Boy Scout keeps journal of 100-mile canoe trip

Boy Scout Troop 39 from Coventry embarked on a 100-mile canoe trip in August that took them from Maine into New Brunswick, Canada. 

The nine-day canoe trip included scouts, scout leaders and a couple of parents to help. It was a “no trace left behind” trip, meaning they could leave no signs that they had been anywhere they stopped or camped. They also had no contact with family.

Twelve-year-old Brett Marcotte kept a journal of the adventure, and the troop recorded their trip on home video.

Video Segments:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Day 1
Aug. 8, 2008

Today was the day we all left to go to Maine. We were on the highway for 8 hours. We traveled with 5 vehicles.  I was in the last one which was my Dad’s truck. We made a few stops for bathroom breaks and lunch. We arrived in Maine around 3:00 pm. We had dinner at 4:45pm. We arrived at the cabins where we would be camping around 6:00pm. We were setting up our sleeping bags and then I had to repack my things because the items in my dry bag had to be in individual plastic bags just in case. Then we all went downstairs to talk about the plan for the trip. We talked about tomorrow and the plan to go through border patrol and where we would be putting in our canoes, and that we are going to paddle 16 miles.  It should be an exciting day.  I better get some good sleep!

Day 2
Aug. 9, 2008

Today we did 12 miles on flat water.  It was very hard but it was still fun.  This morning when we woke up it was 5:30 am.  We left the cabin at 6:30 am and drove to the Canadian Border Patrol.  The people were really nice and gave us all gift bags.  After that, we put in our canoes.  It was very windy and I liked to look around and see the scenery between America and Canada.  We saw a bald eagle on the Canadian side sitting on a rock.  Most of us got pictures of it.  After that we had lunch at a really nice campsite (not ours).  Afterwards, we just kept paddling in the canoes for a few hours in order to get to our campsite.  We had to pick up all of the litter on the ground.  It was a very messy place.  Then we set up our tents for the night.  It took a little while to find a good spot because we were on top of a lot of roots from the trees.  I love the scenery on this lake because all around us as mountains, birds, and other species of animals.  I am one of the kitchen supervisors for the trip.  I got to help cook all of the meals.  Every meal we had today was delicious.  Then an hour later we went swimming in the lake.  We had a giant splash fight just for fun.

Day 3
Aug. 10, 2008

This morning when we woke up it was so misty we could not see the mountains across the lake.  It was easy on the water at first, but when we got to our first small little portage and it had a waterfall which was pretty rough.  We got to some big rapids and my canoe kept hitting rocks.  We noticed that there were some people on the bridge taking pictures of us.  Then our next portage was a giant waterfall.  I was so afraid that if I mess up throwing my rope to the person who was going to catch it that we would fall off the waterfall and die.  Thank God we survived!  Then we spent an hour there because we had to take the gear to the spot where we put in which was a half-mile away.  Then we had to have lunch so that took a little while.  Afterwards, we saw a few eagles sitting on trees and flying.  After two days we saw 7 or 8 eagles, we never see them in Rhode Island.  A few hours later we got to our campsite.  I am on full time kitchen duty today with my tent buddy so we had to get up our tent quick.  Then we cooked dinner together.  It was very good.  We had spaghetti and venison.  I only ate the venison and some oatmeal because I do not like any kind of pasta.  Then a few people and I got in our canoes and paddled over to the other island where we picked blueberries for dessert.

Day 4
Aug. 11, 2008

Today was a little rough.  It rained and there was a gusty wind.  When we woke up I was wet from the overnight rain.  All the meals we had were very big.  The other bad part about today was my partner and I struggled through the waves in the lake.  We went about 1 or 2 mph. Then we got to Todd’s Island around 3 or 4:00 pm.  In the rain earlier I didn’t get out my rain gear so I was soaked.  Obviously I was not prepared!  The rain only went on for about 5 minutes but it was pretty brutal.  The wind really slowed us down.  I didn’t like the weather much, but it was an experience not many people can say they did.  So this day turned out pretty good.

Day 5
Aug. 12, 2008

Today we got up around 5:00 am because we thought we would have a long day.  We had breakfast around 6:00 am.  We paddled for 9 miles in a few hours.  It could have been 2 hours but there was a little wind and some rain.  This trip has given us a good experience so far.  We thought it could have been quicker but there was an unexpected portage.  It had a giant marsh and we needed to stop and check all over ourselves for leaches!  One person fell and got some bad cuts.  Then when we arrived here we set up camp and had lunch.  Afterwards, we cleaned up a mile long trail for a service project.  The International Waterway Patrol gave us the supplies to clean the trail.  When we where done they told us the history of the St. Croix River and they gave us ice cream.  Then we saw an eagle in the water.  It looked like it was drowning.  But it did get out of the water.  Then we were just hanging around the campsite and later we had a huge dinner.  After that, we made a plan if we wanted to go home a day early or stay with the regular plan.  We all voted to stick with our original plan of 10 days.

Day 6
Aug. 13, 2008

Today was a great day!  We finally got to the St. Croix River.  The Dam empties into the river and we enjoyed watching the water run very fast.  We carried the canoes over with everything in them so the canoes were very heavy.  We figured out there was another troop in front of us and they were very slow.  We still did well on the rapids.  We got to the campsite around 1:30 or 2:00 pm.  A lot of the troop went to go play in the rapids.  It was a great time!

Day 7             
Aug. 14, 2008

Today was good, fun, and I was very nervous at one point.  We were going very fast on the river.  We went to Little Falls.  We had to get out of our canoes and look around and make a plan to go down.  We didn’t follow our plan and accidentally hit a rock.  We were stuck on it for a while.  We got out though with the help of Mr. Waldeck who was one of the adult leaders for the trip.  We did a lot better once we got free from the rock.  Then I tried it again with my dad and we swam down the lower part of the rapids for a long time. Then the river had 14 other sets of rapids. We got to our campsite around 6:00 pm.  We had dinner at 7:30 pm and afterwards my Dad and I went fishing.  We didn’t catch anything though.

Day 8
Aug. 15, 2008

Today was great!  We left camp at 10:30 am today.  We were going to go down to canoes falls. They were supposed to be very big falls, but the water pressure was so high that it was a one foot drop.  It was fun but it was upsetting because that was our last set of rapids.  We got here to the campsite around 1:30 pm.  We all just relaxed.  We had five or six people who went on a hike.  I really didn’t like it much.  We didn’t take a straight path we just kind of went through the trees instead of taking a trail (which there wasn’t a trail anyway). On the bright side we came back with a lot of fire wood.  After dinner was fun.  I watched two of the scouts get a “Mohawk” haircut.  Tonight there was a Harvest Moon and it was a beautiful site. The river is beautiful as well.  I like that tomorrow am our last paddling day.  We will paddle 13.9 miles.

Day 9
Aug. 16, 2008

Today ended up being our last day for the trip. We actually started out late and finished early. It was misty the entire time when we were canoeing. It rained for a few minutes but we were fine. We got to the campsite around 11:30 am. Mr. Clavette called the Native Americans that we were staying with and they said they weren’t going to come like they originally planned to do.  When Mr. Clavette came back he said “let’s go home” everyone was so happy! Even Matt Parquet was happy because today was his birthday! So it was a long ride back. We had Wendy’s for dinner at 5:30 pm and didn’t get home till 11:30pm at night. This was the best experience I have ever had and I loved that I could share this experience with my friends and my Dad.