Day 18

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Day 18:
The past five days have been an up and down ride on many different rivers. A few different times we changed direction on the water, which offered a break from going upstream. It was nice being able to take advantage of going with the current. But as soon as we were used to easy paddling, the trail turned upstream and proved difficult once more.
During these days we have had some good miles and some bad miles. There were sections of very difficult paddling and sections of outstanding whitewater. In between we had our fair share of portages as well. On one portage we took a bit of a detour to find ourselves in the middle of the woods without a trail or body of water. Luckily Andy had his GPS device to find a path back to the river but it was a little tense for a few minutes.
Three days ago we caught up to a group of four through paddlers. They left Old Forge a couple of weeks before we did but are using kayaks rather than canoes. It was a great relief to talk with other paddlers about the rain and upstream paddling on the Missisquoi. Tonight we ran into them again while in the town of West Milan, which offered some delicious pizza at the general store.
Since the pizza we have arrived at our campsite for the evening. About an hour ago we were disturbed by a commotion just yards away. Out of nowhere a deer erupted from the underbrush aimed right in our direction. As soon as the frightened creature took a look at us it darted for the water, just narrowly missing the canoe as it leapt from shore. A few seconds later we saw a wolf emerge from the same area but opted to head deep into the woods rather than the lake. It was an unexpected scene but one that was exciting to witness.
Soon we will reach the many lakes of Maine and we could not be more excited. A break from paddling upstream is needed as we cannot handle these long days of painfully slow travel. We do take comfort knowing that we are half way done with the NFCT.

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Comments

[Pat Hicks]

Wildlife
Reading your most recent experience is like watching Nature on PBS! Thankfully the wolf only had designs on the deer. I'm kinda happy I'm just traveling with you in spirit! Pat

[Cynthia Albrecht]

Wolf
I'm jealous, I've never seen a wolf in the wild. I hope you see a Moose too. Let us know!