So we pulled a "trip repeat", which may sound boring but logistically it's sort of a break from the normal one-and-done. We went to Lake Umbagog, on the border between New Hampshire and Maine, about 4 hours north of us. One the way up, we had a Whoopie Pie at a gas station: a huge double layered cake (that looks like a cow-pie) with globs of frosting in the middle. It was pretty much the last bit of decadence in the food category we enjoyed the rest of the trip.
When we got there to load up, there were three older gentlemen working for the forest service just sitting on a porch watching us. We were certainly a site to see: one canoe on the top of the van, two inflatable kayaks that we put together on-site, and one huge metal rental. We loaded everything up, the porch peanut gallery expressed their doubt that we would make it to our campsite, and we got in our canoes to shove off. It instantly started pouring! There was no rain in the forecast, but for us, it poured. We quickly booked it back to the dock and huddled under a little roof over the boat gas-pump with another group of less-experienced adventurers (who hadn't covered their gear in their canoe). After about 15 minutes of that, we decided that we couldn't go back now, so we shoved off. We put Ollie and Gogs in the inflatables and just towed them behind the canoes, which was a good move.
We headed up to our campsite, R10. It wasn't super-long, but long enough. We tried to stay along the shoreline just in case a storm broke out again.
So the map above is all that the there is with the locations of the campsites. It can be a little tricky to find the sites, but usually the trees are so thick around the lake that breaks in the trees are usually the sites. We went past the little cove on big island, and didn't see the campsite. We went all the way to this second bay, and I knew from the map that we had gone too far. So we turned around and backtracked. We ended up finding a campsite with a couple of tent platforms, a firepit, and an outhouse (or a big blue barrel with a hole in the top. The place was just overgrown everywhere, and there were fallen trees in front of all of the good places to park a boat. We spent the first couple of hours cleaning up the campsite: moving logs, sweeping up and clearing trails, etc. The entire time, we were thinking that we got the redheaded-step-child of camping spots and cursed the park service for letting this site get so overgrown. But we eventually got everything setup and had a nice little inner and a fun campfire.
The next day, we slept in until 9 (which is pretty much an unheard-of-event with a family of 6 in tents. We had a meager breakfast (which due to our underestimation of the power of teenage stomachs, was pretty much a reoccurring theme of the entire trip) and set out exploring in the canoes. We passed a few of the other tentsites, and were instantly jealous for their swanky 3-walled outhouses, picnic benches, and well-maintained grounds. We even had an illegal snack at one of them, and conjectured about how great our lives would be if we had reserved site 11 instead of site 10.
By then, it was warm enough to go swimming (though not really, but for that latitude in early June, it was about as good as it gets) so we took a dip. It was very dramatic, full of screams, yells, whimpers, and a lot of shivering. I think there was a bit of fun in there too, but it was hard to tell.
That evening, a huge party-boat came and camped in our cove, and then 3 or 4 other boats joined them. They all tied up to the party boat and joined the fun. It looked like a cool mountain-soiree, except that we had to listen to it all from our "remote tentsite" behind the trees. They eventually moved on. That night, at the evening fire, we made up multiple scenarios for how the rest of each of the kids' lives were going to play out. The kids really loved it, and I was thinking about how it was a way to communicate to children your values.
Anyway, the next morning we packed up and headed back. We went back via the other side of the island, and one of the first things we ran into was the actual campsite #10
It was glorious! Picnic table, proper firepit with a grill, and even an outhouse with three walls!
So we had stayed 3 days in an un-listed campsite making unwanted camp improvements. But honestly,
it was their fault. Here on the left is a zoomed-in pic of the only map you get, and on the right is the map where I have dropped in the actual locations of the campsites. Can you blame us?
