Penobscot, S. Branch, Maine, US

Canada Falls Lake to Pittston Farm

Usual Difficulty	V (for normal flows)
Length	3.5 Miles
Avg. Gradient	45 fpm

River Description

Source: Greg and Sue Hanlon's Steep Creeks of New England, which has more info on this run. Text used with permission.

Located in the remote wilderness of northwestern Maine Canada Falls section of the South Branch of the Penobscot River is the latest success story for American Whitewater. The first summer recreational release occurred on Saturday July 2nd 2005. An agreement hammered out by AW director Tom Christopher with Brascan power, Plum Creek, and the Piscataquis and Penobscot Indian tribes guarantees releases every Saturday during July and August of each year for the next 50 years.

Posted on the MVP message board by Phil Urban on July 2, 2002
Canada Falls ( South Branch of the Penob.) . This gets a little harder to relate. When they did the flow study, the lake was *full*. They (John Frascella and some others that know that river as well as anyone) put on at what the "new engineer" was saying was 900. The river was just up in the trees. More like what they new as twice that CFS "traditionally". John, a C1er, but a Cribworks regular, said that was all he wanted. But, because of the smallness of the impoundment, and no real flow gauge, the level drops as the release goes on. What was 1500ish today may be 1200ish tomorrow and 900ish the next day, even though the phone is telling us 1500. So, the phone info right now is not real reliable, except to tell us that they are releasing a goodly amount of water. If its in the trees when you get there, take a long hard look before you put on, but its not likely to be that high. There used to be a rock, in the water at the putin, that had 0,1,2,and 3 painted on it, I think the paint is still there. I've paddled it through that range, but not above. IMO, at those levels, it was still a class 4, 4+ run. If John is at the edge of his comfort zone, when its reaching the trees, then I've gotta figure that's a class 5 level. When I did it at "1000+" in the past, it was not in the trees at all.
Seboomook is much more reliably measured when releasing, so what we have always known as 950 is still 950. Also, the West Branch is releasing 2800, but John (who lives there in the summer and knows that river *very* well) says that it is more like what we've come to know as 3000 to 3100. This is a level that punches up the difficulty considerably, especially compared to recent low flow seasons.
John was excited (if you know John, he's an excitable guy :)) that I'm posting this to the MVP board. As with many of our hard won negotiated rec. releases, more boaters using the resource is a good thing. In this case the deal is not done, so y'all have a responsibility to come on up and have fun. :-) We boated there on Father's Day weekend, at 940 CFS, and our party of 7 was all alone, 'cept for the Otters, Mink, Loons, Moose etc, etc. Sorry this was so long, hopefully the info will be useful to some folks. How accurate all this info is, I don't know, how well I've relayed it is undoubtedly poor. :-)

North Maine Woods Inc.

The Canada Falls section of the Penobscot lies in what is known as the North Maine Woods. North Maine woods is a consortium of private landowners (mostly paper companies), encompassing 3.5 million acres of working forest. It is rugged remote country many miles from the conveniences of modern day life. To get more information on access fees, gate locations and hours, camping information, etc. go to the North Maine Woods website.

Directions

It?s not the easiest place to get to but the scenery is nice and the dirt roads are not too bad. You will want to start your trip into the small town of Rockwood Maine on the western shore of Moosehead lake. To get to Rockwood take exit 39 off of Interstate 95
head north on ME 7
In Dexter take a left and head north on ME 23
In Guilford take a left and head north on ME 15/6
This will take you to Greenville continue on ME 15/6 by taking a left in Greenville
15 miles will bring you into Rockwood
Continue through the other side of town then stop at the Rockwood country store on the Moose river for supplies.
If you are coming up from the Forks area take ME 201 north to Jackman
Take a right onto ME 15/6 to Rockwood. It is approximately 50 miles from the Forks, there are other options to get here using logging roads but refer to the Maine atlas and Gazetteer for those options.
Once in Rockwood at the country store get all your supplies including food and gas up your vehicle there are very limited services within the North Maine Woods region.
From Rockwood
Approximately 23 miles to the put in
From the country store head west ? mile then take a right on the bridge over the Moose river.
Bear right on the otherside of the bridge, pavement will turn to a good dirt road within a mile.
20 miles on this road to the ?20 mile checkpoint? and gate run by a consortium of paper companies
At the gate pay $8 per person per day ($5 Maine resident)
Proceed towards Pittston Farm then take a left on Boyd road.
About 1 mile you'll pass over the South Branch of the Penobscot, this is the take out
After the bridge bang a left toward Canada Falls Dam and campground. This is the putin.