

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"Miles from nowhere, guess I'll take my time..."

5 nights/6 days paddling with Philippe, friend and fellow adventurer from Sherbrooke, Que

Every spring this past few years we head to the northern lakes for practice & fun We thought what the heck it was an excellent spring "pre-season" paddle to warm up for a Saguenay trip later this summer.
So of course 1st thing we wanted to be sure was the ability to paddle 6 days with a couple of portages thrown in and not tire or fall apart at the seams or suffer general pandemonium.

Snow...the access road to the launch at the northern end of Lake Richardson was clear, but the snow on either side was thick and deep in the woods...hmmm that did give us a little pause.
As it turned out that was the snowiest section we saw after that there were just a scattering of snow and ice as we did the circumnavigation of each of the lakes.

Though each day we would see an occasional fishing boat, we saw no other "persons a paddlin" and had the lakes to ourselves day and night. Well perhaps not all to ourselves..lot's of footprints of moose and other critters. Perfect set of bear tracks in the sand the morning after my friend said he heard dogs barking in the night..safe to say I asked several times if he was sure it was not a bear he heard.
Quite confident it was canine..with no houses for several miles I tend to opt for coyotes as the source of the sound..the bear..just passing through.

The weather was near perfect each day warm and sunny with No biting bugs yay !!

Though I don't carry a camera Philippe does and here are a a couple of photos he sent along, course with only 2 peeps I tend to get well photographed :)

the "mirrored' picture does make for beautiful pictures, it does play with your head a bit and can make it difficult to maintain the horizon or stated anothe way.it makes it hard to tell what is up and what is inverted..

the campsite picture ..Philippe's small tent in the front...I got the jumbo version tent platform..quite ingenious in it's construction by unknow peoples...

the portage...combined trip 1st time through 5 trips..on the return 2 ...think we refined it a bit..

DSCN9026.jpg

DSCN8977.jpg

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I enjoy following your trips on the SPOT maps. I'm sure the technology is there to send an email, maybe even pictures ... DeLorme's PN60W may have that capacity ... but it is always good to get the "tout bien" message.

Hey, you were on a lake ... mon dieux! what's with the portages?
 
Nice! I can't wait till the middle/end of August to go on my next paddle adventure. One day I hope to get up to Maine. That's one huge tent you have there also.
 
The portages were great, much improved on the Richardson side as they also made a ramp for launching. So much nicer than trying to launch amongst the jumbled boulders that I remembered from a few years back.

Glad that SPOT messenger still works so well... it is one of the 1st generations when they first came out. I have near 100% success with it... so I'm very much a "happy camper"

The huge tent set up was one of the most creative setups we have come across somebody was very good with rope and knots..no nails anywhere.
My friend was probably a bit warmer in his tent..but..with no bugs I just rolled out my bedroll and snoozed away...

DSCN8869.jpg woodpecker work

DSCN9065.jpg Philippe

DSCN9046.jpg driftwood teepe
 
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