World through Nikon D80

Adventures on the Penebscot river

As promised earlier, here is a quick note on our rafting trip.

It took me a lot of time to recover from my raftass and bodypains, so couldnt post earlier.

Friday evening 7.00 p.m, June 27th , after work all of us boarded the van and we headed off towards Millinocket, Maine. The drive itself was fun. We had music , played some silly games on the way. We stopped for pizza at dinnertime. Midway we saw a guy who was driving crazy, changing lanes and swerving all over the road. We were wondering whats wrong with him and finally figured that he was High. We thought he would crash onto someone, luckily after a few miles, we saw that a cop had stopped him. Next stop what Tim Hortons. It was midnight by then. We were almost close to Millinocket. Toto was driving and I was the navigator. We were driving through fog on a very lonely road, listening to the conversations behind. Everyone were discussing abt rafting experiences and all of a sudden Toto slammed the brakes! There is a Moose right in front of us charging towards the vehicle. Its eyes were gleaming in the lights. Toto somehow managed to avert a head-on collision. There was a thudding sound when the moose grazed the side of our van but luckily nothing happened. We reached the hotel and all of us slept soon as we had to wake up next morning and be at the rafting area by 7.30 a.m.

Morning we all had breakfast at Dunkin Donuts and headed to the Hidden Campgrounds. We all changed into wet suits. After a lecture by our guide Kim on safety tips, they took us to the McKay Station where we would start our rafting. We hit the white water with some good directions from Kim. A raft ahead of us already turned topsy turvy and the two people in there were in the water. We hit the first rapids..All ahead !! and we crossed it. We were lucky i guess.I am not sure if i can remember the name of the rapids we hit but somehow I found them from their website.Here u go on the list.

Level of Difficulty: Class V / Advanced
"Here the river is its most turbulent, dropping over 70 feet per mile through a narrow, granite walled canyon into the Exterminator and Staircase rapids, both advanced Class V. The excitement continues as you travel another 14 miles through a series of steep drops and calmer stretches under the shadow of Mount Katahdin, Maine’s highest peak (5,267′). Next you'll raft the Cribworks, a Class V boulder-choked, serpentine rapid. Downriver, you'll continue through chutes and dramatic drops which are intermingled with peaceful stretches of calm water. You'll also cascade wildly over a riverwide waterfall.''

This is what I could gather abt the rapids on the Penebscot river. We had a hearty lunch, grilled food, sandwiches at noon and again did some more rafting. There were some waterfalls where we could slide down.( at our own risk). Later we covered some more rapids. The wind was bad and there was a slight drizzle and we just had to paddle hard. We reached the end point by 5 p.m. By the time we reached the base camp, took some showers and changed it was 7 p.m.

On our way back home, we were stopped at a Immigration roadblock (since Maine is close to Canadian border they do these checks I guess). The officer asked about the status of the driver who was a GC holder and warned us that everyone needed to carry their GC's / passports(for non-GC's) or pay a fine of $150 !! Luckily we were let go with just a warning.

A hot soup was what we needed after a day long rafting trip. So the next stop was Panera bread. Had some soup and bread. I was asleep in the return trip so I didn't have much idea what was going on, apart frm reaching home midnight. zzzzzzzz........

For pictures,you could chek us on the link ( No clear images) but would really give any adventure thirsty people a real feel.
http://proriverrunners.smugmug.com/gallery/5295922_Dd8bU#322973048_4Aj29