Paddlers are flocking to Old Forge with the good weather. Clearly, the word is out. “Through-paddlers” on the Northern Forest Canoe Trail are launching from the Trail’s Western Terminus at Old Forge Dam on a regular basis, joining whitewater rafters and kayak fishermen for the spring season.
“Through-paddlers” are people who paddle the entire 740-mile route from Old Forge to Fort Kent, Maine.
In 2013, Emma Carlson of Maine and Emily Rooney of Vermont fulfilled their ambition to be the first through paddlers of the season.
They launched on April 23rd with cold weather gear and ice axes, because some lakes were still iced over.
They held to their schedule, dragging their canoe across frozen water where necessary.
The Northern Forest Canoe Trail, organized in the 1990s, connects the major watersheds across the Adirondacks and Northern New England. Continue reading