The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1924-06-26

For myself, however, the room being
quite warm, did not sleep as much
as | wished.
The next morning We were up fairly
early, but before we were fully dress
ed Mr. Outhet came up to our rooms
to get some supplies which we were
going to leave with him. and by so
doing tighten our pack considerably.
We expected to secure another sup
ply of food from the e. B. Eddy Com
pany's Depot.
/ helped Mr.. Outhet to carry his
supplies to his house and at the same
time purchased a loaf of bread for
the days use.
We carried our canoe to the Rouge
River which was only hundred
yards off and tried it out. II proved
to be little tippy when 1t was not
loaded, otherwise 1t appeared to be
satisfactory in every way.
After some delay we secured break
fast which was very much needed.
After this important event we packed
our equipment down to the river and
loaded the canoe. We bid Mr.. Outh-
ct goodbye and headed up stream In
the cool OF the morning when the
water of the river was calm, with the
exception of the ever present current.
The foliage on the bank cast its re-
Election in the water and as we were
continually turning corners we were
always coming upon beautiful scenes
which we greatly admired. How
n a
to reflect upon the scenery as we all
had our jobs cut out | was padding
bow and as the water was often shall
low l had to keep my eyes ahead for
rock and dead heads and later for
the extensive sand bars which prac-
tioalfy blocked the river at many
points.
None of us had done any padding
for a long time and as we started
quite briskly our shoulders and mus
Giles soon began to feel rusty, stiff and
tired 1t was only matter of keep
ing at 1t and never mind the conse-
quences.
We had not gone very far before
we found the river a continuous series
of curves. The river runs parallel
to the railroad track for several miles
in general way, but it was a long
time before we left the railroad en-
tirely.
The first obstruction we came
across was bunch of logs in the
river which necessitated a short port
age. Here we had short rest be-
fore we started again with our pad
ding.
We understood it was over twenty
miles to Ascension with rapids about
eight miles this side. We were in
hopes of reaching the rapids by noon
time but as they did not appear by
one o'clock we landed at the best
place we could find To fry little ba-
con and boil some water for tea.
After lunch each of us selected as
good a spot as possible where we
could get a breath of air and had a
rest the best we could among the
flies.
We again took to the canoe and
started up stream, arriving at the
rapids about five p. m. We con-
templated for some time whether or
not we would go up the bed of the
Stledll n ways VI pm ld6c ny tuS
road the whole distance. Although
the road was terribly hot and dusty
we decided on the latter and after
couple of rests reached the other end.
The portage being about three qaur-
ters of mile long,
Although we were very tired We
again took up the paddle and pushed
our way across sand bars and shall
low water for another two or three
miles. We finally decided to camp
on bank ten feet or so above the
waters edge. where there was plenty
of wood and level ground on which to
pitch our tent.
We did not cook very big supper
as we were too tired to eat very much.
In boiling. some potatoes someone for
got to put in sufficient water which