Chapter 30

Finishing New Hampshire

Finally! I’ve been saying since 2021 that I was going to finish NH, and each year something came up that prevented me from doing so. But I’m happy to say it’s done, I wrapped up New Hampshire! Just Maine left and only 143.5 miles at that.

I’m going to keep this short and sweet as there isn’t much to be said. You’ll remember from Chapter 28 that I bailed from the river to give myself time to walk or hitchhike before it got dark. So I had to come back and finish the last bit of the Androscoggin. I had off for the Juneteenth holiday, and decided to take advantage of the day.

Auntie Stella accompanied me Thursday morning  on the drive to Errol to drive my car to my end point so I didn’t have to hitchhike (thanks auntie!). We left at 9 as I was in no great hurry and expected this to be two or three hours of paddling. We pulled into Moose campsite in the Mollidgewock park which was a little ways below where I took out in September. I wasn’t paying much attention to the clock but I think I was in the water a little before noon.

The first mile or so was just right as far as the water level is concerned: not so low that I had to walk but not so high that I couldn’t paddle upstream. I was expecting to trudge from the get go but I didn’t need to. I probably had to get out of the boat three or four times and walk up some ledges. It was hot and muggy but overcast and being hip deep in water cooled me off. Unfortunately the highway is next to the river and I could see the headlights of oncoming vehicles far off which made me painfully aware of my slow pace and the distances to far off bends in the river.

I didn’t have my GPS again so I wasn’t positive of my speed or location, but a few times Aunt Stella had pulled over to take pictures and cheer me on.  Once past the last of the campsites in Mollidgewock Park the river was mostly flat and easy paddling, but my shoulders were pretty tired from the upstream.

The sun had started to come out and I was warmer than I wanted to be as I came to a big bend in the river. It was around 3 now and I was starting to fret that I had miscalculated how much time this would take me. But I soon saw the bridge coming into Errol and the rapids. There was a large concrete boat launch which is the portage through Northwoods Outfitters where I camped back in Chapter 12. And my day was done!

Told you it would be short and sweet! New Hampshire done and now I’ve paddled the unbroken chain from Old Forge to Spencer Stream! And only one more section of upstream paddling left!

Keep an eye out in July for the next venture.