Paddling to the Great Carrying Place

 

Spent the better part of this past week on the waters of western Maine enjoying a trip that had been planned in early 2020, but put on hold by COVID.  The impetus for the trip resulted from reading March to Quebec: Journals of the Members of Arnold's Expedition compiled and annotated by Kenneth Roberts.  Roberts used the journals in his writing of Arundel.   After spending a night in Skowhegan my first objective on Wednesday was paddling to and landing at what Colonel Benedict Arnold called "The Great Carrying Place" where his expeditionary force left the Kennebec River.  This plaque located across the river alongside Route 201 overlooks the Great Carrying Place (G.C.P.) and explains why they left the Kennebec here...

Many of the roadside plaques along Arnold's route include the artist Sydney Adamson's 1903 depiction of the expedition's men portaging their heavy 400 lb vessels/bateaux (more than 200 in number) at Skowhegan, and I believe it also could represent how things would have looked at the G.C.P. as well...

I launched my boat at the Moscow, ME boat launch on a now impounded section of the Kennebec River known as Wyman Lake.  The G.C.P. was 3 miles NNW...

On October 11, 1775 Arnold described the approach to the G.C.P as follows: "At 10, arrived at the Great Carrying Place which is very remarkable, a large Brook emptying itself into the River just above which comes out of the first Lake - When abreast of the Carrying Place in the river, you will observe at about 400 yards above you a large mountain in the shape of a shugar Loaf - at the foot of which the river turns off to the eastward - This mountain when you are at the carrying place seems to rise out of the middle of the river."  I rounded the bend to find things much as he described...

I made landfall at the suspected location to find no signage or marker...just a cleared area with a picnic table and fire pit...

It took walking up the portage trail 25 yards or so...

...to find the location-confirming sign in the opening photo.  An unsuspecting river traveler could land here and enjoy a break without ever knowing the location's significance.  

There's some cribbing at the G.C.P. that perhaps dates to the river's log drive days...

Returning to my waiting boat I placed my hand on the pictured boulder to steady my descent...

...and wondered how many of Arnold's men may have done the same as they ascended.

Arnold would spend 6 days along the portage trail supervising operations before heading up the Dead River on October 16th.  Another plaque shows the actual portage route he and his men followed...

While I've done a fair number of portages I can't think of any that come close to what Arnold's men accomplished at the G.C.P.  It must have been absolutely brutal.  Of the approximately 1100 men who reached the G.C.P., only 600 or so would complete the journey to Quebec. A large group of sick or injured men returned down the Kennebec. 

With the first of my objectives now checked off I paddled back to where I'd started.  I then drove the roundabout route to the west side of Flagstaff Lake and a little further north to the Cathedral Pines Campground located on the Dead River's north branch. There I'd enjoy 4 days and 3 nights of idyllic summer-like camping/paddling conditions.  In the following days I'd rejoin the Arnold expedition at different points along the Dead River's north branch...to be continued.