Katherine and Janice's most excellent 2nd camping adventure

[jmcotton]

Upper Richardson Lake trip Report

After our wonderful Warren Island trip in July, Katherine and I started looking around for another island to camp on for our next trip. We decided we'd like to camp on a lake this time as it's so beautiful in the fall with the loons gathering in preparation for their migration. We chose Upper Richardson Lake in north western Maine for our September 6-9th camping trip. Upper and Lower Richardson Lakes were joined by a narrows with the Lower lake more populated with a large campground (South Arm Campground) and primitive camp sites. Upper Richardson Lake is also joined by a dam with Mooselookmeguntic Lake. Upper Richardson is a glacier made lake with clear water, landlocked Salmon, and lake and brook trout. It has mountains all around, long stretches of sandy beaches and beautiful rock formations and was listed as quiet with an occasional fisherman and canoe/kayak camper. The water was warm and clear and all primitive sites can only be reached by boat. It's known for "dangerous winds and large 3 foot waves" at times and we thought, "Hey, we're ocean kayakers, we can handle waves, piece of cake!" Our plan was to leave early Friday morning to make the 3 1/2 hour drive up and launch on the northern tip of the Lake at Mill Brook Road. A friend asked if she could join us for part of the trip a few days before the trip. She then added at the last minute a friend of hers who had only been kayaking once (oops). As Theresa was a Maine guide and kayak instructor we said okay and that we'd meet them at the launch site by 2:00 or at the Island we planned to camp on, keeping in contact with radios. The launch site was great with a boat ramp, large parking lot and outhouse.

Friday came with clear skies and a good weather forecast. We set off right on time fueled with homemade maple scones, coffee and hand -packed snack packs. It took us a little longer for the drive up but we made the launch site within our window. Our plan was to paddle the 6 1/2 miles down the eastern side of the lake to Metallak Island and camp there for the three nights (lower risk of black bears on an island!). Plan B was to camp the first night on Big Beaver Island (close to the launch site) if lake conditions were really windy with our loaded kayaks. Katherine and I launched in windy conditions and soon discovered that my skeg was stuck with little pieces of gravel and Katherine's dry bags needed to be repositioned. We pulled over and fixed both and then made the 6 1/2 mile slog in windy conditions on the eastern side of the lake, looking forward to a glass of wine and dinner when we got there. Metallak Island was not identifiable at first as it's no longer an island, rather connected to the land with a thick sandbar but a nice gentleman was walking along the island and identified it as Metallak. We went around it to a beautiful calm sandy cove and pulled in, glad to be there. The gentleman, his partner along with their three little dogs and their red canoe shared the island the first night with us. It's a moderate sized island with a (closed for the season) cabin and 4 tent sites. While setting up camp Katherine's tent poles broke so we shared my 2+ REI tent just fine. We enjoyed a hot meal of butternut squash, leek and potato soup with goat cheese and french bread and attempted to contact Theresa. We got a message that they arrived at the launch site at 5:00 PM. We watched a beautiful sunset and fell asleep to the sound of the loons.

Saturday morning started with a passing shower and we set up Katherine's new light weight tarp and it promptly stopped raining. We had a wonderful breakfast of homemade raspberry pancakes (handpicked by Katherine!) with real maple syrup, fresh raspberries and Irish butter and coffee from Ethiopia. We checked our radio and phones for messages from Theresa and planned our day paddle. We set out across the lake to the western shore and paddled up to Halfmoon Cove where we saw a magnificent adult bald eagle soaring. From there we continued to Cranberry Cove and explored the cove and saw two small dark heads popping up and down in the cove. We think they were otters. About halfway through the trip Katherine had stopped looking for seals (!) and then the otters appeared. We saw another adult bald eagle on a tall tree who lazily flew off when we paddled back through the cove. Ducks and loons were paddling around in the water too. We then paddled across to the eastern shore again and headed back down to Metallak Island. The wind was definitely much stronger on the eastern side and it was a slog again back to the island. We both noticed that when the white caps and waves splashed up on us and our eyes it didn't sting like the salt water! The round trip was about 9 miles. When we pulled into the calm cove we saw Theresa and her friend Catherine come out of the woods to greet us. They had left their campsite around 10 AM also and finished the paddle to the island, arriving around 2:00, shortly before our return to camp. They had camped the night before on the beach partway to the Island and Catherine stated she did not sleep at all as some animal scratched and snorted at their tent! She did not sleep the entire trip either but said she had fun anyway! We had a great fire going that night and enjoyed a cauliflower, chickpea, tomato and pea peanut curry over brown rice, along with crackers and brie with our wine. We topped it off with homemade brownies and then set out for our nightly moose hunt around the back of the island onto the mainland where there was a marsh. Each night we saw a great blue heron who fished there along with lots of tracks. It was so beautiful. The only negative was Saturday late afternoon there were some hunters shooting at the pretty ducks in our cove. They stopped and went away when Katherine went out on the beach and glared at them. We didn't see any moose that night but think it was because of the hunters. Theresa pointed out the tracks, noting there were huge moose tracks, medium moose tracks and baby moose tracks, along with fisher cat tracks, small animal tracks and bear poop (with lots of blueberries I happily noted as that meant it was at least a week or two old!), and mountain lion (oh my!) tracks! We went back to camp to enjoy hot chocolate laced with Baileys and slept again (except for Catherine) to the sound of the loons on the lake. We did wake each morning to the sound of logging trucks across on the mainland, even on Sunday. Fortunately there is no hunting on Sunday.

Sunday we woke to a windy day with a prediction of small craft advisory and wind gusts up to 30 mile an hour. We ate hot oatmeal and Theresa and Catherine broke camp and wanted to return home that day but the wind prevailed (as did we in advising them to wait until the predicted calm and warm Monday) and after seeing white caps and feeling the strong wind which would be in their faces the whole way they unloaded their boats and set up camp again. We rearranged camp to get comfy for the predicted frost warnings that night along with the strong wind and then enjoyed exploring the calm beautiful cove and brook behind the island. We hiked up to the logging road (and got out of the way quickly from a logging truck) and enjoyed the wildlife in the area. That night we had hot open faced tuna salad on multigrain deli thins with diced apples, celery and dried currants and sliced brie on top toasted over the open fire. We set out for our nightly dusk moose hunt and saw a beautiful moose come to eat in the marsh. She walked towards us staring at us to get a better view and then returned to eating her dinner. We gathered drift wood and enjoyed the sandy coastline walking back to our campsite to get warm by the fire. Our other tenting neighbor, Dave, roused us from our camp fire to watch the setting of the crescent moon with Venus right next to the moon. We enjoyed a lively conversation with our neighbor Dave, who had been doing public health work in Nepal and Alaska for years and was now trying to get unburned out by wandering and hiking for awhile. After more brownies and Baileys and cocoa we layered up for the frosty night and woke to a calm sunny day for our paddle home. After blueberry scones with almond flour (really yummy) and hot coffee we broke camp and again crossed over to the calm western shore to paddle the 7+ miles back to the launch site. It was a beautiful day with many adult eagle sightings and a fleet of 16 loons paddled next to us when we stopped for lunch on Big Beaver Island. We had one last bald eagle sitting on the tree near the launch to watch us as we got out and then drove off to another soaring eagle to complete our very enjoyable camping trip!

[gyork]

Wonderful report Janice. Thank you. Nice to know others enjoy the inland seas of Maine during the most fantastic paddling season of all. Another destination on my bucket list.

gary

[Doug]

Very nice report Janice. Thanks for sharing with us. I hope you post some pictures.

Doug

[spider]

Nice report glad to see folks paddling up through there...it does have a way of funneling the wind. We have seen Richardson getting feisty while Mooselookmeguntic stayed fairly calm.

Otters & Eagles very nice !