Maine

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Attean Lake

The prettiest lake in Maine? Maybe. I’m not sure.

The competition includes Sebago, Moosehead, Kezar, Jordan, Mooselookmeguntic, and many more of Maine’s 6,000 lakes. Just to enter the contest you’re required to have crystal-clear waters, a ring of mountains, too many islands to count, sandy beaches, huge, lichen-covered boulders, hidden coves, steep, rocky cliffs, herons, loons, moose and bears. Gorgeous sunsets and sunrises are a given.

Getting there

A history filled with people such as Joseph Attean, a great Penobscot leader, and incidentally, Thoreau’s guide, or the World War II POW camp near Jackman helps.

Judges of lake beauty are required to consider views from each of the 360 degrees as they turn their gaze around. By those criteria, Attean Pond, known to locals as Attean Lake, is one of the best. It’s medium-sized with 2,800 acres and 40 islands.

To get there you head north from Portland. If you’re relying on a car or truck, you’ll want to plan your route to take into account the Roadless Rule, which has protected forests for decades. (The US Forest Service now proposes to end that rule.)

Be sure to use Mapquest. For some idiotic reason, Apple and Google maps now have glitches, labeling Lake Ontario, for example, as Lake America.

Once you reach Solon, you’ll be on the Old Canada Road. It’s a treat itself, especially after the multilane highways and crowds of the Maine coast. Near Jackman, you turn off on a dirt road to Attean Lake.

We canoed and camped at the lake 46 years ago. Back in 2013 we took the Bow Trip, which starts and ends there, using the Moose River for most of its journey.

Attean Lake Lodge

This time we sought luxury for aged bones and decided to stay at Attean Lake Lodge. Once at the Attean Landing, we waited for a small boat to take us to the resort, where no vehicles are allowed. The lodge is run by the fourth generation of the same family, with the fifth generation of pre-teens learning how to do it.

We were offered a rustic cabin, with no electricity, no wifi, an no cell service. But the lodge provided excellent dining, with breakfasts on the veranda. That called for caps and jackets since it was often below 50 ℉. Dinners were in the lodge itself or occasionally outside with buffet in a picnic area. Bag lunches were provided for expeditions by canoe or hiking.

We saw trillium, lichen and mosses of many kinds, herons and loons.

The guests ranged in age from under one to over 90.

We had several canoe trips, excellent, moderately challenging hikes, and time to enjoy the scenery. It was a perfect case of retreating to be restored going forward.

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Bow Trip

The Bow Trip, near Jackman, Maine, has to be near the top of any list of great canoe adventures. It’s usually completed in only three days, or just one without camping gear, but it packs in lakes dotted with islands, hidden bays, squiggly peninsulas, and watchful mountains, balsam fir forest with beech and birch tree stands, bogs, wildflower gardens, and giant boulders. There are loons, cormorants, moose, and bears. At this time, the white trillium is in bloom, along with many other wildflowers.Image

We just finished the circuit, starting from the outlet of the Moose River on Wood Pond, crossing Attean Pond, portaging to Holeb Pond, then down Holeb Stream to the Moose again, and back to Attean. A nice feature is that one can put in at various places and return to the starting point, in our case, a rustic cabin on Wood Pond.

The Bow Trip calls for flatwater river and lake paddling, rips and falls, lining, carries, eddy turns, and even sliding canoes down an incline or pushing under fallen trees. We had a scare when we rounded a turn under the one bridge, an old railroad trestle, to discover a downed power line. Parts of it were in the water, and it rose up to ensnare canoes.

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There are always surprises on a trip like this. We timed ours to be at the cusp of the transition from black fly to mosquito season, managing to have plenty of both. But they had to wait their turn behind the gnats and midges.Image

In our case, the big surprise was the high water. It made pull-outs and camping challenging. The portage trails looked more like streams than pathways. Our Tripper canoe has somehow gained weight over the years so that flipping it overhead while standing in muck and swatting flies seemed less fun than it once did. Because of the high water, we managed to run Camel Rips without noticing it and Attean Falls, which usually requires a carry.Image

We heard and saw birds everywhere. I unwound a little, floating down the lovely river, rediscovering muscles and bones I’d forgotten about. The clouds were a fantastic and ever-changing background to the lush Maine forest. The rips and falls were exhilarating. Image

The Bow Trip is a special treat, a highlight of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail. We were alone most of the way, seeing a friendly group from the Maine School of Science and Mathematics at a couple of points, but mostly enjoying alone a precious resource that some people know well, but most will never experience.

See additional photos from our Bow Trip.