West Branch Penobscot River: Canoe Trip

Summer in Maine is always a difficult time of the year. On one hand, it is arguably the most beautiful season with the most variety of activities. There is always a mountain to climb, a river to fish, and some stars to gaze at in the evening. Summer is truly Maine at its peak. On the other hand, with Maine being located so far north, our Summer is so short compared to our long and brutal winters. This brings up the point of time management and planning your weekends here in the Pine Tree State. While summer is the best time to visit or be a local Maine’er, it’s the busiest time of the year. This spring/summer, it has been particularly challenging to find free time to do all the things I set out to do. One thing I was not willing to compromise on was a multi-day canoe trip. After spending the majority of the last 5 years outside my home state, a canoe trip up North on the West Branch Penobscot River was exactly what I needed to reconnect with my Maine roots.

This trip was not sponsored by anyone, but I would like to thank Old Town Canoe for getting me a Discovery 158 I used for this trip and Jetboil for hooking me up with Flash 1.0 Fast boil system to cook a lot of my meals and make my coffee.

Canoe Coverage on AllOutdoor

The Plan

With time slipping away and summer in full swing, the best options for a multi-day canoe trip were slim due to a lack of flowing water on many of the popular rivers this summer. We opted to head up to the northern part of the state and tackle the West Branch Penobscot River route. This popular and well-traveled route would be a great starting point for my friend and I as we had very little experience on multi-day canoe trips in general, and did not want to start out with anything too crazy. Coming in at almost exactly 2o miles from where we planned to put our canoes in at Lobster Stream and ride the river all the way to Graveyard Point at the Village of Chesununcook.

With numerous campsites along the river (camp sites are denoted with the triangle/tent icon) this would allow us to paddle however far we wanted to on the first day and then finish up the trip the next day. While we would have liked to get a good 3 – 5 day trip in the books this season, busy schedules and life events kept getting in the way. We would eventually land on the idea to take two vehicles on the trip and leave one at the end of the route at Graveyard Point to be used to shuttle us back to Lobster Stream, where we could get the other vehicle. We also wanted to camp at Roll Damn for the first night, and while most people like to put in at this point for their canoe trips, we were unsure of the condition of the river and did not want to risk anything. Traveling all the way from Bangor, Maine, we estimated it would take only 3 – 4 hours to get to the campsite at Roll Damn (boy, were we wrong).

The Crew

Accompanying me on this trip would be one of my oldest and best friends, Ridge Osgood. Ridge and I have known each other for over a decade and met in college, and instantly became great friends. Ridge spent a number of years in the Air Force in Security Forces before getting out to focus on a career in fisheries ecology and conservation. I honestly couldn’t think of a better dude to be on this trip with, as Ridge is the most outdoorsy person I know. His day job these days is working as a habitat restoration project manager for Project SHARE, a  small non-profit that works to conserve and enhance Atlantic salmon and wild brook trout habitat and populations in the Downeast rivers region (primarily Washington County) of Maine. Long story short, Ridge spends every day in the woods and on the water, and I consider him to be something of an expert when it comes to being outside in the Pine Tree State.

While we wanted to bring another one of our friends on this trip, scheduling made that next to impossible, so unfortunately, it would only be the two of us. I feel as though I do not need much of an introduction for anyone who has been reading AllOutdoor for a while now, but I’ll give a little bit of a background on myself here. I’m a published photographer and journalist specializing in outdoor gear reviews, landscapes, and outdoor events. Based in the United States, I’m a a contributor to AllOutdoor.com and TheFirearmblog.com, where I evaluate products like backpacks, knives, and camping equipment through visual means. I’m also a member of the Maine Army National Guard, serving as a UH-60 Blackhawk Pilot and a Warrant Officer with the 126th Aviation Regiment, where I also document MEDEVAC training and search-and-rescue operations.

That will do it for Part One of this multi-part story. Be sure to check out Part Two, where I talk about our trials and tribulations getting into camp, and some more history of the Penobscot River to include a famous poet.

Patrik Orcutt

Patrik is a freelance photographer who has been lucky enough to see a lot of the world and document his travels with his camera. He has worked for the U.S. government as a Public Affairs Officer documenting Multi-National Special Forces Training around the World. He is currently working on becoming a Blackhawk Pilot for the Army while being an avid gear junky and outdoor enthusiast.