My first trip on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway was so powerful that I can say without question that it changed the course of my life forever. I was 23 years old. Having grown up in a beach town in Southern California, I was athletic (a surfer), but certainly not skilled...
Read moreAllagash Lake is the Holy Grail for fishing in Maine. With vehicular access limited to a mile or more from the shore, and motorized equipment off limits there, a trip to Allagash Lake is among the last of Maine’s true wilderness adventures. Spring, around the time of ice out, is a...
Read moreAlthough I had worked along different stretches of the Allagash starting when I was fresh out of college in 1979, my first canoe trip down the entire river was with my daughters, my husband, and a few friends in 1999. I’d paddled many rivers in Maine, but never the Allagash. It seemed like an ideal river...
Read moreI probably need to fact check the year, but if memory serves me, then I think 1979 or 1980 (age 20) was the year I made my first trip to the Allagash. I had done a lot of backpacking, some canoeing overnights, and some whitewater paddling, but this was my...
Read moreMost of my initial dealings with the Allagash Wilderness Waterway were work related. While I had read about and dreamed of a trip on the Allagash for years that didn’t really occur until after I went to work for the Department of Conservation as its Personnel Manager in 1984. It...
Read moreSince 1978, my connection with the Allagash Wilderness Waterway has been more work related than recreational, though I can confess to some very memorable days of fishing, both winter and summer, on Allagash and Chamberlain lakes. As a fishery biologist I was fortunate to have the AWW headwater lakes in my...
Read moreMy first encounters with the Allagash were by air, with limited time on the water. In June 1955, I accompanied Governor Muskie on a flight to Chamberlain Lake, where he met with Al Nugent of Nugent Camps to discuss Mr. Nugent’s concerns about clear-cut lumbering operations and the threat of...
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