06/09/2015 – Rain today but not much wind.  So I loaded the canoe and headed upriver towards The Forks.  I launched my canoe on the 201 side of the river and poled up and across the Kennebec planing to explore another tributary.  The flow was moderate and without the 10-15 mph winds we’ve been having I made good progress.

I pulled the canoe up (way up) onto the bank, flipped it over to keep my gear dry and started hiking. It wasn’t a bad hike, in fact, hiking was easy as I found myself on part of the Appalachian Trail.  I had blazes and signposts showing me the way.

The stream was smaller than I had expected and the gradient was steep which made for lots of plunge pools and pockets.  Not many fish, however. I’m afraid that part of it never changed.  I caught fish – mostly small Brook Trout but there were quite a few small Landlocked Salmon hanging out as well.

And then I found the waterfall with a pretty good size pool that just yelled “Here’s where the big one hangs out!”  But it wasn’t to be.   No big fish there – at least not this trip.  I don’t doubt that pool occasionally holds a nice fish or two but it didn’t yield any big ones to my offerings.

One thing that makes me think that pool holds some nice fish is someone hung a rope from a stout tree providing an assist to anyone climbing down to or up from the pool.  Perhaps swimmers and hikers made the effort to do that but I like to think it was a fisherman.

After hiking another mile or so up the stream with mostly the same results and a pounding rain I decided to head back. One nice thing about a canoe is the ability to carry gear – lots of gear – and I was some happy to have a DRY change of clothes and a terrycloth towel.

Especially a towel that says Jameson on it –  it just seems that towel works better than most. It dries me and gets me thinking about how a hot toddy is a perfect end to a wet but fun afternoon and evening.