Yesterday I finished helping lead 6 Boy Scouts down 53 miles the river in canoes and we had a great time.
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We picked up a ton of trash along the way, including 16 tires. Many sections were pristine but there were some dumps that we couldn't get out without a pontoon boat and a fork lift.
<strong><em>Campsites used:</strong></em>
<ul><li>Howard Island - beautiful and big</li>
<li>Vaughan Meadow Campsite - lunch only</li>
<li>Bugbee Landing - Small site, on a stagnant side-river but has flush toilets and running water nearby! But some campers have abused this spot and given paddlers a bad name.</li>
<li>Roaring Brook - small but nice</li>
<li>Gilman Island - nice, a mile from town</li>
</ul>
All of the campsites were pretty clean, including the privys.
<strong><em>GPS Position problems:</strong></em> I took the GPS locations for all access points and campsites from this website, created a Google Map of them, then loaded them directly into my GPS, which we used as our primary navigation source. I realize that GPS units include some inaccuracies, but a number of spots were off by more than a little. We wasted an hour trying to find Bugbee Landing Campsite and we weren't the first to trudge through marsh grass to where the GPS said it should be, so I don't think it was my unit. Another discrepancy meant we went 1.2 miles downriver to ask directions, then had to paddle back up to Ompompanoosuc Launch.
I believe the following sites weren't located well:
<ul><li>Howard Island Campsite</li>
<li>Newbury-Haverhill Bridge Access</li>
<li>Vaughan Meadow Campsite</li>
<li>Bugbee Landing Campsite</li>
<li>Bugbee Landing Access Point</li>
<li>Orford Boat Landing</li>
<li>Pastures Campground</li>
<li>Birch Meadow Campsite</li>
<li>Roaring Brook Campsite</li>
<li>Hewes Brook Boat Launch</li>
<li>Ompompanoosuc Launch</li>
</ul>
I have updated our Google Map from our trip with what I believe are the correct locations for the above. I <strong>really</strong> appreciate that this site published these locations and the site descriptions, otherwise we would have spent even more time trying to find spots. Correcting these errors will save future travelers a lot of frustration.
Google map of our trip: http://goo.gl/maps/8GG6t
Everyone should be blessed with weather as good as we had! A sprinkle overnight and the rest was partly-sunny with no rain.
Comments
pbedard1
Sat, 07/08/2017 - 09:35
Permalink
Parking
Hey StewS2,
How did you guys handle parking at Ryegate put in. Planning similar trip and wanted to find out if it was ok to leave car there overnight. Thanks, Phil