High Adventure 2008 – Trip Report

By: Chris L, Ryan P, and Ben H

Day 1- Thursday, August 7, 2008

 Weather-Chilly, on and off showers 50°-70°. Dreary weather overall.

 Troop 180 met at the church at 7:30. There were 7 scouts and 6 adult leaders that are going on the trip. We are taking 4 cars each carrying 1 canoe. From there we caravanned up to Jackman, ME and our put-in. We arrived at the put-in around 3:00 P.M. We started to unload the cars and getnb the canoes ready for our departure.  We paddled across the lake for a little ways to the campsites. Because the water was so high, one of them was completely submerged and not useful. The other was only a little swollen. We still had enough room to pitch approximately ten tents.

We set up a tarp, tents and beached the boats. We had a diner of couscous and chicken with some hot chocolate. We had some time to ourselves so some of the boys went out fishing in canoes. Zach G. caught a white-perch off shore. Some boys got caught out in the rain.

 Day 2- Friday, August 8, 2008

 Weather- Morning- started to rain and picked up later on. Cold and dreary. Afternoon-sunny and warm.

 We started to get breakfast going and breaking down camp at 7:00. Before we started paddling, some of the adults paddled back to the original put in spot to dump extra food and weight. We started paddling at around 8:00 A.M. and were were at Holeb Stream within a half hour. We continued to paddle  on Holeb Stream and were at Moose River in another 45 minutes. Shortly afterwards it started to rain. In an hour and a half we reached Camel Rips, however the river was so swollen, the rapids were not even there and we just went right over it without even thinking of it.

 An hour after that, we reached the Holeb Falls portage. It had recently stopped raining but it still remained cold. Before the portage we stopped for lunch before. Because of the high water the portage trail was flooded but the the river was swollen enough that we could paddle past some of blockades and pull our canoes out just before the campsite at a small beach. We carried our gear down the rest of the way (only about a quarter of a mile). We stayed at the two cabins at the bottom of the falls and were completely unloaded at about 1:30 and had the rest of the day to explore the falls and fish. Chris L caught a good size carpe off shore. 

 Day 3- Saturday, August 9, 2008

 Weather- Beautiful, clear skies and temps in the low to mid 70's.

 We woke up and started to clean out the cabins around 7:00, we were on the water by 8:00. We paddled for about an hour and fifteen minutes when we got to some private cabins where we stopped for a break and power bars. We then continued for about two hours taking occasional "5 minute floats" where we'd be silent and take in the scenery for five minutes. Around 12:30 we reached Attean Falls. The name Attean falls, however, is a misnomer. The falls is actually 2 sets of rapids that were in runnable condition when we were there. We ran both rapids in empty canoes and continued to the mouth of the river where we paddled for about five minutes to get to a new campsite at about 1:00.

We then set up camp and fished and hung around for the remainder of the afternoon. When we came back to camp, we saw Parker and Greg paddling in with a one-ton log in tow. This was the first night we had a real fire. Chris gave a five minute speech for communications on anaphylactic shock.

 Day 4- Sunday, August 10, 2008

 Weather- Fog as thick as pea soup cleared up by late morning.

 We woke up early on the last day to a huge fog bank across the lake. We ate a cold breakfast without lighting any stoves. We set off on the last leg of our journey. We paddled about an hour through the heavy fog. We navigated using the shore line. We finally got to the put out. After group photos and moving gear we hung around the parking lot waiting for cars to get shuffled around. And Seven Hours later, we were home!

 We took a few sips from "The cup of Adversity" that weekend.

 

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