(Above: The facilities at Sawtelle Deadwater campsite.... a bit, shall-we-say, RUSTIC. No?)

Bezabor: (posted from Caribou Public Library 09/26/05)

Sunday, 9/25/05-

(this section written offline at a North Maine Woods campsite (“Squirrel Pocket campsite”) on Second Musquacook Lake, about 45 miles west of Ashland, Maine)

We woke this morning to 35-degree temperatures at the Sawtelle Deadwater campsite. It was a spectacularly peaceful night. The Buddy Heater did its job and we were soon dressed and on the road.

Our goal today was to see the North Maine Woods. This is an area of private land owned by seven lumber companies. Roads into the area are all gravel lumbering roads….wide, dusty, and pot-holed. We stopped at a small gatehouse where a fellow registered us for entry into the area. We had to supply all the normal identity info and also specify a destination. Our eventual destination was Allagash but we wanted to stay a night in one of the campgrounds in the North Maine Woods- controlled area. Cost was $8 per person for entry into the area plus $6 per person for camping so our little adventure cost us $28.

The drive in to our campsite was fairly easy. Again, we were in an area of few pulloffs, and no scenic overlooks. There were several lakes early on but those had cabins around them so we were a little disappointed that this ‘wild’ area wasn’t all that different than other Maine vacation areas. But as we continued on, the road got smaller and the feeling wilder. We had some trouble finding some of the campsites designated on the map. There were no signs, you just had to figure out the mileage from a known place and then check any small roads in the approximate area. The map (the Gazetteer) might show the campsite on the left of the road when it’s actually on the right. So as we approached Second Musquacook Lake, we were surprised to find a sign along the road pointing back a very small dirt road to it. The road was your basic over-grown two-track with a few mud puddles that looked big enough to swallow the van. But we persevered, dodging branches and rocks and mudholes, and came around a turn and voila!- a picture-perfect lakeshore campsite. It was terrific--- a sky-blue wilderness lake and we were the only people around.

We took a walk along the lakeshore, checking out the various types of rocks and just enjoying the day. It had warmed up to about 60 degrees and was a little windy but nice. After hanging around the campsite awhile we went for a walk back a heavily overgrown road toward Squirrel Pond. We only made it about a mile before hitting a series of entirely-across-the-road mudpuddles. We worked our way around several but then decided we’d probably just continue to hit more of these so turned back. But is was pleasant to see the area and all the moose tracks and moose sign. By the way, moose-pies look a lot like cow-pies!

Back in camp we were reading the North Maine Woods pamphlet and learned that the area we are staying is a key area for the Canadian Lynx. We didn’t see any sign of one, though.
The North Maine Woods folks place firewood at each of the campsites so we had a sizable pile of wood to select from. It all needs to be split, however, and fortunately I have my backpacker’s hatchet and 2-pound hammer to do the splitting. So I split enough wood for the evening and around 1730 started a fire. We heard on the weather-band radio that rain was expected at Charlevoix (Quebec) for the evening and that didn’t look far away. Sure enough we had just gotten the hot dogs cooking when it started raining. We moved into the van to eat but the rain slowed down enough for us to get out and cook another hot dog and after a half-hour or so, quit entirely and we were able to spend the rest of the evening around the campfire.