Northwoods Paddling in Maine
Canoeing the West Branch of the Penobscot River
The West Branch of the Penobscot River offers a wilderness paddling experience rich in wildlife, history, and nature immersion.
September 18 – 24, 2027
9 participants max
Price TBD in September 2026 | Register today to reserve your space.
Paddle a historic canoe route that has been a major Wabanaki thoroughfare for more than 12,000 years. Along the way, we’ll find moose, bald eagles, bears, river otters, ample fishing opportunities, a historic Maine village, breathtaking views of Mount Katahdin, and the quiet solitude of the boreal forest. The West Branch is a great trip for beginners and veteran paddlers and campers alike. There are no difficult rapids or portages on the entire trip, making this an ideal adventure to focus on north woods traveling, wildlife appreciation, and nature connection.
This guided trip is a step back in time: we’ll paddle traditional canoes, cook over open fires, retrace the steps of Henry David Thoreau’s famous canoe trip, and learn to use the methods of travel indigenous to the Wabanaki homeland. There is nothing quite like a wilderness canoe trip, and the West Branch of the Penobscot, conserved as forever-wild land by the state of Maine, is truly the premier location for such a journey.
The trip is led by NBNC Executive Director Naomi Heindel, who has paddled extensively in Maine, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Labrador, guiding month-long expeditions that emphasize safety, community, and tradition. The trip is also led by expert wilderness guides from the Mahoosuc Guide Service. Guides Polly Mahoney and Kevin Slater founded the company in 1990 and are both award-winning guides and educators regarded as among the best in the entire state of Maine. They will keep us safe and well fed, in addition to teaching us everything we need to know about canoeing, camping, rivers, fish, wildlife, Maine history, and more.
Trip Details
- A camping trip — For adults!
- Pacing & Physical Expectations
- Clothing & Equipment
- Food, Accommodations, & Transportation
- Your Guides
- Inclusions
- A Carbon Neutral Trip
This trip involves sleeping in tents, moving campsites each night, 4-6 hours of daily canoeing with a mid-day lunch break, campsite chores, and facing whatever weather comes our way. Campsites each night will feature nylon tents, picnic tables, and outhouses. This trip also involves exposure to the Wabanaki culture and landscape, the history of logging in the Maine woods, the history of the conservation of the Maine woods, and the complicated ways that all those threads intersect. Participants on this trip should be ready for, and open to, participating in all these aspects of the experience.
Participants should be ready for 4-6 hours of canoeing on rivers and lakes for each of our five travel days, plus the camp chores involved with breaking down and setting up camp. Loading and unloading canoes, lifting and carrying gear, including group gear, and walking on uneven surfaces are daily parts of this trip. Participants are invited to join in camp chores as much (or as little!) as they desire. Participants should be ready to sleep in tents and eat at picnic tables or on their laps. Days begin early, and involve moving camp each day, pulling into each night’s site around mid-afternoon.
No prior camping or canoeing experience is expected or necessary; true beginners are truly welcome. While no additional or special physical conditioning is required, participants must be able to get safely into and out of a canoe. More than special skills or strength, paddling 4-6 hours per day takes resilience and stamina and can feel challenging.
Canoe trips in Maine in September have highly variable weather. Highs range from 50 to 70 degrees with lows between 30 and 50. Below is a packing list to use as a checklist; do not bring extra stuff! All of your gear, including your sleeping bag, need to fit into one large dry bag, plus one small dry bag that will serve as your day pack for items like your hat, rain gear, sunscreen, camera, etc. To start, we suggest packing in two bags: a small, overnight bag for our hotel nights in Orono before and after the canoe trip, and a large duffel or suitcase with all of your canoeing gear in it. You do not need to bring your own sleeping bags, sleeping pads, or dry bags, as they are included in the trip.
- A small, separate overnight bag for our two travel days and two nights in the hotel in Orono
- 2 pairs of “regular clothes” for travel days
- Sneakers or other travel shoes
- Anything else you need for our hotel overnights
- Personal Clothing
- 1 wool or pile (fleece) hat
- 1 hat with visor, like a baseball cap
- 1 unlined nylon windbreaker jacket
- 1 pile jacket, wool jacket, or heavyweight wool sweater
- 1 lightweight wool or fleece sweater
- Fully waterproof raingear, top and bottom
- 1-2 cotton shirts (long sleeved and lightweight)
- 2 pairs of long pants (loose fitting and quick-drying, not jeans or corduroys)
- 1 pair long underwear (tops and bottom, polypropylene or wool)
- 1 pair wool or fleece pants
- 1 pair shorts
- 1 bathing suit
- 2 t-shirts
- 2-4 sets of underwear
- 3-6 pairs of wool socks
- 1 bandana
- 1 pair wool or polypropylene gloves
- 1 wool or felt hat with brim
- For Your Feet
- 1 pair of waterproof rubber boots at least 16 inches high
- 1 pair of camp shoes or boots
- Personal Equipment
- 1 pair of sunglasses
- 1 chapstick
- 1 tube of sunscreen
- 1 flashlight or headlamp with extra batteries
- 1 pocketknife
- Toothbrush and paste
- Water bottle
- Optional Items
- 1 small towel
- 1 bottle of insect repellent
- Tampons or pads as needed
- Fishing gear (artificial lures only)
- Camera, binoculars
- Any necessary medications
- Reading material (1 small book)
- Your own canoe paddle and PFD.
- Sleeping bag and sleeping pad.
- Dry bags, if you wish.
Transportation: We will travel to and from Orono, Maine in NBNC’s comfortable 15-passenger van. From there, we will travel to and from the river in the Mahoosuc Guide Service’s vehicles. On the water, we will travel in traditional canoes.
Accommodations: We’ll spend the first and last nights at a hotel in Orono. The nights in-between will be spent on the river in nylon tents, with 4-person-sized tents for couples and 2-person tents for individual guests. On our last night, we will return for a night at the hotel in Orono.
Food: On our two travel days, NBNC will cover sandwiches for lunch, dinner and breakfast at local restaurants in Orono, and travel snacks. On the river, we’ll be treated to excellent open fire cooking and baking and will be very well fed. Most dietary restrictions can be easily accommodated.
Naomi Heindel is the Executive Director of North Branch Nature Center and has guided canoe trips in Maine, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Labrador, as well as other wilderness trips such as winter camping and backpacking, for more than two decades. Naomi holds a Wilderness First Responder certification and a Swift Water Rescue certification. Naomi first paddled in Maine as an 11-year old camper, and became hooked on canoe trips through the boreal forest. When not in the NBNC office, Naomi enjoys exploring the woods and waters of central Vermont with her husband and two young children.
Polly Mahoney is a recipient of the Legendary Maine Guide award from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Polly is also a dog musher, Wilderness First Responder, and one of the 2021 MaineBiz “Women to Watch.” She runs Mahoosuc Guide Service, one of Maine’s preeminent canoe, dog sled, and fly fishing guiding services.
What’s included
- All meals, starting with lunch on Day 1 and ending with lunch on Day 7.
- All lodging, including hotels in Orono, ME before and after the canoe trip.
- One NBNC staff guide, who knows the region and wilderness canoeing well.
- Expert guides from Mahoosuc Guide Service.
- All transportation between Montpelier (or points enroute) and Maine.
- All canoes, tents, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, dry bags, and cooking and camping gear, excluding personal items.
- A pre-departure virtual orientation session, including help with understanding and finding the items on the gear list.
- A selection of resources to read or watch ahead of time, for those who choose.
What’s not included
- Incidentals on travel days.
- Travel to and from Montpelier (participants living enroute to Maine may opt to be picked up along the way).
- Gratuities.
NBNC is proud to announce that all of our trips are 100% carbon-neutral. This includes each participants’ travel to and from this destination, as well as carbon emitted during the trip. We’re proud to be working directly with the Northeast Wilderness Trust’s Wild Carbon program. The carbon credits we purchase to offset our carbon emissions are used to permanently conserve forestland as wilderness. Learn more about this program at our Adventures Afar landing page.
Full Itinerary
Note: itineraries are always subject to change based on weather and other events that arise during the journey.
Day 1 – Arrival and travel to Orono, Maine: Participants arrive early for welcomes, introductions, and any last minute gear questions at North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier. We’ll hit the road for Orono by 9 am, and aim to arrive in Orono by 4pm, where we’ll settle into our hotel and have dinner together. As we travel east to Maine, we will orient ourselves to our travel companions, revisit the trip itinerary, look at maps of where we’re headed, and prepare ourselves for immersion into the north woods.
Day 2 – Lobster Lake: We’ll meet our Mahoosuc Guide Service guides in Orono, have breakfast, review our maps, and pack up our gear. We’ll then depart for Lobster Stream, a lazy, tea-colored tributary of the Penobscot River that winds through the beautiful boreal forest. After a lesson on paddling strokes, loading canoes, and traveling as a group, we’ll paddle to our campsite on the beautiful Lobster Lake. We’ll set up camp, settle in around the campfire, and listen to loons yodeling under expansive views of the Milky Way.
Day 3 – Thoreau’s Island and Big Island: Those who rise early may practice a little fishing, look for wildlife, or even harvest some wild cranberries. After making a hearty lakeside camp breakfast, we’ll pack up the canoes and continue our journey to the confluence with the West Branch of the Penobscot River. We’ll pull our canoes ashore for lunch on the beach of Thoreau’s Island, the small forested island straddled by the Penobscot where Henry David Thoreau camped during his expedition featured in his seminal work, The Maine Woods. We’ll continue downstream, searching for moose and eagles along the way, until reaching the Big Island area. Here we’ll set up camp early, with time for afternoon fishing or a lesson on traditional canoe poling.
Day 4 – Pine Stream and Chesuncook Village: We’ll paddle down the West Branch of the Penobscot to Pine Stream, where we’ll have lunch and explore up this tributary, enjoying early fall foliage, migrating songbirds, and beavers preparing their food caches for winter. From there, we’ll paddle downstream to Chesuncook Lake, Maine’s third-largest lake. Chesuncook Village is situated lakeside at the mouth of the Penobscot, and has been an important site of human settlement for generations, first as an Abenaki encampment, then as a logging outpost, and now a small community of summer residents. This tiny village is only accessible by water or snowmobile much of the year, save for intrepid travelers arriving via the network of unmapped North Woods logging roads. After visiting the historic village and its cemetery, we’ll set up camp near Chesuncook Village at a spot with beautiful views of Mount Katahdin.
Day 5 – Chesuncook Lake: We’ll spend the day on Chesuncook Lake, paddling to Mouser Island under beautiful views of Katahdin and Spencer Mountain. We’ll spend our last night on the water camped on the island, where there’s great swimming, poling, and fishing.
Day 6 – Chesunkook Lake and Take Out: We’ll paddle to the take-out at the south end of the lake, visit the Maine Boomhouse Museum if it’s open, and load our canoes and gear. We’ll have lunch and drive back to the hotel in Orono. We’ll settle back in, take showers (!), and have a final dinner as a group. Reentry from an immersion like this is an important part of the trip. We’ll have a chance to share reflections, highlights, questions, gratitude, and memories.
Day 7: Drive to Montpelier: On our final day, we’ll drive from Orono back to Montpelier. After a final closing, participants will depart for home.
Payment Policy
All of our trips have a standard payment plan of an initial deposit plus two installment payments. Our office will reach out with an invoice for the two installments before it is due.
- Deposit of $500 required upon registration.
- Half of balance due 180 days before departure (or upon registration if the trip departs in less than 180 days).
- Remainder of balance due 90 days before departure (or upon registration if the trip departs in less than 90 days).
- Solo travelers will be expected to pay the Single Accommodations rate.
- Those traveling as a pair will be expected to pay the Double Accommodations rate. If two solo travelers of the same gender are open to having a roommate, we will do our best to place them together and extend the Double Accommodations rates to both travelers.
Cancellation Policies
We understand that incidents and emergencies arise that may force you to cancel your trip. However, NBNC invests considerable time and often nonrefundable deposits to lodges and local contractors to secure our rooms and programming. NBNC aims to be as flexible as possible in our refund policy, but a full refund of your payments may not be possible after the dates indicated. All cancellations must be made in writing.
- Cancellation more than 180 days before the trip: Full refund of deposit and any other payments.
- Cancellation 90-180 days before the trip: Refund of any payments minus the $500 deposit. If your space is filled by another traveler, we will also refund your deposit.
- Cancellation 30-90 days before the trip: No refund guaranteed. If your space is filled by another traveler, we will provide a full refund minus the $500 deposit.
- Cancellation less than 30 days before the trip: No refunds guaranteed.
We advise travelers to purchase independent travel insurance through companies such as Allianz when booking a trip to recover reimbursement in the event of a cancellation that does not qualify for a refund as outlined in the policies above.
Health and Illness Policies
- All participants and instructors will be required to affirm negative test results from a self-administered Covid-19 rapid antigen test taken prior to arrival on the first day of the program.
- Participants on NBNC’s Adventures Afar and multi-night overnight trips must be comfortable with the possibility that someone may contract Covid-19 (or other contagious illnesses) during the trip, even if they test negative on the first day as required. NBNC will attempt to limit exposure and isolate any such participant, which could include that participant incurring additional expenses such as hotel rooms, meals, or transportation, and missing out on group activities. However, isolation may not be possible at all times on all trips, so all participants should be aware that circumstances may require that a participant with Covid-19 continue to travel with the group.
- Participants experiencing respiratory symptoms will be required to wear a mask at all times when around other travelers.
- Failure to comply with the health and safety instructions of the trip guides will result in dismissal from the trip.
- NBNC encourages all Adventures Afar participants to be honest and transparent about their symptoms, for the sake of their health and the health of those they are traveling with.
- NBNC encourages all Adventures Afar participants to secure individual travel insurance.