Day 36: Thoreau to Round Pond Inlet campsite

Today’s paddling began in a sea of fog – but at least it was completely windless. We said goodbye to our campsite neighbors at 5am and thanked Steve for everything he had done for us. 

The fog was disorienting but absolutely beautiful – at times, the sun half-emerged from behind the mist and lit up the ripples around us, shimmering like an endless velvet carpet stretching into the distance. As we paddled on to Churchill Lake, the fog lifted, giving way to warm sunshine (finally!). We basked in the windlessness as we made our way past Scofield Point, one of John’s favorite spots on the upper Allagash, and ultimately to Churchill Dam where Steve happened to land at around the same time. 

Paddling down Eagle Lake in a pea soup fog

The mist begins to lift

After loading our bags into the ranger’s truck to be delivered to Bissonette Bridge, marking the end of Chase Rapids, we made the decision not to run them given the high water volume that day. The truck with our bags had already left, and I made a fuss over taking the shuttle to bypass them, so we wheeled the 4.5 miles to the former bridge site where we collected our gear and ate lunch. 

We continued on downstream, our first time not fighting wind and/or the current in what felt like ages. At Long Lake dam, after finding each campsite up to that point occupied by at least one if not multiple groups, we decided to keep pushing onward all the way to Round Pond, crossing our fingers we’d have luck finding a site there. 

Elm trees greet us near the inlet to Round Pond

Despite beginning to descend into madness at the whim of our exhaustion and food-deprived bodies, the entry to the pond was spectacular: elm tree-lined braided channels pointed us toward the pond, shimmering in the golden light of the evening. We collapsed at the Inlet campsite, shocked that it was not yet occupied as of 7:30pm. We wolfed down a double dinner of instant pad Thai and rice and beans, trying to make up for the energy we expended on today’s 44.14-mile odyssey. A new record distance day, by almost double.   

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