Flat water padding recommendation, White Mountains

[una_dogger]

Can anyone recommend a nice, solitary place to do some flat water paddling in the Whites north of Twin mountain? Served by a canoe rental outfitter?

Thanks

 

[Stan]

I don't know how far north of twin Mountain you're interested in but the one place that comes to my mind is Errol, NH where there is an outfitter that can spot you wherever you'd like for Umbagog, the Magolloway River or the Androscoggoin. There are remote campsites on Umbagog, a campground on rt. 16 north of Errol at which you can take out from the Magalloway, a landing across rt. 16 from a nice little cabin colony ... all sorts of overnight as well as day trip options.

 

[peakbagger]

If you can car spot the Androscoggin River has a lot of nice spots. There are rentals at White Birches Campground in Shelburne. Bethel Outdoors in Bethel also rents and shuttles. A nice place is Reflection pond in Shelburne, if you put in at Rt 2 you will need to portage over the RR tracks. Shelburne to Gilead is a nice stretch, you do need to check out the take out point in advance as its easy to miss. The stretch from Shelburne Dam is quite nice with lots of islands but the water is slightly rougher than putting in at the Dam.

If you want more challenging water, there is a carry in boat launch at the intersection of the Peabody River and the Androscoggin behind the town garage. You can drive back to the PSNH power house and carry the boats down the long gravel path between the rivers. The stretch to Shelburne is a lot wilder than you think, lots of wildlife and islands but it can get shallow.

The rafting outfit in Gorham may offer rentals. A general note is if a place has a rental spot for boats its probably not going to be quiet.

Jericho Lake and South Pond along Rt 110 are both nice spots with little no traffic. South Pond may get some power boat traffic from the developed end, while I beleive Jericho is no power boats (the trade off is lots of ATV traffic in the area) You will need to rent down in Shelburne although I think the Milan general Store may also rent. The paddle from the Milan bridge to Berlin is nice. I cant recomend Cedar Pond or Nay Pond as they get a lot of boat traffic. The Pontook dam area is flat water, lot of moose, osprey and eagles, no need to car spot and planty of paddling but there are some powered fishing boats.

If you want to go with a group, I can recommend these events for the next two weekends http://arwc.camp7.org/. Unfortunately you missed the local events last weekend.

 

[una_dogger]

Thanks, Stan and Dennis!

Pontook Dam sounds perfect. MichaelJ is still in a small brace so we don't want to risk anything so I think rivers are out.

 

[MichaelJ]

Two minor details: portaging is definitely out, I won't have the leg stability for something like that, and we don't have a rack so it needs to be an outfitter either directly on the body of water or who delivers & picks up.

 

[peakbagger]

Well that restricts things, only hope is possibly the rafting outfit in Gorham or the one in Milan as they both start their WW trips just south of Pontook dam and therefore may be able to drop off a boat at Pontook.

 

[MichaelJ]

Stan, is that outfitter Northern Waters ? They appear to be right on the Andro below Umbagog. You say they'll spot us to a put-in somewhere up on the lake and we could paddle back to their facility?

 

[peakbagger]

I think you meant me

These are the two firms that work Pontook, Northern Waters works the Errol rapids farther North

http://www.northwoodsrafting.com/class-iiiii-pontook-dam/

http://www.raftnh.com/gallery/100-uncategorised/21-pontook-dam-whitewater-rafting-trip

http://www.raftnh.com/our-trips/summer/canoe-a-kayak-a-standup-paddle-board-rentals

In theory they would drop off the boat at the dam, you would paddle around the dam impoundment or up the river in the deadwater above the dam (which doesn't have much current) and you would paddle back to where you started where you started. The only caveat is that you would most likely have to arrange to meet them before they are done for the day unless you can lock the boat up on a tree somewhere as neither outfit has a shop at the site.

 

[una_dogger]

Stan, is that outfitter Northern Waters ? They appear to be right on the Andro below Umbagog. You say they'll spot us to a put-in somewhere up on the lake and we could paddle back to their facility?

Browsing thier website it looks like we can go directly from
The Umbagog Wildlife Refuge Headquarters?

 

[MichaelJ]

Actually, Dennis, I did mean Stan. Since you said it sounded like your river options weren't that feasible, I wanted to check into the Umbagog option.

 

[daxs]

I put in by the wildlife HQ when I paddled Umbagog. The Magalloway river did not have much of a current if I remember. Too bad you cannot make it an overnight. There are some really nice campsites on the lake. Saw a bald eagle while there. The loons seemed almost tamed. really came close to your boat

 

[Vermonster]

Another Umbagog option is the MT Dustan Store, a few miles north of the refuge HQ: http://mtdustancountrystore.com/cabinsandrentals.htm

They rent canoes and kayaks and are directly across the street from a refuge boat launch. I bet they would even carry the boats to the launch for you.

VT

 

[una_dogger]

Oooh, nice sunset photo, Carol! Our "camp" is only one hour and a half away -- although I do think it would be nice to stay up there sometime, maybe in the fall? I hear the bugs are fierce this week.

Thank You, Vermonster -- that's another great option.

 

[Stan]

Stan, is that outfitter Northern Waters ? They appear to be right on the Andro below Umbagog. You say they'll spot us to a put-in somewhere up on the lake and we could paddle back to their facility?

Yes, that's the outfitter. I don't think you could paddle directly back to their facility because it is below a dam and rapids but from my limited experience with them I expect they'd probably help you with the put-in and take out. I don't think there is actually a landing at the facility; they're accustomed to hauling people around and were very pleasant at it.

There is a put-in at the Refuge HQ but there are a few other good ones on the Magalloway along rt. 16. It is worth checking them out before starting your trip

1. The bridge at Wilson Mills. The landing at the campground/covered bridge would not not be good with that leg. There was a nice sandbar just upstream from the Magalloway at Dead Diamond River that made a good lunch stop.
2. A convenient landing across rt. 16 from the charming Magalloway River Inn Cottages, Wentworth Location, might work for you. We just pulled our boats up on the grass and left them there for the night while we stayed in one of the cabins but it is off the main channel of the river and could be a bit of a challenge to find from the water.
3. Probably the most popular put in to Umbagog is on the Androscoggin about 4 miles below Umbagog at a bend in the river where it meets up with rt. 16, less than 2 miles from rts 16 and 26 intersection (where the outfitter is located).

The area is covered by maps 7 and 8 of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail but the area around Magalloway/Umbagog/Androscoggin can be confusing and the detail of North and South Umbagog quads were helpful to me. There was an eagles nest and roost on an island but I believe the big old dead tree the nest was in may have fallen down so I don't know where the eagles are nesting these days. The campsites in that area are beautiful, if you can put up with the cacophony of early morning loons and eagles, but probably not very accessible with that leg.

 

[peakbagger]

Okay sorry for the confusion. You cannot paddle to the Northern Waters facility from Lake Umbagog (unless they have a new one). There is a takeout up upstream of the Errol dam on the east side of the river but their facility is down river adjacent to the errol rapids on the west side. You would need to make arrangements for them to pick up the boat from the takeout.