New Hampshire - Mount Washington - 6,288 Feet - June 28, 2007

Friday, June 29, 2007 (Angie's Birthday) - We took the easy route to the top this time, the auto road. It cost $20. We had to stop a couple of times on the way down to let the brakes cool.

Angie at Summit	Wayne at Summit
Mt. Washington Train	Cog Locomotive

From here we drove to West Forks, ME and Webb's Campground. West Forks is where the Dead and Kennebec Rivers join. We had a nice campsite along the Dead River. All the people at the campground were very friendly. There was no cell service, but they left Angie use the campground phone (free). Phil and Linda Kawalski were in the area to visit their daughter and joined us at the campground. Linda's brother Tom White and his wife Susan also joined us. Tom and Susan were from Wheeling but moved to Bangor to be near their daughter. We all brought firewood but there was free firewood.

Saturday, June 30, 2007 - We paid the campground $15 each to run our shuttle for the Dead River. The road was long and rough. The river was running 1800 cfs. There were a few raft trips and some kayaks. The river was easy II+/III. The run is about 13 miles, but it went fast. There weren't any pools and there was a tailwind. There were some long rapids at the end that would be a handful at higher water. We saw a bald eagle. We watched fireworks from the campground parking lot at night.

	Sunday, July 1, 2007 - Linda, Tom, and Susan ran our shuttle for the Kennebec. This was an exciting three and a half mile run. The river was running 4500 cfs. There were big waves with waves rebounding off the cliff walls. A kayaker let us follow him and pointed out the lines. Most of it was straight down the middle except for Magic where we ran a diagonal line between a very large upper hole on the right and a smaller lower hole on the left. After running this we hiked to Moxie Falls. Phil, Linda, Tom, and Susan left after this. We found wild roses along the river at the campground.
Phil and Angie at Kennebec Put-In		Moxie Falls

Monday, July 2, 2007 - We drove to Acadia and Blackwoods Campground. I had a lobster roll at the Log Cabin Restaurant. In the evening we hiked the Beehive Trail. It was steep with some hand rails and ladder rungs. The Precipice Trail was closed for nesting falcons.

Cruise Ship	Ocean
View from Beehive	Angie's First Campfire

Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - We climbed at Otter Cliffs. We got there early, before the guided groups. We would lower each other down and climb back up. We did two routes; In the Groove - 5.4 and Easy Corner - 5.6. It was a great place to climb with an outstanding view. Phil and Linda came as we were leaving.

Easy Corner	In the Groove

We drove to Millinocket, ME and Chewonski's Big Eddy Campground. Our campsite, no. 108, was on river left, just below Cribworks Rapid on the West Branch of the Penobscot River. This was my ideal campsite. Campsites were very far apart. Showers were on the other side of the river and were available in the mornings and evenings when the generator ran. Our plan was to run the section below Cribworks. There were only two major rapids; Big Ambejackwockamus Falls and Neswadnehunk Falls, but since we couldn't pronounce them, we decided not to run them. No, they were rated IV+ and it didn't seem wise to run them with just two of us. There weren't many boaters around. The two rafts in the picture are the only rafts we saw in two days.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007 - We scouted all the major rapids on the West Branch. The power plant was releasing about 2500 cfs. There is a digital readout at the power house. This was our only laid back day of the whole vacation. It was nice.

Power House	Exterminator
Cribworks	View from Campsite