Penobscot, E. Branch

Posted by Eric on the Mt Washington Valley Paddlers Website on 5/28/03

Eric, as requested, below is my report of our recent
run down the East Branch Penobscot River below Grand
Lake Mattagamon. Feel free to post on your club site.

The trip started w/ an unexpected class 5 stop at a
roadside bar in Shin Pond, Maine where the mud parking
lot was full, so was the bar, and a fun WBLM-type band
was taking some liberties but jamming it up in the
corner to the locals delight! All of this along a
remote section of road on a Friday night in the middle
of the northern Maine woods! The liquor was flowing,
the girls (of a wide variety of ages)were chatting it
up w/ Rick, and Jonny found a snowmobile buddy that
fully understood his recent purchase of a
top-of-the-line sled. We overcame our first obstacle
to the kayak trip by getting out of there just before
closing time and no worse for the wear.

The next AM, or should I said about noontime, Jonny,
Rick, Duke, Brenda and Patrick (I wanna talk about
myself in the 3rd person, just like that guy on
Seinfield cuz its cool) put in a mile below the Grand
Lake Road bridge, not really knowing where the rapids
began and having a vague river report. We used the
next 3-4 miles to warm up in a combo of swift and flat
water,and one easy class 2 series of ledge drops. Oh
well, so now we know. It was a slightly overcast day
with the sun starting to peak out and illuminate the
budding lime green growth lining the river and
massive Traveller Mountain immediately to our right.
After an hour or so we were hungry for some
whitewater.

As we approached the end of Haskell Deadwater, we
could hear the roaring of class 3+ Haskell Pitch. It
had a horizon line so we climbed out to stretch and
take a look. The rocks were visibly sharp, and Jonny
sustained the first injury of

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