The Penobscot River

... or more precisely, the West Branch of the Penobscot River, is a beautiful, powerful, wild section of Class V water. It starts at the Power Station outflow, then enters the Gorge. Here, the river runs in a narrow cleft between cliff walls that rise 40 or 50 feet sheer above the river. Below (and out of sight unless you are crazy enough to hang over the edge) are some really strong holes and waves.
(Remember, if you want to see a larger image, click on the picture...)






After the Gorge, the river drops through an easy Class II and around the bend into the Little Eddy. Below Little Eddy, the river begins to pick up strength, passing around several bends and under a bridge before entering the Crib.









The Crib is deceiving to the eye. From the shore, it looks big and powerful











but unless there is a boat in it, you don't really get a sense of how big and how powerful it is.








This raft took the river left course. I happened to snap the shot just as they decided to stop paddling and go into a huddle in the middle of the raft...


Watching a kayak go through, a real sense of the size and strength of the Crib can be seen.



















Below the Crib, the heavy white water run finishes at Big Eddy.
I did a video of this part of the river. I have learned that videos on my blog really slow it down and the video quality is poor, so I am not posting them here any more. If you would like to see my video, you may download it from
http://www.sendspace.com/file/f8emei

Below Big Eddy is several miles of Class II and III water. A waterfall about 8 feet high is below that. In the picture, notice the woman fishing on the rock to the left? I watched her catch a nice trout.


I came back two days later and fished from the same place while watching baby salmon trying to work their way upstream. This part of the State is filled with streams, ponds, lakes and rivers, all of which seem to be clean and good fish habitat. It seems like every day I find several more places to not catch any fish...

West of the Gorge and the Crib, some very bumpy stone roads continue into the North Maine Woods interior.


While the scenery is nice, the roads are more than what I want to travel with Enterprise.

Finishing this post, Mount Katahdin, the northerly terminus of the Appalachian Trail...