Fdip242: Following Thoreau and the West Branch of the Penobscot

From Saturday April 14th through the 18th, 2010 my Dad, son, nephew and I traveled up the West Branch of the Penobscot River and across the northern end of Chesuncook Lake in the Northern Maine Wilderness. Through our journey we gained a better appreciation of Henry David Thoreau’s adventure of 1853. While logging in the Northern Woods of Maine continues, the river that we paddled on remains mostly unchanged. You can imagine the sites and sounds that Thoreau experienced as he journeyed up this river. We saw many moose, every day, stopping to feed and drink at the rivers edge. We saw Eagles and Loons, ducks, geese, ospreys raven, fish, red squirrels and more that we could not identify…but it was the moose, lanky majestic in stature and serenity that captured our imaginations the most. They are, as Thoreau called them: “God's own horses, poor, timid creatures”; but they are a stark reminder that we are guests in their wilderness; and that they’d continue to roam these woods long after we’ve returned to our creature comforts. This annual trip is much more than just a canoe ride or camping experience: it is an opportunity to reconnect with nature and our family. It’s also an opportunity to tell stories by the camp fire light. Here we listen to the stories that give the lives of our friends and family meaning. These are the moments that make those stories real…my son and nephew will always remember the story of my Dad’s Aunt Penn and her husband Alex, and now so will you: because it is in quiet places; without distractions: that we have deeper conversations and tell the stories that of the people we have known and loved. The wilderness is beautiful on so many different levels: as a place to reconnect to our planet and more importantly each other. If you’ve never visited the woods, lakes and rivers of the wilderness; you owe it to yourself to do so. It’s not scary, it’s peaceful, it’s not boring, it’s insightful, it’s not dangerous although it can be extreme…but you’ll never learn to appreciate the universe we live in, and the people we care about until you can absent yourself from the modern world and follow in the footsteps of Henry David Thoreau.