Our last full day on the Allagash was a nice relaxing float down to the Deadwater North campsite. We slept in just a little longer at Round Pond before making our way through the outlet and Round Pond Rips, a short quick little run of minor rapids, and passed Turk Island. Turk Island is named after a horse that drowned in the deep pool by a small island in the river. The horse was dragging a 20' bateaux up river when it went into the deep pool and became tangled in it's bridal and drowned. With low water, navigating the small set of rapids was quite fun as many of the normally submerged rocks were exposed or just under the surface enough to grab onto a canoe. We all made it through without incident and made our way down to the Musquacook Deadwater.
The Musquacook Deadwater is just that, a deadwater area that is fairly deep with minimal flow and where Musquacook Stream enters the river from the east. We spent a fair amount of time relaxing and fishing our way through this area, landing many chubs. We passed Rosie's rock near the end of the deadwater, a favorite fishing spot of the wife of Willard Jalbert, legends of the Allagash. From there it is a lazy float down to our final camping spot on the Allagash, deadwater north.
That evening we did some exploring and fishing around the campsite. With the low warm water, only chubs were biting. We enjoyed a large dinner of maple syrup marinated pork tenderloin while looking out over the wide section of river dotted with islands, most of which were dotted with moose tracks. That evening we were greeted by the presence of a moose enjoying some vegetation in the shallow waters of the Allagash. Early the next morning we were woken to the sound of three more moose putting around in the water in front of the campsite, bringing our moose sighting total to 11!
With incoming rain we packed up early and made the short three mile paddle down to Michaud Farm for takeout and the long ride back to civilization. As we arrived we were greeted by the smiling ranger of Michaud Farm and one last unloading of the canoes. We packed up the truck just in time for the rain to start falling. What an amazing trip with a great group of guys! The weather was beautiful and warm, the water was warm and comfortable to swim in, we caught brookies and chubs, saw 11 moose and countless birds, enjoyed bourbon and cigars and ate like royalty!
