Photographs & text by Dave Conley
Allagash Wilderness Waterway: It’s the name Allagash that played in my mind as a young man as being some wild, faraway place in northern Maine that was impossible to get to. After much research I planned a week-long canoe trip there with friends, then headed into the headwaters of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway over what seemed like endless miles of not-so-good dirt roads, with puddles deep enough to swallow my 1978 half-ton Chevy pickup truck. I really wondered if the folks I hired to move my truck to the takeout location a week later would actually be able to get it there. This first trip, in early June, was at the height of blackfly season and the bugs were so bad, we had to eat meals in the tent to keep from being devoured alive. On this trip we caught brook trout, and saw loons, eagles, deer, and moose. Now, 35 years later, as a Registered Maine Guide and founder of the company called Canoe the Wild, I spend a good part of the season helping others to get away from it all while provisioning and guiding them down the waterway and other northern Maine rivers. The Allagash hasn’t really changed much since that first visit, and I enjoy seeing others experience it in much the same way I did back then. We do try, though, to steer folks away from going during the height of bug season!
For more images by Dave Conley, visit canoethewild.com.
✮
