Bremen Adventurer Becomes First Woman to Solo Northern Forest Canoe Trail

Laurie Chandler, of Bremen, became the first woman to solo the length of the 749.7 mile Northern Forest Canoe Trail in mid-August. Chandler started her adventure on the Fulton Chain of Lakes in Olde Forge, New York June 20.

She was guided by 13 maps in her pack and her faith. She paddled through the four states New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine and the province of Quebec, before dipping her last paddle stroke on St. John River in Fort Kent, Maine Aug. 11.

The 53-year-old Chandler finished in 53 days.

Chandler paddled, carried, and dragged her 13 foot, 32 pound, Wenonah Fusion Kevlar canoe, without any outside help, on 22 rivers and streams, 62 ponds and lakes, through the mud and over 62 portages that totaled 55 miles. She rode through locks on the Saranec River in New York and paddled under a hotel on the Clyde River in Island Pond, Vt.

The idea for a contiguous route through the northern forest came about in 1990 when Ron Canter, Mike Krepnar and Randy Mardres from Native Trails, Inc. researched many traditional east-west water routes used by Native Americans and early settlers. Small boats have been used in the northern forest for 12,000 years by ancestors of the Wabanaki and Iroquois.

Although Chandler traveled solo, using no outside assistance, she did have company along the way. Her father paddled the first 90 miles and the last 30 miles with her. Her aunt, Sue Sefcik, of Edgecomb, paddled the 17 to 18 miles of Moosehead Lake with her.

Two Vermont men who had through paddled the Northern Forest Canoe Trail joined her at Lake Champlain, including 2013 through paddler Peter MacFarlene and 2014 though paddler Dan Brown.

“Peter was my mentor for the trip as far as paddling techniques, especially on heavy waves on the lakes and upstream paddling,” Chandler said. “He was really helpful. He did the first part of the upstream journey with me on the Missisquoi, a 74 miles upstream paddle in Quebec and Vermont.”

Chandler prepared physically for the trip by swimming, using a treadmill, walking, snow shoeing, weight training, and paddling her kayak as soon as the ice was out on the Pemaquid River last spring.

Chandler was no stranger to long distance paddling before undertaking this latest challenge. She paddled the Maine portion of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail in 2011 to raise funds ($10,600) for Paddle For Hope, a fundraiser Maine Children’s Cancer Program. Chandler was inspired by a student with cancer at the Great Salt Bay school where Chandler works as an ed tech in the special education department.

She has also paddled the Allagash waterway twice, and navigated the West Branch of the Penobscot and the Moose River.

In 2011, Chandler paddled seven miles of the Maine stretch of the Northern Forest trail in the reverse direction (with the current) and it has haunted her for the past four years. “My only regret was not paddling the six and a half miles against the current in the section after Grand Lake Falls near Jackman,” she said.

This portion of the trip in Spencer and Little Spencer Stream is considered the most difficult portion to navigate in Maine.

Being a purist, Chandler felt she had something to finish. After months of research and preparation she began her 749 mile journey. In 2011 she used a 48 pound kayak, but for this trip she switched to the lighter canoe to lighten her load by 16 pounds.

The switch made a world of difference, especially on carries, as she only had to make two trips to get all her gear across a portage, while in 2011 she had to make three trips.

“When you had fitted up for portage with the yoke it was 38 pounds,” Chandler said of her new canoe.

The rest of her gear weighed about the same as the outfitted canoe, depending on her food supply. She filtered her water along the route, except for a portion through Vermont where there was a lot of agricultural runoff. “You cannot drink that water even when filtered,” Chandler said.

“It was a personal challenge,” Chandler said of paddling the entire route. She has almost finished her book on her 2011 Paddle for Hope trip, and plans to write a book on her 2015 trip. She blogged and kept a diary of her entire trip.

Her blog can be seen at https://lauriesadventures.wordpress.com.

There are many small towns along the route, so Chandler could resupply most of the way until she reached Moosehead Lake. “I prepared half my food. The rest I picked up at convenience stores and restaurants,” she said. “Everything (I needed) past Moosehead I had packed before I left.”

Chandler’s parents George and Joan Apgar, of Bremen, were her support team. “A fabulous support team,” Chandler said.

Amazingly, Chandler did not lose any weight on the trip. “I definitely firmed up,” she said.

“I tried to get foods from the grocery store that were light weight, like instant mashed potatoes, stuffing mix, and dehydrated refried beans. I ate a lot of tuna. Tortilla (shells) were my only bread this time and that worked really well. Lunches were wraps of peanut butter and jelly or salami. Breakfast was oatmeal, homemade granola, or trail granola bars.

“The upstream portions were the hardest. It was a day on the Clyde and a day on the Androscoggin that were the worst,” Chandler said.

After leaving the Adirondacks, the largest publicly protected area in the continental United States (six million acres), Chandler was surprised the NFCT was “not remote until you get to Maine. There was only one store on the Northeast carry, and you’re not sure when it is going to be open,” she said of a remote section in Maine.

Chandler said her trip was “pretty smooth. She did not capsize, or lose any gear, as she did on her 2011 trip.

“The adventures came when I thought I could not make it through the upstream portion,” she said. “On the Clyde I just wanted to get to a bridge so I could portage, but I could not get across because the current was to strong. Finally I came to a lawn, that a guy was mowing. He was very nice and said I could take out on his property.”

On the Androscoggin River, she was not able to paddle against the current. “I walked through the water pulling the boat with both hands on the side” to keep her balance on the algae covered rocks. “It was really hard,” she said.

The first three miles on Lake Champlain “turned out to be the hardest” before MacFarlene and Brown met up with her. “In that one bay the wind was really strong and waves were totally broadside to the way I needed to travel,” Chandler said. “As soon as we got around Cumberland Point it was good. The second day (on Lake Champlain) it poured. It was fun. It was exhilarating.

Chandler said she prepared mentally for the trip by reading other paddlers’ blogs, reading a Northern Forest Canoe Trail guide and emailing other through paddlers.

“I got encouragement from a whole group that had done it,” Chandler said.

“Ever since 2011 I felt like I had a chance to do it, and felt I needed to try,” she said. “I skipped an upstream portion in Maine on Spencer and Little Spencer. It was a personal victory feeling when I realized I was going to make it through that upstream section.”

Of the 63 portages, Chandler said the hardest early on in her trip were in the Adirondacks at Deerland Carry, and the Raquette Falls carry in New York.

The Deerland Carry was listed as “possible wheel-able.” “We got there and it was horribly muddy and a thunderstorm at night caused rushing stream over lots of roots and rocks,” Chandler said. “We could not wheel and had to carry.”

Chandler ended up carrying her father’s canoe too. At Raquette Falls she had to carry the canoe for 1.3 miles. The Raquette River drops 116 feet on its four mile descent into Long Lake.

The Grand Falls Portage in Quebec from Missisquoi River to Lake Memphramagog (straddling Quebec and Vermont) is the longest portage at 5.7 miles, climbing almost 700 feet in the first 3.5 miles.

“I got to the beginning (of the carry) in the middle of the afternoon,” she said. “I decided to go for it. That was really hard. It was so beautiful at the top” with views of a field and picturesque farm.

Chandler was impressed by the petroglyphs on tall stones on the portage as well.

The dreaded Mud Pond carry, “was easier this time, because I had a boat that I could easily carry, and I could do two loads instead of three. Three loads was 10 miles of walking, two loads was six miles, Chandler said. Also, the water level was high and she was able to float her boat and gear for .2 to .3 miles of the carry.

“The Adirondacks were neat because I had never been there before,” she said. “Lean-tos- were really nice to have: just beautiful pristine lakes, one after another.”

She lifted her canoe over hundreds of beaver dams, and estimates she crossed 40 to 50 beaver dams in one day on the Nulhegan River in Vermont.

She camped out 38 nights, including five stealth camps, where she had to find her own campsite. “Finding a new good spot was really fun,” she said.

She spent 40 days alone on the trail. “Some days I saw people some days I did not. I enjoy my own company. Some people do not take time to reflect, and think about some of the bigger questions in life, and being with God.”

Being alone, meant she could make all the decisions like “how far to go, how hard to push yourself to a ridiculous level, When it is just you, you can decide” what route to take, when to stop, when to eat. “If I feel like cooking a big meal I do, if feel like a big snack I do.”

“I enjoyed all the people I met. I think I will keep the friends and hopefully we will enjoy future paddling trips together.” She met Mary Berger on the trail, who took her to Sugarloaf for a little pampering.

Janie and Paul Hartman of Damariscotta have a camp on Mooselookmeguntic Lake and invited her to stay with them for two nights.

A couple in New York gave her tea and a snack, and gave her a ride to a hotel. “There were so many people that were like that. I did not have one uncomfortable experience with one person the whole trip. Not one person ever said no,” Chandler said.

Janie and Paul Hartman, of Damariscotta, invited Laurie Chandler into their cabin on Mooselookmeguntic Lake in Maine for two nights. (Photo courtesy Laurie Chandler)

“I felt a little overwhelmed when I first got home because of the number of directions I was being pulled, the chores at home, and family and friends wanting to know about the trip,” Chandler said. “It was the hardest at the end when I had to leave the Allagash behind. There were so many days I had to push the physical limits of my body.

“There were so many bugs, and places not as pretty as Maine. When I got back to Maine there was gorgeous weather, and it was pretty. I enjoyed the last portion of the trip so much, that I did not want it to end. The last day on the St. John was difficult; Dad and I decided to do it in one day instead of two. It rained the whole day. I was exhausted.”

Almost half of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail is in Maine Maine’s 347 miles is considered the most scenic, wild, and remote section of the entire trail.

Although not sure if she would tackle the trail again, Chandler said she would go on another venture. “There is a certain honor to paddle an area very few people go on,” she said. “I am still in awe that I was able to do it. I know I could not have done it without so many people that helped me and encouraged me.”

“I am thinking about retracing the Thoreau trip in the Allagash, or maybe trying a backpacking trip and hike the Long Tail in Vermont.”

Chandler believes the number of people who have completed the trail solo is in the 70s. She has submitted a log of her trip to NFCT and is waiting to be officially recognized as having completed it.

The documentation includes where she camped, her portages and what if any assistance she took. There are three categories of recognition. “The self propelled through paddler, was my goal. If approved, I will be the first female paddler to do solo self propelled.

“Solo self propelled means that you operated your boat and transported your gear and yourself without help.”

Chandler even refused to let a ranger transport her gear on a dangerous section of the river because she was afraid it was disqualify her from earning solo self propelled status.

Now that the trip is over, Chandler said “what I am really excited about is the book. I really made a promise to myself to continue writing every day. I want people to get a sense they were along with me day by day. I got a lot of feedback from my blog. That was a big motivator for me.

“One reason I want to write a book is to share my belief that people should go and do that something that is a push for them.” Chandler, a youth minister for nine years, said.

Without pushing it on them, she wants her readers to realize through her, the strength that is gained by having a foundation of faith in God.

“It gives me strength and perspective and a foundation for life,” she said. “It makes a real difference in your life.”

“I’m writing about one summer in my life for other people to enjoy. I want them to feel like they are along on the trip with me. Through my photos and the beautiful things along the trail, I saw God in the natural world through the beauty and natural patterns of nature.”